Robert Redford died last week.
His loss really hit me.
My three favorite actors: Gene Hackman, Paul Newman and Robert Redford are gone. And it feels like an era has passed.
Redford lived a life of art and activism and leaves us with a remarkable body of work.
He starred in classic movies, championed independent film, founded the Sundance Institute and Film Festival and was a noted crusader on behalf of the environment.
He did it all with class, grace and an understated charm. He brought gravitas to every role he played. They don’t make them like that anymore.
When I got the news, I felt a genuine sense of loss. Mr. Redford’s death comes at a difficult time for America.
We are at each other’s throats; there is hatred and anger in the air. It feels dangerous, unstable, like we have slipped our moorings. We are careening dangerously toward the rocks.
Last week, I wrote about local tentpoles, special people who transcend and provide a steady foundation for our communities.
There are people who do that for our nation as well.
Robert Redford was one of those people.
His movies were sweeping and ambitious. They also spoke uniquely to the American character. He was an archetype and we need archetypes.
“All the President’s Men” inspired a generation of young people to pursue a career in journalism.
I worked with many of those people during my career in newspapers, people who got into the biz wanting to be the next Woodward and Bernstein. We watched “All the President’s Men” and saw the importance of investigative journalism to our republic.
Being a newspaper reporter was a noble profession and needed one too. A free press was a guarantor of our Democracy.
These days, the media is under assault. There is much to criticize, but fundamentally a free press is still important right?
Years later, when I was in college, Redford made “The Natural” in Buffalo where my oldest friend David was attending SUNY Buffalo. Dave wrote me letters (remember those) talking about the movie and what it was like to be in a town mesmerized by a big Hollywood star.
Hollywood was magical in those days—a proud American invention and when Hollywood focused on our national pastime it was special.
“The Natural” was sweeping and rhapsodic and Redford was perfect in the role of the mythological and mysterious Roy Hobbs. The ‘best there ever was and the best there ever will be’.
If you are a romantic like I am, “The Way We Were” and “Out of Africa” were unforgettable moviegoing experiences. For a young kid who grew up listening to the best love songs ever recorded by The Beatles (And I love Her, For No One, Something), The Beach Boys (Wouldn’t it Be Nice, Don’t Worry Baby), Led Zeppelin (Thank You, Ten Years Gone) and Billy Joel (She’s Got A Way, You’re My Home) Redford’s romances were the cinematic apex of the relationships we longed for—big sweeping loves. To paraphrase the line from “When Harry Met Sally” –“I’ll have what he’s having” up on the screen.
I loved them all—”Three Days of the Condor”, Jeremiah Johnson”, “The Candidate”, “Electric Horseman” and of course “The Horse Whisperer” which is magnificent.
But my favorite of them all is “Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid.”
That movie had it all, great stars, western vistas, a pitch perfect script, humor, action, romance and a message.
The chemistry between Redford and Newman has never been matched in my opinion. As viewers, we envied their rapport, their friendship and their cool.
Scene after perfect scene from the opening card game to the hail of bullets at the end I marveled at the William Goldman script. I would later study that script hoping to absorb some of the magic of the storytelling. It was not to be, but it sure was fun to break it all down.
Recently, I read Pulitzer Prize winning author Richard Russo’s memoir “Life And Art.” In the book Russo writes at length about Butch Cassidy. He argues persuasively that the film was about change. Butch and Sundance’s era was coming to a close and they were ill equipped for the new world they found themselves in. That’s a sentiment that feels true today.
I admire how Robert Redford championed independent film, I respected his activism and I enjoyed his later work as well. He packed a lot into 89 years.
And when died, my first thought was this man was uniquely American.
We have so much to be proud of in this country. A bounty to enjoy—mountains and oceans, prairies, lakes, rivers, national parks, great cities and great open spaces. We’ve won World Wars, fought for rights, invented medicines that have saved millions and created art that has stood the test of time.
Steinbeck, Hemingway and Arthur Miller. Brian Wilson, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan and Tom Petty. Oh don’t forget Bob Seger, John Fogerty, Jimmy Buffett, Willie Nelson and Paul Simon.
Spielberg, Scorcese and Coppola.
Jonas Salk, Albert Einstein and a guy named Don Estridge who worked up the street on something called the IBM PC.
And of course, Newman and Redford.
Stars who burned bright—on screen and off.
Uniquely American.
If we need something to bind us—and we do– we can look to our artists, philanthropists, inventors, scientists and teachers. We should be able to look to our politicians, but sadly we cannot. Maybe someday we will.
But there’s a lot there to unite us, if we choose to look.
Here’s a few facts about Mr. Redford which tie him to the American experience.
He was of Irish, Scottish and English heritage—like many Americans his ancestors came from elsewhere.
At age 11 he had a mild case of polio—thankfully generations of Americans were spared the disease thanks to a vaccine and the work of scientists supported by American investment.
He was expelled from college because he drank heavily, but like many Americans he reinvented himself and found opportunity in a land of opportunities.
He travelled in Europe living in France, Spain and Italy—because Americans are open to the world and find things to learn on those travels.
He directed, produced, wrote books and worked well into his 80s, because Americans work hard.
He was us at our best.
What a life….