Who you think Robert Redford was has a lot to do with the generation you were born in. To baby boomers, he was the movie heartthrob who gave us one of the late 20th century’s favorite love stories: The Way We Were. To Gen X, he starred in a series of undercover operative dramas, from Sneakers to Spy Game. Gen Z and Millennials best know him from Marvel movies.
But Redford was so much more.
In addition to being an actor, he was a director, producer, climate activist and founder of the Sundance Film Festival. Less well known is one of our favorite aspects of his work: the books he helped bring to life on the big screen. Here are three of our favorites:
Three Days of the Condor (1975)
Robert Redford’s stardom had reached a feverish peak when he starred in the adaptation of Six Days of the Condor by James Grady. Despite the filmmakers giving the Condor fewer days to complete his mission, Redford’s combination of sleek exterior and nerdy interior worked beautifully as CIA analyst Joe “Condor” Turner. In this suspenseful and slightly paranoid thriller, Turner fights to stay alive and figure out who killed his coworkers before he also becomes a target. Not only does this role fit Redford like a glove, but he’s in full mastery of his craft in this thriller.
All the President’s Men (1976)
The biggest book of the Watergate/Post-Watergate era was All the President’s Men, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning reporting by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein of the Washington Post. Heavy with journalistic detail, turning this tour de force into a heart-pounding thriller was a triumph in storytelling. Redford portrayed Bob Woodward to Dustin Hoffman’s Carl Bernstein. Their chemistry and the gritty believability of working in a metropolitan newsroom scours the shine from their movie star personas and focuses our attention where it belongs: on the duo painstakingly following the breadcrumbs of a case that shocked America. It’s not generally remembered that this movie got made because of Redford; he bought the rights to the book and hired William Goldman to write the screenplay, for which Goldman won an Academy Award.
Ordinary People (1980)
Redford made a dazzling directorial debut in this drama about an icy upper-middle-class family surviving tragedy and loss, based on the novel by Judith Guest. The choice of Mary Tyler Moore, usually known for her cheerful effervescence, as brittle matriarch Beth Jarrett was absolutely inspired. The film could have strayed into suburban soap opera, but instead centered the action on emotional trauma and the aftermath of grief. All the performances are heart-wrenching, and it’s practically a crime that Mary Tyler Moore didn’t win the Oscar. Ordinary People did pick up three additional Oscars in addition to Best Director: Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor to Timothy Hutton for portraying the deeply troubled Conrad Jarrett, and Best Adapted Screenplay to Alvin Sargent.
Below is a list of Redford’s book-inspired work. Let us know which was your favorite.
Tell Them Willie Boy Was Here (1969)
Downhill Racer (1969)
The Hot Rock (1972)
The Great Gatsby (1974)
Three Days of the Condor (1975)
All the President’s Men (1976)
A Bridge Too Far (1977)
Brubaker (1980)
Ordinary People (1980)
The Natural (1984)
Out of Africa (1985)
A River Runs Through It (1992) Directed
Indecent Proposal (1993)
The Horse Whisperer (1998)
The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000)
An Unfinished Life (2005)
Charlotte’s Web (2006) Voice acting
The Company You Keep (2012)
A Walk in the Woods (2015)
Truth (2015)
Our Souls at Night (2017)
