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What to stream: Queue up Robert Redford films to remember Hollywood legend

Katie Walsh, Tribune News Service on

Published in Entertainment News

American screen icon Robert Redford passed away on Tuesday, Sept. 16, at the age of 89. An actor who got his start on Broadway in 1959, he worked for over six decades, spanning the Classical Hollywood era, becoming a symbol of 1970s New Hollywood, and later ushered in the indie film revolution of the 1990s as a co-founder of the Sundance Film Festival.

There’s so much to be said about Redford as an actor, filmmaker, environmental activist and mentor to generations of filmmakers, and many will say that in numerous obituaries and tributes. If you’re looking to spend some more time with the screen actor in the coming days, here’s a guide to some of his best and most memorable films (this is only scratching the surface of his resume).

After working in theater and television (including “The Twilight Zone” and “Alfred Hitchcock Presents”), Redford became a leading man in 1967 with the screen adaptation of “Barefoot in the Park,” the Neil Simon play he originated in 1963. The film was directed by Gene Saks and Redford starred opposite Jane Fonda. Stream it on Kanopy or rent.

Redford’s “Sundance” moniker came from the paradigm shifting 1969 film “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” a buddy Western he made with Paul Newman, directed by George Roy Hill. He later reteamed with Newman and Hill on the 1973 film “The Sting,” about two 1930s con men, which earned him a best actor Oscar nomination. Rent both films on iTunes or Amazon.

He also had a fruitful collaboration with directed Sydney Pollack in the 1970s, starring in the Western “Jeremiah Johnson” (1972), the romantic drama “The Way We Were” opposite Barbara Streisand (1973), and the paranoid political thriller “Three Days of the Condor” (1975), all directed by the auteur. Stream “Jeremiah Johnson” on Tubi or rent it elsewhere, rent “The Way We Were” on all platforms, and stream “Three Days of the Condor” on MGM+ or rent it.

Arguably one of his most well-known films is the 1976 journalistic thriller “All the President’s Men,” directed by Alan J. Pakula, co-starring Dustin Hoffman. Redford stars as Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward and Hoffman as Carl Bernstein, who worked together to uncover Nixon’s Watergate scandal. One of the most thrilling films about journalism, “All the President’s Men” sets the template for the genre. Stream it on the Criterion Channel or rent it elsewhere.

 

With his directorial debut in 1980, “Ordinary People,” Redford won Oscars for best director and best picture. This family drama stars Donald Sutherland, Mary Tyler Moore, Judd Hirsch and Timothy Hutton. Stream it on MGM+ or rent it elsewhere.

Redford also directed many other films, including the Montana-set family drama “A River Runs Through It” in 1992 (stream it on MGM+ or rent) and the thriller “Quiz Show” in 1995, for which he received best director and best picture nominations, and which follows the “Twenty-One” quiz show scandals in the 1950s.

He’s also memorable in the 1992 hacker film “Sneakers,” directed by Phil Alden Robinson (available to rent); the 2001 Tony Scott thriller “Spy Game” opposite his doppelganger and “A River Runs Through It” star Brad Pitt (available to rent); the one-man adventure film “All Is Lost” (2013), directed by J.C. Chandor (available on Prime, Kanopy, the Roku Channel and to rent), and in “The Old Man & the Gun” (2019), directed by David Lowery and available to rent.

These are only a few of his best films and roles, but a fine way to remember this Hollywood legend.

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