I can't say that (unlike my late mother) I was ever a huge fan of Robert Redford as an actor. If you ask me, there was something that felt a bit "surface" about his acting - perhaps being too traditionally handsome is a hindrance to feeling fully convinced by an actor. Now that I think about it, this may be the same reason I have never warmed much to Brad Pitt, too. But as for one more "classically handsome" star who I did like routinely - Cary Grant - I think that the lightness and charm of his persona in nearly all roles was what made it irrelevant that he was, as they say, always Cary Grant in his movies.
Anyway, regardless of not being one who was particularly keen to see him act, I have to say that being reminded of the kind of movies he was in (or made) makes me miss the general milieu of "serious, well made and well-intentioned American drama" which seems to have disappeared from Hollywood in the last decade or so. And of his lighter content, it reminds me of how Hollywood seems to have lost the ability to make engaging romances, too.
Of the films he directed, I would have to say that my clear favourite was 1994's Quiz Show. I remember being so impressed by it at the time it came out, but it seems not to have lingered in the collective memory to the extent it deserves. Maybe I will re-watch again soon to see if my initial reaction stands up.
3 comments:
My overwhelming memory of ‘Quiz Show’ is of a series of retro costumes and sets that were technically perfect in a theatrical way but which only served to draw attention to their stageiness for all that. And not in a self-knowing, self-parodying kind of way. For better or worse I associate Redford with that world, of Worthy But Slightly Dull drama.
TimT
I didn't react like that at all. I seem to remember thinking it was a great screenplay, very well acted.
he was a good actor. He was good with ol goodeyes and even in the natural let alone all the presidents men
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