Him saying 'no', repeatedly, while David Straithain changes the frequency of noise in Sneakers lives rent free in my head. No one has said 'no' like that ever, and it was utterly compelling. posted by MisantropicPainforest at 6:41 AM on September 16 [25 favorites]
I remember The Twilight Zone episode where he played death, cajoling Gladys Cooper to let him inside her house. posted by dances_with_sneetches at 6:48 AM on September 16 [17 favorites]
I highly recommend a recent adventure/suspense movie, "All is Lost." He's alone at sea on a sailboat; trouble ensues. Excellent direction and Redford carries it with ease. Quite a physical role and he shot it when he was just north of 75! This movie deserves more attention. posted by zardoz at 6:56 AM on September 16 [22 favorites]
"Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" is one of the first movies I can remember seeing in a movie theater. I still watch it whenever it comes on, still laugh when Sundance sheepishly admits he can't swim, still love the freeze frame ending. Thanks for that, RR, and also The Sting, Sneakers, Out of Africa, The Natural and many many many more. posted by chavenet at 6:58 AM on September 16 [11 favorites]
Redford suggested to Woodward & Bernstein that they focus their Watergate book on their own investigative process instead of doing a straight retelling of the scandal as they'd planned. Yes, this was because he hoped to make a movie about it ¡ª nevertheless I always thought that was pretty astute of him. posted by theory at 7:06 AM on September 16 [27 favorites]
Don't sleep on Three Days of the Condor - Classic cold war paranoia spy stuff, though it has aa deeply weird 1970s-period sex scene. Or maybe they were all that weird. posted by jquinby at 7:07 AM on September 16 [34 favorites]
Like, he was a legit real one. He came from an age where movie star good looks were just a hair or two above the average, and he didn't have to starve himself to have abs 24/7.
Jeremiah Johnson, saw it at about age 3 in the theater. That's probably my first memory. Redford was as classic as they get and seemed like a genuinely good guy. posted by Liquidwolf at 7:20 AM on September 16 [9 favorites]
Oh, this one hurts.
dances_with_sneetches: I remember The Twilight Zone episode where he played death, cajoling Gladys Cooper to let him inside her house.
"Don't be afraid. The running's over. It's time to rest. Give me your hand." posted by tzikeh at 7:21 AM on September 16 [10 favorites]
Casting him in The Winter Soldier immensely increased the resonance of the ¡°political thriller¡± tome they were seeking. Not a lot of screen time, but what a joy to watch. His work in the 70s goes almost without saying, it was so ubiquitous. posted by GenjiandProust at 7:22 AM on September 16 [17 favorites]
.
I am embarrassed to realize only this morning, with the news reports, why it's the Sundance film festival. posted by AzraelBrown at 7:23 AM on September 16 [22 favorites]
Dammit. That's a big one.
. posted by Glinn at 7:44 AM on September 16
As much as I admire DeNiro and worship Meryl Streep, there's a distinction between magnificently talented actors, and actors like Redford, who become legends.
Yes, this is something people often say, but this time it really feels true: He was a Hollywood legend, and there probably will never be another like him. posted by martin q blank at 7:46 AM on September 16 [10 favorites]
.
I didn¡¯t realize he was still alive, simply because he was one of the Hollywood legends to me. posted by Countess Elena at 7:50 AM on September 16 [1 favorite]
I really liked his work as an actor and director (from what I've seen) but even beyond that, Robert Redford's importance for movies cannot be understated. As Film Crit Hulk wrote earlier: "the fact he took that power and created the entire Sundance ecosystem, which fostered the american independent cinema boom - and probably most of your favorite directors - is one of those things that paid us with amazing work 100x greater than even the great work of his own career. It's the kind of career that makes endless ripples."
GenjiandProust - so much yes about casting Redford in Winter Soldier. Right about the same time they were making the choices that led to the first Guardians and Ant Man movies being so good. posted by MattD at 7:52 AM on September 16 [3 favorites]
Think I¡¯m gonna watch ?Spy Game¡¯ tonight, I have an unreasonable fondness for that movie. posted by WaterAndPixels at 7:54 AM on September 16 [5 favorites]
It impressed me how he was able to command his bit of screen time in "A Bridge Too Far". That's a star-studded flick with an astonishing array of talent and he just had an ease and presence that's hard to quantify/articulate. Truly a star among stars. posted by mazola at 7:55 AM on September 16 [2 favorites]
.
Not his best work, by any stretch, but I have a very soft spot for Spy Game. posted by rp at 7:58 AM on September 16 [1 favorite]
I have realized this morning that I've seen very few of Robert Redford's movies -- perhaps five. Must remedy that. He was in a lot of classic, much-referenced movies. I also appreciate that he was consistently on the right side of every political issue he spoke out on, and that no one seems to have any complaints about his behaviour.
Redford seems like one of those people who have been around so long and made such a solid contribution that they get taken for granted in a sense, at least by younger generations, and one doesn't quite realize significant they really were until one sees the size of the hole they leave behind when they're gone. posted by orange swan at 8:01 AM on September 16 [6 favorites]
Seconding All is Lost and Three Days of the Condor, both of which I saw in the last few years and thought were great. Butch Cassidy and All the President's Men are still his greatest, though. posted by rory at 8:05 AM on September 16 [3 favorites]
And some great directorial work, like A River Runs Through It and Quiz Show. He was a better-than-average director as well as everything else. posted by rory at 8:08 AM on September 16 [10 favorites]
Lotta love for Spy Game. Much better than it should be, and I'm guessing that's probably down to the weird effortless dignity Redford brought to just about everything. posted by BetaRayBiff at 8:13 AM on September 16 [3 favorites]
Most gen x comp sci nerds seem to have imprinted on ¡°Hackers¡± like a baby bird, but for me it was Sneakers all the way. RIP, Robert. posted by FallibleHuman at 8:13 AM on September 16 [19 favorites]
embarrassed to realize only this morning, with the news reports, why it's the Sundance film festival.
¡.and the Sundance Ski Resort near the festivals¡¯ home in Utah (though the festival is moving to Boulder, Colorado from 2027 onwards) posted by inflatablekiwi at 8:14 AM on September 16 [3 favorites]
Feck me, I didn't need this today. There comes a point in your life where you can't believe someone - a celebrity, a loved one, you - is old. Because you're all still 17 or 25 or 40-something.
Anyway, someone I worked with at an education.
Institution had, in a previous life (like me), worked in entertainment, and told me she was a PA to him. Had some nice stories. (Assuming they were real. Ha.) Good ones, about him, his acquaintances like Streisand, etc. He was a good boss. posted by NorthernLite at 8:15 AM on September 16 [10 favorites]
After hearing about this, I did an online search for "modern movie stars." Let me say that the pickin's were slim.
The closest would be Clooney and Denzel. And, a generation younger, they don't yet have the depth and quality of catalog that Redford put together.
Redford was one of the last of the old-line Movie Stars. And he was also a great actor. What a career. (nthing Sneakers, which I may have to watch tonight)
. posted by the sobsister at 8:25 AM on September 16 [7 favorites]
This saddens me so much. posted by y2karl at 8:31 AM on September 16
he did some good work as an actor. Not the greatest of his time (or often as not the movie he was in). Somebody called him the anti-John Wayne, because his initial fame came as the Duke was on the wane. Very much a reflection of those times.
All The Presidents Men immediately comes to mind as his essential movie, certainly one I can watch pretty much any time. And, key point, it's very much an ensemble success. Script, direction, cast (of course), art direction -- everything. The guy was a team player all the way. Which made him a pretty solid director as well. Ordinary People didn't deserve to beat Raging Bull at the Oscars but it at least deserved a nomination.
Sundance, I think, will go down as his greatest achievement. Talk about a legacy. Well played, sir.
The Great Waldo Pepper is still on Netflix until the end of the month which is one of my favorites.
And of course The Hot Rock in which Redford was totally miscast as John Dortmunder , but not as badly cast as George C. Scott, Paul Le Mat, Christopher Lambert, and Martin Lawrence.
Glad to see I'm not the only one who thinks Spy Games is much better than it has any right to be.
While I'd not call him my favourite actor, he does appear is a lot of my favourite movies, and those films are better with him in them. He really had the "it" that makes someone compelling to watch on-screen.
The Sting is my favourite of his, even if he's playing second fiddle to Paul Newman. It's such a gloriously contrived plot, but it's based on some real-life long cons carried out by the Gondorff brothers. posted by scruss at 9:05 AM on September 16 [11 favorites]
He not only gave back but let everyone know his industry as mostly rigged (against talent, art and outsider production and distribution). posted by Brian B. at 9:18 AM on September 16 [4 favorites]
Pitt/Clooney is the closest modern pairing i can think of and they were definitely playing on that dynamic posted by kokaku at 9:36 AM on September 16 [10 favorites]
.
My only scrap to relate/remind was his appearance in the sequel to "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" by Pirsig called "Lila: An Inquiry...".
Redford apparently wanted to make a movie of the book. When Pirsig met him he was blown away by meeting Redford and then had Redford say something about how most people "goon up" (or something) when meeting him.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen_and_the_Art_of_Motorcycle_Maintenance posted by aleph at 9:39 AM on September 16 [3 favorites]
Oh, damn, this is a hard loss. The ¡°movie star¡± image aside, the guy always gave such natural-feeling performances. Jeremiah Johnson is probably the first of his movies where I sat-up and noticed how damned good he was.
Three Days of the Condor was the first R rated movie I ever saw, at a 2nd run movie theater on Block Island that just ran movies continuously around the clock. It is etched in my memory for two main reasons: 1) it was the 1st movie where i came in at the middle, watched it through to the end, then watched the beginning (this was before, oh best beloved, VCRs and DVDs and even, in my world at least, cable TV) and 2) welp, I'm heterosexual and whoa, whoa what ARE these feelings?
I remained in love with Robert Redford - although he was undeniably Too Old - until, a few years later, Nicolas Cage came along in Valley Girl.
OK, small story, in the late 70's when I was young and stupid, I woke up in the San Diego County Jail one Friday. In the felony tank. I didn't know what I had done but I was sure it couldn't be good. Slowly over time, things normalized in there. During the weekend all processing stops and you stay where you're put. Saturday rolls around, and OK this is my new life. Sunday more of the same until Sunday afternoon, and it's movie time. The TV in the Felony Tank starts playing familiar, awful music. Barbara Streisand, The Way We Were. the most ridiculous tear jerker melodrama with Streisand & Redford. Everyone one in the tank, drug dealers, rapists, murderers, what have you, all quiet down and for 1.5-2 hours. We're enraptured by this treacly tossed off confection and become entwined in the lives on the screen, which, despite the dramatic twists, are SO MUCH BETTER than the mess we had made of our own lives. It's my best memory of my time in SD Jail, a really bad time in my life. By no means the best film either of them made but for a small amount of time life wasn't so bad. I love Robert Redford. He made lots of great, and a few not so great films, and when he was off the stage he was doing things to make life better for us all. I will miss you.
For me the two that i think of with him are The Sting (coincidentally filmed in part here in Pasadena - specifically the alley sequences towards the beginning don't know about later). That movie kicked off my fascination with con games.
The other is Sneakers - as a young computer nerd, starting fresh at MIT when it was released, that movie may as well been written specifically for me!
But I also remember when my now wife and I first watched The Way We Were. She was horrified by the ending where they run into each other years after they divorce and it's clear he hasn't been involved in his daughter's life. I reminded her that wasn't a typical for back then and it's exactly what my biological father did to my family. (Never did meet that man. Got a text from his step son saying he was dying and honestly felt nothing except "well what am I supposed to do with this?")
Jinx to evilDoug and I for talking about the same silly movie! posted by drewbage1847 at 10:17 AM on September 16 [6 favorites]
What crossed my mind was the realization that he's the same age as my parents. I'm old, my parents are really old, Redford was really old. They grew up in a far more fucked up world than we did, they tried their best to make a better world for our generations, and at some point those new generations came of age and started fucking it up again. And yeah that's not how it actually happened, but right now when I'm feeling particularly struck by how the people we love affect our sense of time, it's kinda how it happened anyway. posted by at by at 10:17 AM on September 16 [3 favorites]
.
I loved so much of his work, one screen and as a director, it's impossible to pick a favorite.
But his work as the narrator in A River Runs Through It stays in my head in ways hard to explain. The final passages of the film, as read by Redford? Totally heartbreaking. posted by Caxton1476 at 10:23 AM on September 16 [7 favorites]
Another film worth watching is The Great Milagro Beanfield War. Redford directed this Northern New Mexico based tale written by John Nichols. I read the trilogy when I first moved here and the film is a wonderful adaptation. A lot of locals were extras and it was filmed North of Santa Fe in the town of Truchas. posted by jabo at 10:33 AM on September 16 [14 favorites]
¡°Mah-ten¡± (Sindey Poitier¡¯s voice). God I love ¡°Sneakers.¡±
Loved him in the Winter Soldier¡ªhis scene with Cap, where you¡¯re just starting to understand what¡¯s really going on, is a highlight of what¡¯s still my favorite MCU movie¡ªbut my favorite of his is still Sneakers, where he¡¯s the anchor of the group but also bears the secret that nearly dooms all of them.
Google AI said that Cary Grant and Gregory Peck worked together "on various films, including Charade and To Kill a Mockingbird"
which gave me a kind of laugh. (For a moment, I thought, could they have appeared in cameo? No.) posted by dances_with_sneetches at 11:02 AM on September 16
I saw out of Africa in the theater in the middle of my 'adults are boring, only stuff I like is cool' teen years. I was absolutely mesmerized (John Barry's score certainly didn't hurt). I can still remember how badly I wanted that central relationship to work.
Years ago, I went to a Gatsby exhibit in one of the grand houses of Newport, and they had one of his costumes on display. He was smaller physically than I¡®d expected, but hey, the man had Presence.
Afterwards, I stood on the great lawn on that cliff over the sea, doing my best Redford-as-Gatsby pose, more Redford than Gatsby. posted by Capt. Renault at 11:13 AM on September 16 [3 favorites]
The brilliance of casting Famous Leftie Robert Redford as the leader of fascist Hydra in Captain America: The Winter Soldier was truly one of the many things that make that movie so great. For a lot of my life, he was almost as famous for his activism as for his movies, and of course for his friendship with Paul Newman (another famous leftie).
I was obsessed for a while with Three Days of the Condor, but I hadn¡¯t seen it for a long time once that obsession faded, and when I did, that love scene weirded me out so much. But I kind of loved that about him¡ªhe could play the straight down the line romantic hero perfectly, but he wasn¡¯t afraid to mix it up.
It¡¯s still kind of amazing that he and Newman only made two movies together because they¡¯re such a legendary pair, but what movies they were. Butch Cassidy is still a movie that I will stop and watch anytime.
And I will never understand why Sneakers is not everywhere and on every Best list. He¡¯s just so great in it, trying to corral all the characters he works with. posted by kitten kaboodle at 11:14 AM on September 16 [3 favorites]
kitten kaboodle: The brilliance of casting Famous Leftie Robert Redford as the leader of fascist Hydra in Captain America: The Winter Soldier was truly one of the many things that make that movie so great.
Along with the fact that, had the timelines been different, Redford would certainly have been cast as Captain America. posted by tzikeh at 11:28 AM on September 16 [8 favorites]
I'm 60 so I remember how huge he was in the '70s and how great it was watching a lot of his films on local TV.
The iconic role for me is, of course, Sundance in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. That's the firs thing that comes to mind when I think of him and I imagine it'll always be that way.
He wasn't an actor, he was a movie star, the last of of a certain type of movie star Hollywood used to specialize in. Brad Pitt, George Clooney, etc are movie stars, but Redford was a Movie Star. Perhaps I am being too subjective, due to how old I was when I first became aware of him.
There always seemed to be something in reserve about his onscreen persona, as though there was something he wasn't quite ready to save with the audience. Not mystique, but certainly a first cousin to mystique.
A life well lived and thank you, sir, for what you contributed.
RIP to one of the last old school stars. That appearance in Winter Soldier was splendid and yes, it was the best Captain America movie. Glad to see some love for Sneakers here. I also am repeatedly heartbroken by the ending of A River Runs Through It.
I don't know the extent of his involvement as a producer of the TV series Dark Winds. Hell, if he just used his influence to get it into production that's worth a slow hand clap alone. Bonus, the scene with his sitting in jail with George RR Martin. posted by Ber at 12:23 PM on September 16
Watching Sneakers for the first time is a core filmmaking memory for me. Thirty years later, I got to work on All is Lost. He was at the beginning of my career and the end. RIP. posted by infinitewindow at 12:38 PM on September 16 [5 favorites]
Butch and Sundance and The Sting remain two of my favorites. Farewell and Godspeed. posted by caution live frogs at 12:49 PM on September 16
what's the closest we got to the Redford/Newman concentration of male beauty?
because that was some potent male beauty, the two of them
True!
And kind of weird since Newman was pretty close to the Greek ideal, and Redford closely approximated the Roman.
Huxley talked about the distinction a little in his short story 'The Genius and the Goddess ". posted by jamjam at 12:55 PM on September 16 [2 favorites]
Robert Redford and Steve McQueen were the two heartthrobs I swooned over as a teen. I always wish they had played together. Some one above mentioned Newman in terms of male beauty, but he wasn't a patch on those fellas.
Every time I watch A River Runs Through it, I end up in tears. And if I reread McClean's amazing book, I can hear Redford's voice, and get a lump in my through.
¡°Eventually all things merge into one, and a river runs through it." I think that was something Robert Redford took to heart.
For tossing all of Jane Fonda's journalistic gear off the mountain in The Electric Horseman:
. posted by Rash at 1:28 PM on September 16 [3 favorites]
I once told a friend that in my experience, Redford hadn't made a bad movie. I was wrong of course, but what's interesting is how many really good movies he was in. They would have been good without him, but he elevated them to another level. I'm going to try to convince my wife to watch The Sting this weekend (she likes the movies I suggest, but it's always a bit of work to get something other than a fifties musical on the TV).
I was an extra on SPY GAME and spent what seemed like hours
walking behind Redford as he rehearsed the same line over and over again, ¡°Tell Kepler in the map room the party¡¯s cancelled¡±. Over and over again, trying different versions of the line, before the cameras were even rolling. His professionalism was inspiring and he had, of course, great natural beauty. And Tony Scott directed the whole scene in what looked like a pink tutu. #GoodTimes posted by jettloe at 3:59 PM on September 16 [17 favorites]
Robert a Redford always came across as the kind of person who deserved the reputation that they had. I¡¯m guessing that his friends loved him to pieces.
The Natural
The Sting
Three Days of the Condor
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Someone on BlueSky this morning said ¡°You¡¯ll never get fired for posting a Robert Redford quote¡± to which I replied ¡°Let¡¯s see: ¡®Boy, what is it with you people? You think not getting caught in a lie is the same thing as telling the truth?¡¯¡± posted by MarchHare at 5:03 PM on September 16 [9 favorites]
I am assuming he was asked to stay. Otherwise, he wouldn't go. posted by DirtyOldTown at 5:21 PM on September 16 [2 favorites]
And thus passes another of the cultural icons I simply took for granted, because he had always been there and always been so there.
Being in my early 60s I was only a young child when I saw Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, back in the day when we didn't even have TV in our region and you had to go to an actual movie theater with all its trappings to see a movie, when going to the movies was actually a big deal, and it is still one of my earliest and clearest childhood cultural memories. Then The Sting a few years later, and many of his films since. (I only recently saw A River Runs Through It and it is a beautiful piece of work.)
Another very long life, very well lived.
RIP, and thanks for working to make the world a better place. posted by Pouteria at 5:22 PM on September 16 [1 favorite]
And I will never understand why Sneakers is not everywhere and on every Best list.
I loved Sneakers when I saw it as a teenager and I was really looking forward to watching it with my nerdy teen daughters. But I decided to rewatch it myself and was really bummed out by some of the mean-spirited "humor" at the expense of women. I couldn't bring myself to recommend it to them.
There's still plenty of crap in movies, but I'm grateful that particular flavor of crap is a lot less common now.
It's still a fantastic heist movie, but that's why it wouldn't be on my list.
We did watch Redford in All Is Lost together, and we all loved it. What an incredible movie and performance. Not many actors who could have pulled that off. posted by straight at 5:45 PM on September 16 [1 favorite]
no one seems to have any complaints about his behaviour.
Steven Soderbergh would like a word. (There ain't no saints in Hollywood.) posted by dobbs at 6:41 PM on September 16
All of the above - still a few of his films on my list, but my father made sure we saw All the King's Men, The Sting, and Butch Cassidy growing up. I laughed until I cried watching A Walk in the Woods with Redford and Nolte two or three years ago. Redford leveraged his receding good looks to both elevate Nolte's character portrayal past boorish buffoonery and offer some critique of his own legacy of "respectability."
I first learned of his name in Hongkong romance novels -- often times some handsome guy would be compared to 'ÂÞ°ÎÁи£' and found wanting. Finally understood what the fuss was about after watching "Out of Africa".
Just the other day I was thinking that to have given both Brad Pitt and Scarlett in their breakout roles ("A River Runs Through It", "The Horse Whisperer") in major movies is quite an achievement for any director.
Soderbergh was contacted by Baltimore Pictures to direct [Quiz Show], but the assistant of Mark Johnson, the head of Baltimore Pictures, happened to be married to the head of Robert Redford¡¯s production company, Wildwood, so the script was also sent to Redford. And one day, while Soderbergh was shooting King of the Hill (which Redford had agreed to produce in the aftermath of sex, lies), he got a phone call from Johnson saying, in so many words, that Redford was doing the project and Soderbergh would not be. This understandably put a bit of a dent in Soderbergh¡¯s relationship with Redford, and Redford ultimately backed out of producing King of the Hill. posted by rory at 9:38 PM on September 16 [1 favorite]
My favorite desert my wife makes, is called ¡° Better Than Robert Redford¡±. posted by cedar key at 2:21 AM on September 17 [2 favorites]
Nthing Sneakers.
I'm a fan of Bill Bryson's work, and if I'd ever met him, I'd be tempted to ask what his family thought of that his character in A Walk In The Woods was played by Robert Redford (I would expect much teasing). posted by rochrobbb at 4:49 AM on September 17 [3 favorites]
God speed! posted by xtian at 4:58 AM on September 17
Beyond admiration, he moved me. More than a few times, so as to remove all chance of flukes. Seeing a few recommendations for more recent movies I have not seen, I feel sure he will move me again. Craftsman.
I had forgotten about Three Days of the Condor.
My wife and I were in Manhattan, visiting museums on the east side, when we came upon a street that was closed because a movie was being filmed. Turned out it was Condor, and it was fun to see that scene in the movie. I don't think we saw Redford, though.
¡°Why?¡± asked Larry, in his practical way. "Sergeant," admonished the Lieutenant, "you mustn't use such language to your men." "Yes," accorded Shorty; "we'll git some rations from camp by this evenin'. Cap will look out for that. Meanwhile, I'll take out two or three o' the boys on a scout into the country, to see if we can't pick up something to eat." Marvor, however, didn't seem satisfied. "The masters always speak truth," he said. "Is this what you tell me?" MRS. B.: Why are they let, then? My song is short. I am near the dead. So Albert's letter remained unanswered¡ªCaro felt that Reuben was unjust. She had grown very critical of him lately, and a smarting dislike coloured her [Pg 337]judgments. After all, it was he who had driven everybody to whatever it was that had disgraced him. He was to blame for Robert's theft, for Albert's treachery, for Richard's base dependence on the Bardons, for George's death, for Benjamin's disappearance, for Tilly's marriage, for Rose's elopement¡ªit was a heavy load, but Caro put the whole of it on Reuben's shoulders, and added, moreover, the tragedy of her own warped life. He was a tyrant, who sucked his children's blood, and cursed them when they succeeded in breaking free. "Tell my lord," said Calverley, "I will attend him instantly." HoME²Ô¾®¿Õ·¬ºÅѸÀ×Á´½Ó
ENTER NUMBET 0017 www.hxpk.com.cn www.xyzxx.com.cn tongyiba.com.cn muta8.net.cn wdjp.com.cn www.mita2.com.cn sorter.org.cn dberry.com.cn www.zaore4.net.cn 21webfind.com.cn
posted by slater at 6:33 AM on September 16