This week, the great Robert Redford passed away at 89. I’ve been working on a big, reflective essay, but it’s not ready yet, so in lieu of that, I invite you to join me in my weekend of Robert Redford movie-watching.
Here are some of his most crimey movies. Let’s pour one out for the king of cool.
Three Days of the Condor (1975)
This classic Sydney Pollack film, based on the novel by James Grady, is about a standup CIA researcher who discovers that one of his colleagues has been murdered, and tries to figure out why.
All the President’s Men (1976)
Ah yes, the classic story about how two Washington Post reporters exposed the Watergate scandal and brought down Nixon. It won William Goldman his second Oscar for screenwriting. No one has ever made “working in a newspaper office” seem cooler.
The Hot Rock (1972)
I always, always enjoy The Hot Rock, a clever caper written by my favorite screenwriter William Goldman, based on the novel by Donald E. Westlake (in his Dortmunder series). It stars Robert Redford and is about a group of thieves who try to steal a diamond from a museum… but things don’t go according to plan, so they wind up having to steal it four times. A delight.
The Natural (1984)
It’s very hard to pick a favorite Robert Redford movie, but if I had to (and I mean… gun to my head), I might pick The Natural, Barry Levinson’s 1984 adaptation of Bernard Malmund’s baseball novel of the same name. It’s for sure a crime movie, if you’re nitpicky about it being on this list. But it’s also just an amazing fable about good and evil, all worked out in and around a baseball diamond.
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
Paul Newman and Robert Redford play two very nice-guy bank robbers who, after they’re fiercely pursued in the American West, head to Bolivia to keep the party going. It won William Goldman his first Oscar for screenwriting. And it won a place in ALL our hearts.
Sneakers (1992)
In the droll Sneakers, Robert Redford, Sidney Poitier, Mary McDonnell, Dan Aykroyd, David Strathairn, and River Phoenix as a motley group of security specialists who wind up having to steal a mysterious device. And then steal it back. It’s so much fun.
Jeremiah Johnson (1972)
Robert Redford stars as the titular Mountain Man in Sydney Pollack’s 1972 western.
Brubaker (1980)
In Brubaker, the film released the same year Redford directed Ordinary People, Redford plays an idealistic man who becomes a prison warden in hopes to fix a very corrupt system. What he finds is that it’s… impossible.
The Sting (1973)
Is this one of the best movies of all time? Yes. Robert Redford is a young grifter who, out for revenge against powerful crime boss Robert Shaw (just two years before his turn in Jaws, and there’s nothing grizzled about him here!), heads to Chicago to learn the Big Con from the once-great flimflam man Henry Gondorff, played by Paul Newman. Together they pull together a team for the greatest con in cinema history. This film manages to both draw its audience in and keep it at arms’ length, a combination that allows the twists to keep unfurling even while you feel like you’ve got skin in the game. And Redford and Newman together again…? The coolest.
The Old Man and the Gun (2018)
The Old Man and the Gun, Redford’s final starring role, is about a kindly, elderly bank robber…. but the film is mostly a reflection on Redford’s storied career playing very likeable conmen and bandits.
