Within the Toast collection right now, we have a good time Hollywood legend and Oscar-winning director Robert Redford, whose illustrious profession spans six a long time. The ‘Sundance’ child turns an excellent 87 right now! From Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Child (1969) to The Horse Whisperer (1998), we spherical up one of the best Robert Redford motion pictures.
Robert Redford as soon as mentioned in an interview that he cherished mythology rising up. The paranormal, highly effective gods and goddesses. And the concept we people might someway, if we’re very fortunate, be gifted with their magical superpowers. Sure, you realize the place that is going.
The actor. The Oscar-winning director. The Father of Unbiased Movie (aka Sundance). The environmentalist. The social activist. The notoriously non-public man off-screen. And sure, that uncommon, uncommon Hollywood star who was really born in Los Angeles. (He’s to Los Angeles what Al Pacino and Robert De Niro would possibly symbolize to New York Metropolis. Redford has that carefree blonde West Coast charisma, versus Pacino and De Niro’s delightfully robust New York Metropolis avenue method and darkish locks.)
All instructed, Robert Redford is a Hollywood god. He’s had a past profitable profession spanning the Fifties to only a few quick years in the past earlier than he casually hung up his boots (retiring as an actor no less than!) in his trademark nice, understated method. Requested personally by icon Natalie Wooden to look in her 1965 movie, Inside Daisy Clover, he has by no means appeared again.
He’s starred in candy flicks like Barefoot within the Park (1967) and smash hits like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Child (1969). There are additionally smaller movies like Downhill Racer (1969) and Jeremiah Johnson (1972) that impressed him to someday begin Sundance Movie Pageant – and to pioneer the feasibility of an unbiased movie motion that would co-exist harmoniously alongside a commercially-driven Hollywood mainstream market. Redford achieved all this and earlier than 50!
Oscar For Lifetime Achievement
For the reason that Nineteen Seventies, he’s additionally turn into a directorial power, making considerate, compelling movies like Extraordinary Individuals (1980), which received a number of Oscars together with Finest Director and Finest Image. He additionally directed A River Runs By way of It (1992), notable for its younger breakout star Brad Pitt, and Quiz Present (1994), amongst others. No shock, in 2002, Redford was gifted with an honorary Oscar for Lifetime Achievement.
Born and bred in Los Angeles, however selecting the huge, lovely mountains of the American West as his inspiration-filled residence in maturity (Utah, New Mexico, and so forth.), Redford is a beloved enigma who’s left an indelible footprint within the movie industries of the world. He’s each a Hollywood and international treasure.
What’s extra, in spite of everything these years, persons are nonetheless intrigued by him, need to know him, are intimidated by him, and are enamored by him. So this August 18, 2023, right here’s wishing a cheerful, heartfelt 87th birthday to Robert Redford, a real good friend to movie. Thanks, Robert Redford, on your distinctive, pioneering, and proficient spirit. Shortly then, let’s get all the way down to one of the best Robert Redford motion pictures which have outlined his profession.
9 Finest Robert Redford Motion pictures
9. The Pure (1984)
Right here’s the place Robert Redford channels his inside god and love for mythology. Flashback to him as a child loving all these outdated mythology books, and we see why Redford needed to star in The Pure. Fairly merely, he’s a “pure” match. He performs Roy Hobbs, a baseball participant with numerous potential, due presumably to a magical bat constructed from the wooden of a tree that will get hit by lightning. What extra, this wooden is from the tree subsequent to the place his beloved father died. See all of the twists and turns, and if Hobbs makes it to the baseball professional league. The Pure is epic, touching, and a must-see for any sports activities fan. Redford efficiently creates his legendary, mystical “baseball god.” This film undoubtedly impressed Redford to direct 2000’s The Legend of Bagger Vance, a movie that explores the game of golf in a supernatural manner.
The place to observe: Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, Netflix
8. The Horse Whisperer (1998)
A end result of the whole lot Robert Redford is about, The Horse Whisperer is Redford’s final mash-up. Right here’s why. It’s set within the American West. It’s a romance. It has political/social undertones concerning city vs. rural life. Fourthly, Redford directs, the place he showcases his trademark delicate, understated touches. Lastly, his character, Tom Booker, is the namesake Horse Whisperer – a person with a supernatural skill to grasp horses. (Cue that mythological god standing.) The Horse Whisperer is visually beautiful, the performing is superb, and this movie reminds us that motion pictures can take their time. It’s a millennial-era film from 1998, and it appears to purposefully ask its viewers to decelerate, sit down, and easily watch a narrative unfold.
After forty years in Hollywood showbiz, Redford had earned the fitting to make any image he needed. This film is Redford at fairly presumably his most comfy, and he even directs a younger Scarlett Johansson in one among her very first very good performances. (For equestrian followers, listed below are 12 horse motion pictures you’ll love).
The place to observe: Amazon Prime, Google Play, Vudu
7. Out of Africa (1985)
Winner of seven Oscars, together with Finest Image, Out of Africa is undoubtedly one among Redford’s most “career-defining” movies. He groups up with fave director, Sydney Pollack, who directed him in 1966’s bittersweet This Property is Condemned and 1973’s iconic The Method We Had been, amongst different movies. (Scroll down for the inside track on The Method We Had been.) A interval piece set in unique East Africa in the course of the early 1900s, and co-starring three-time Oscar- successful legend, Meryl Streep, Out of Africa is a beautiful, sprawling “cinematic love poem.” Redford performs Denys Finch Hatton, a safari-man who falls in love with baroness Karen von Blixen. Redford had already been dubbed “Hollywood’s hottest main man” for a few years, however Out of Africa’s lush, dreamy setting, coupled along with his stellar colleagues of director Pollack and actress Streep, enable him to shine in actually lovely methods. Redford is downright unforgettable as enigmatic Denys, whose love for each Africa and Karen show valuable as a gem and fragile as a sundown. Watch, turn into hypnotized, and produce tissues.
The place to observe: Redbox, Apple TV, Amazon Prime, Vudu, Microsoft Retailer, AMC on Demand, DirecTV, Google Play Motion pictures, YouTube
6. Barefoot within the Park (1967)
Although it wasn’t their first match-up (cue 1966’s The Chase), Barefoot within the Park is actually their most memorable. Sure, enter the beloved on-screen couple known as “Robert Redford and Jane Fonda.” They play Paul and Corie Bratter, newlyweds in New York Metropolis who should navigate the ins and outs of their new life collectively. Can their love survive of their new Greenwich Village residence? (Fifth ground, right here we come!) In case you crave a younger rom-com Redford, right here’s your film. Redford efficiently brings his uptight lawyer character to life from the early Sixties Broadway play. As a Hollywood characteristic movie, Barefoot within the Park works exceptionally properly.
Redford and Fonda’s romantic chemistry is dynamite. Their comedic timing is ideal. And this film doesn’t have that claustrophobic really feel that some performs fall sufferer to when being tailored from the stage to the massive display. Every thing feels proper. Redford and Fonda would go on to star in two extra movies collectively – The Electrical Horseman (1979) and Our Souls at Evening (2017). This Hollywood performing couple is really “one for the ages.”
The place to observe: Roku Channel, Paramount+, Spectrum TV, Amazon Prime Video, Redbox, Vudu, Apple TV
5. Jeremiah Johnson (1972)
Robert Redford is synonymous with the Sundance Movie Institute and Sundance Movie Pageant in Utah. By all accounts, that is the place they began, with this film. The character Jeremiah Johnson is predicated on the real-life 1800s “mountain man” of the American West, and this film chronicles his tumultuous wilderness life. He fights for survival amid run-ins with each human and animal foes, and the weather of nature. (Cue these frigid snow-capped mountains.) Jeremiah Johnson is an exceptionally quiet movie, and by no means what one would anticipate from celebrity Robert Redford. And that’s a part of its energy. For audiences, Jeremiah Johnson was a really distinctive movie expertise. And for director Sydney Pollack and Robert Redford, it was an equally distinctive filmmaking expertise.
Pollack and Redford kindly and respectfully bucked the Hollywood pattern, and as a substitute of filming this film on a Hollywood backlot as requested for US$200,000, promised the studio that they may movie it on the identical finances of their excellent location. The place was that? None apart from Redford’s idyllic, sprawling Utah property. The success of this film paved the way in which for unbiased movies, and an unbiased movie business that continues to thrive right now.
The place to observe: Vudu, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV
4. All of the President’s Males (1976)
Let’s be Nineteen Seventies actual. This film had some potent Nineteen Seventies Hollywood glitter showering down on it. Launched within the USA’s Bicentennial yr of 1976, and chronicling the autumn from grace of latest real-life American President Nixon, All of the President’s Males was the fitting film on the proper time. However for all of the unlucky, incorrect causes. Redford performs Bob Woodward alongside Dustin Hoffman (Carl Bernstein), two real-life journalists investigating then-President Nixon and his suspicious connection to unlawful actions at Washington, D.C.’s, Watergate Lodge. This movie is likely one of the greatest political motion pictures ever, instructed with out numerous pomp and circumstance. It has that splendidly gritty, practical, nearly documentary Nineteen Seventies vibe. Redford and Hoffman’s performances are stellar. Redford was identified for having a robust social conscience off-screen, and this film was an ideal automobile for him to discover questions associated to politics and journalism, ethics and privateness.
The place to observe: Vudu, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV
3. The Method We Had been (1973)
Name him main man, heartthrob, the most well liked male celebrity on the planet. This film solidified all that. Say what you need in regards to the questionable ethical goodness of his character, Hubbell Gardiner, however one can’t deny that Redford delivered his character properly. He and fellow celebrity Barbra Streisand (additionally in one among her most “career-defining” movies), create on-screen chemistry that’s legendary. In truth, The Method We Had been has achieved such “romance” icon standing that it’s listed as a monumental #6 out of 100 for the American Movie Institute’s “100 Years… 100 Passions” romance film rating compiled in 1999. At face worth, it’s the quintessential “opposites entice” love story. However, Redford and Streisand, the beautiful Nineteen Seventies superstars that they had been, took that storyline and made it “subsequent stage.”
Wait, how’d they do this? Name it uncooked expertise. Redford properly knew tips on how to play “understated frat jock Hubbell” to Streisand’s “outspoken activist Katie.” Then add in legendary director Sydney Pollack’s dreamy filmmaking fashion, and this tearjerker romance rips your tender coronary heart out. No shock Redford was a sizzling commodity for love movies after this. There’s nothing like a Robert Redford romance.
The place to observe: Vudu, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV
2. Extraordinary Individuals (1980)
Enter Robert Redford, Oscar-winning director. Redford’s directorial debut Extraordinary Individuals, in actual fact, received 4 Oscars – Finest Director, Finest Tailored Screenplay, Finest Supporting Actor for Timothy Hutton, and most significantly, Finest Image. A story about an upper-middle-class household within the Chicago suburbs who experiences extreme emotional trauma (the oldest son by accident drowns in a boating accident, and the youthful son turns into suicidal after surviving the accident), Extraordinary Individuals is gorgeous in its subtlety, realism, and coronary heart.
Redford exhibits us a lot by means of his story choice, casting selections, cinematography fashion, and so forth. The consequence? You’re intrigued, mesmerized, and finally heartbroken. He faucets into male disappointment, then feminine power (or stubbornness). He exhibits us that “we” as so-called “bizarre folks” are something however. This movie is spellbinding in its personal “bizarre” manner. It’s pure magic and instructed with a compassionate hand. Unsurprisingly, Redford went on to direct extra superb movies after this beautiful debut.
1. Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Child (1969)
Usher within the final Dynamic Duo of New Hollywood, Paul Newman and Robert Redford. Or in millennial phrases, the final word Bromance. Matt Damon and Ben Affleck? Tobey Maguire and Leonard DiCaprio? All nice, however let’s hail the unique. Filmed within the late Sixties, when Hollywood was reinventing itself to be extra practical and gritty, this Western masterpiece from director George Roy Hill is a recent tackle an outdated style. There’s witty banter, some trendy Burt Bacharach music, and it’s a ‘buddy movie’ that makes early 1900s outlaw prepare robbers (Butch and Sundance) someway likable anti-heroes.
Robert Redford was comparatively new to motion pictures, and this movie, the namesake for the now-popular Sundance Movie Pageant based by him, catapulted him to super-stardom. It additionally solid a long-lasting off-screen friendship between Redford and Paul Newman. In addition they teamed up once more for 1973’s super-successful The Sting (with director George Roy Hill on the helm). What an superior Hollywood friendship. Is Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Child Redford’s most career-defining movie? Completely.
The place to observe: Hulu, Disney+, ESPN+
Conclusion
The legendary Robert Redford has an in depth filmography and has delivered many exceptional performances all through his profession. All of the above movies showcase Redford’s versatility and vary as an actor, and have turn into timeless classics of their respective genres. Did your favourite Robert Redford motion pictures make it to the checklist? What did we miss? Let’s discuss within the feedback beneath.
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