By Alan Herrmann
MOVIE CRITIC
Bob made a difference in all good ways. He represented an America we must all now try to protect. He revolutionized independent film making and made us swoon in so many movies. I am very sad today. – Jane Fonda, on the passing of Robert Redford
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Recently we lost Robert Redford. He was 89 and left us with an incredible body of work that spanned six decades. He was a classic looking leading man with chiseled jaw, blond hair, and blue eyes. His good looks could have carried his career and kept him in good company with several other attractive movie stars of the 1960’s and 70’s. His early films like Barefoot in the Park were often light, romantic, and funny. Even back then, Redford knew the studios liked him for his good looks and easy manner, but he was frustrated and wanted to break out from the heartthrob mold.
After starring with Paul Newman in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid in 1969, Redford became a household name. In the 1970’s, he made a string of hits like The Sting, Jeremiah Johnson, The Way We Were, Three Days of the Condor and All the President’s Men. Redford would go on to make several more films, many of them great, and some not so great. But most importantly he was able to use his fame for more interesting and personal projects.
His concern for the environment and politics became passionate causes he would pursue throughout his lifetime. His love of movies helped him to create the Sundance Film Institute which is perhaps his greatest legacy. What started out as a relatively small film festival would eventually become as prominent as the Cannes Film Festival. It’s safe to say that independent film in the U.S., and the rest of the world, flourished because of Sundance.
My business has been very good to me as an actor. I look at directing as a natural step. I’ve been frustrated for many years in wanting to have total control of something. It’s like doing a painting. – Robert Redford
Remembered mostly as a Hollywood star and creator of Sundance, it should also be noted that Redford directed ten films, most of them excellent. His directorial debut came in 1980 with Ordinary People starring Donald Sutherland, Mary Tyler Moore, Judd Hirsch, and newcomers Timothy Hutton and Elizabeth McGovern.
Redford had obtained the film rights from Judith Guest, who hadn’t even finished the novel in 1976. He wasn’t interested in starring in the film – although the studio would have liked that – he wanted to direct the movie. He was drawn to the project because he found the plot compelling: a well-to-do family coming apart due to the tragic death of one son and the attempted suicide of another. He fought with the studio for more control of the picture and his persistence paid off, with a successful film made the way he intended. The raw emotional scenes, particularly those with Mary Tyler Moore, were a shock to many viewers. The film earned an Academy Award for best picture and best director. Elizabeth McGovern remembered Redford’s generosity and kindness, even allowing her to attend Juilliard during the week and setting up her shooting schedule around her classes. As a first-time director, Redford learned a very valuable trait: patience.
In 1992 Redford directed A River Runs Through It, based on a novel by Norman Mclean. The story involves two brothers growing up in Montana in the 1920’s. Norman (Craig Sheffer) goes off to college in the east while his brother Paul (Brad Pitt) stays in Montana and lives a more rebellious life that goes against the grain of his Presbyterian minister father (Tom Skerritt). What all three men have in common is their love of fly fishing. Here, Redford returned to a favorite theme, the emotional trials of an American family.
It’s a beautiful film, with on-location shooting in Montana and Wyoming, areas where Redford felt very much at home. The river, mountains, and forests are holy to the Mclean family and act as protective barriers to the brutality of Paul’s death. His death – possibly linked to gambling debts – is reminiscent of the tragedy of family death as seen in Ordinary People. It was the first time Redford worked with Brad Pitt, and his influence on the young actor made a lasting impression.
Redford directed Quiz Show in 1994, a period piece set in New York City during the 1950’s. The film focused on some of Redford’s favorite themes: family dynamics, corruption, and class distinction. Based on the true story of the quiz show scandal that erupted from the show Twenty-one, the film stars Rob Morrow as Dick Goodwin, a young attorney investigating accusations of cheating on the show. Contestant Herb Stempel’s (John Turturro) encyclopedic brain has kept him on the show for weeks. The powers that be see him as an awkward, bespeckled, loud Jewish guy who may be affecting the show’s ratings. As a remedy, they court waspy, good-looking Charles Van Doren (Ralph Fiennes) a professor from a prestigious family, and supply him with the correct answers to stop Stempel’s winning streak.
Redford shows us both the shame heaped on elitist intellectual Van Doren when the scheme is exposed, and the loss of respect for working class Brooklynite Stempel. He confirms that this is the end of innocence of an era. His use of bright colors, cheerful tunes, and flashy chrome-laden automobiles not only defines the era but works in perfect contrast to the underlying darkness within the characters’ intentions.
I wasn’t really seeing the country I lived in being represented on screen. I wanted to see stories where things weren’t so red, white, and blue, or so black and white. I was interested in the grey zone. – Robert Redford
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