What is it exactly about Robert Redford that still makes him so appealing?
Sure, it could be his handsome 64-year-old face which still melts hearts. Or his smooth, easy-going charm that emanates so easily on screen. Or that he created one of the foremost independent film festivals to help get young filmmakers’ work seen.
Or it could just be he has remained one of those enduring movie stars who throughout his career has chosen his projects carefully, both as an actor and as an Oscar-winning director.
Whatever the reason, we’ve been thinking about Redford a lot in the last couple of months. The actor has appeared in two films this fall: the patriotic The Last Castle and the high-powered spy thriller Spy Game.
In Rod Lurie‘s The Last Castle, Redford plays a court-martialed general who stages an uprising in a military prison against a corrupt warden, played by Tony Soprano himself, James Gandolfini. The film couldn’t have opened at a better time, right after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks: Redford holding an American flag…priceless.
Starting this week, Redford will star with Brad Pitt in the CIA drama Spy Game, directed by Tony Scott. Redford plays a seasoned operative trying to save the life of his protégé (Pitt) trapped in a Chinese prison.
Spy movies aren’t all that new to Redford. He starred in Three Days of the Condor (1975)–Redford plays an unwitting accomplice to the spy world–and Sneakers (1992)–Redford plays a reluctant leader of a rebel band of spies. See a pattern here?
But until this fall, Robert hadn’t been on the big screen since 1998, when he starred in the drama The Horse Whisperer with Kristin Scott Thomas, which Redford also directed. Before that, Robert had taken a equally long break, appearing in 1996’s Up Close and Personal with Michelle Pfeiffer. His movie prior to that was 1993’s Indecent Proposal with Demi Moore.
It’s obvious Redford doesn’t mind taking his time choosing his acting roles, even if they weren’t necessarily the best choices.
One would think he might be staging a comeback. But it’s probably more like Redford has some extra time on his hands, now that his world famous Sundance Independent Film Festival runs pretty smoothly on its own and that he’s finished directing his last film, last year’s The Legend of Bagger Vance. Plus the two scripts probably appealed to him.
That’s just the kind of guy Robert Redford is.
For fun, let’s look back at some of Redford‘s better films, and perhaps be reminded why it is we don’t mind how long Redford takes between films just so long as he keeps making them.
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Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
This was considered his breakthrough role and paired him with top draw Paul Newman, a combination which generated huge box office numbers–and proved deadly lethal to the hearts of women all over the world. Directed by George Roy Hill, the story about two renegade outlaws trying to make a living in the West went on to win several Academy Awards, including Best Cinematography, Best Score and Best Screenplay.
The Sting (1973)
Redford and Newman pair up again, God bless ’em, and look better than ever. This time around they play two con men who join forces to swindle a gangster (Robert Shaw). This time around, the film, which also reunited the dynamic duo with director Hill, wins even more Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
The Way We Were (1973)
Talk about melting hearts. There is not one female out there who doesn’t remember that close up shot of Redford‘s face, eyes quietly closed, as Barbra Streisand brushes the hair off his forehead. Not a one. Redford as Hubbell and Streisand as Katie try as hard as they can to stay together–but just can’t quite make it. A true romantic classic.
All the President’s Men (1976)
Redford already cut his teeth on political dramas with the superb movie The Candidate (1972). In this film Redford gets to play the opposite end of the spectrum, portraying Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward, who, along with reporter Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman), uncovers the Nixon Watergate scandal in the 1970s. This is one of Redford‘s best performances.
The Natural (1984)
Certainly this is an idealistic baseball flick, but it still manages to capture your heart. Redford‘s easy-going style is in full force playing Roy Hobbs, a mysterious player who joins professional baseball late in life after a major setback as a young man. Definitely a Redford standard.
