RIP Robert Redford

[ThaOGDreamWeaver]

AFAIK, Bob was in one (1) cape movie.

And it was a doozy: Winter Soldier.

So he counts.

 

Okay, he’s barely in it. And the conversation probably went something like:

“We need someone GOOD for this. Gravitas. Charming but with depths.”

”A Robert Redford type.”

”Yeah. I mean if we could get Bob…”

”Have we got Bob money?”

”You get me Bob, Feige will get you Bob money. Because it’s Bob.”

 

Seriously. The guy was everyone’s dream to work with, and not because he was one of the great screen gods.
 

The guy worked to make even small parts memorable: and when he took the lead, those are movie names to conjure with. The Sting. Out Of Africa. River Runs Through It. Sneakers (STILL the only really good h@X0r movie), All The President’s Men, and of course Butch & Sundance.

 

But that role arguably had a much bigger impact than that movie - as his festival for new and upcoming filmmakers has brought up so many talents. (And the only reason I’d have hauled my raggedy ass to the middle of Utah on days it felt like if Hell froze over, Satan would have still sent any producers who died in Park City downstairs to warm up).

 

Newman had to fight for him for Butch & Sundance (as one producer said: “ah, he’s just another California blond. Throw a stick out the window, you hit six of ‘em.”)

 

But even from the early days, and the smallest parts. This is no ordinary job-to-job actor. Do you recognise when someone just has that magic?

 

 

I hope he was welcomed in the same way. May he rest in light.

Edited Tuesday at 09:05 PM by ThaOGDreamWeaver

[Chance Jackson]

Rest In Peace 

[TTRPGWhiz]

Notably, his last (very brief) on-screen appearance was in Endgame, during the Return to the Battle of New York bit.

 

I recently rewatched All is Lost, and he is astonishingly good in that, especially considering how little dialogue is in that film.

[Techwright]

The Natural.  That one was up-front-and-center in all the mid-1980s grocery store VHS rental racks for years, not because they couldn't unload it but because it was highly marketable.  (The Mission was another.) 

 

I just got done re-watching the star-packed movie A Bridge Too Far, and although he had a secondary role,  Redford had one of the most memorable moments, recreating the real Major Cook's tense, repetitious cry of "Hail Mary, full of grace" while paddling furiously across river into a curtain of Nazi lead flying past him, mauling Cliff the mailman in the process.