A friend of mine that was in Desert Storm taught me this. Of course, he was on the other side
One of my favourites. Great cast.
Kingsley and Redford on the roof: "There's a war out there, old friend. A world war. And it's not about who's got the most bullets. It's about who controls the information. What we see and hear, how we work, what we think... it's all about the information"
They're not on the roof for that scene; they're in his office, using the computer room's air conditioning as a sound mask (and using a Cray Y-MP as a bench). While the movie takes some very early-90s liberties with technology (especially the scene where they use the chip), it's remarkably respectful of hacking -- there's a stronger emphasis on social engineering then the purely technical, and my "head canon" is that the chip itself is a quantum chip capable of breaking any then-known encryption.
I love the way you confidently relied on your 80s film trivia memory to correct someone online without double checking. Im not being sarcastic its kinda cool.
The 80s ended in September 1991. One week “Use Your Illusion” was released, which meant it was still the 80s then. The following week “Nevermind” was released, so obviously the 90s started sometime during that week.
It's also remarkably respectful of Bay Area geography -- they got the major bridges right. None of that Dustin Hoffman going the wrong way on the Bay Bridge stuff.
Seeing as this is considered remarkable by some people, it makes me want to watch a compilation of all movie scenes that were an insult to Bay Area geography. There should be a channel someplace, where each video is a compilation of a different city/landmark.
(Also from fuzzy memory) Any then-known Western encryption. The chip was supposedly useless on Soviet/Russian encryption techniques, thus emphasizing who exactly the chip was meant to be used against.
Back when Social Engineering meant wearing a hell of a suit and dodging the 'Bunco Squad'. All the elements are there: Greed, Scarcity, a sense of urgency, all legitimised by the leveraging of Social "proof".
If it was remade today there'd be a good chance Redford would find Newman's character down on his luck running facebook ads for crypto scams featuring AI videos of prominent celebrities.
He more or less was everywhere when I was growing up in the 1970's. "The Sting", "All the President's Men", etc. "The Great Waldo Pepper" was often on T.V.
"Jeremiah Johnson" though is still a favorite of mine. Got me into blackpowder.
Thanks for the recommendation. If you want realistic, modern spy show, I strongly recommend “Le Bureau Des Legendes”. I heard there’s an American remake, which probably makes it over-the-top for their audience, but the original is top-tier TV.
Haven't rewatched since it was first released. As an audio person I was particularly impressed with a scene whereby someone who was locked in a trunk determined their location by remembering the sound made by bumps on a specific road. Is that right? Or am I thinking of the last time I was kidnapped?
Sneakers is one of the main factors that got me into computing from Mathematics. Cryptography was new to the main stream when this movie came out. RSA was big time. Spy Games, Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid and especially Jeremiah Johnson all bad ass.
Any time I'm visiting and am on the Embarcadero. It's funny watching it, you can still see workers in the background cleaning up the median which used to have a freeway over it from the '89 quake.
I first watched it back when it came out. At the time I was living in a different country and San Francisco was just another US city to me. I just happened to re-watch it yesterday (it still holds up) for the first time since moving to the bay area.
It was interesting hearing the names of the locations and bridges that previously meant nothing to me (except the golden gate).
Interestingly, it has held up quite well, too: outside of the occasional bit of old tech sticking out here and there, the whole thing could be set in 2025 with a minimum of updating. The problem the MacGuffin solves, the methods for conducting their various heists, even the inclusion of the post-Soviet Russians as a player are all still valid today.
Not to mention one of the most ridiculously stacked casts — it's incredible how many greats are in it. And it's one of my favorite hacking movies of all time.
I think it is one of the more realistic hacker movies. You can read also about Leonard Adleman's participation in the movie[1]. Adleman is the A in RSA.
Also, Lawrence (Larry) Lasker[2] was the writer of Sneakers AND War Games!
It’s also one of the few hacking movies that stands up - assume ‘the box’ is a prototype quantum computer. Better yet assume it has a production process with such a high failure rate they’ve been churning these out for years just to produce a single working instance.
just a few days ago I had an idea for a shirt and sent it to a designer on fiverr. I was very pleased with what I got back. "Secrets are Power" was my nod to one of my favorite movies Sneakers! Rest in Piece Mr. Redford.
http://bit.ly/3Ip3tr3 link to the shirt if you want to look at it. there is a message encoding in the background.
I do think this is one of Redford's very best films. A lot of detractors make the mistake of assuming the character is intended to represent an expert & experienced sailor, leading to a complete misread of the story. It is possible to be both clever & unwise.
This is not a film, this is a lesson to all ocean sailors. When I travelled along the Pacific in 2009 we were prepared for the cases that happened in the movie. I have dreamt about them and then I watched them.
I loved this very much, and I've seen it a couple of times. Together with "Touching the Void" it ranks high on my list of the best survival pictures ever made, a specific genre I enjoy very much.
And it's very intimate. 106 minutes of just you the viewer, and Robert Redford. I might just rewatch it tonight. It feels fitting.
I got into mountaineering (movies) after reading Into Thin Air, about the disaster atop Mount Everest in 1996. Haunting story, fantastic book.
For real life lost at sea stories, there’s “438 Days: An Extraordinary True Story of Survival at Sea” telling the story of fisherman Salvador Alvarenga that spent more than a year adrift in the Pacific Ocean.
How interesting, there is another movie called "438 days", although in Swedish, which is about two Swedish journalists imprisoned in Ethiopia for espionage. https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/438_dagar (Swedish)
my favorite performance of his! its a movie that keeps you on the edge of your seat the whole time. so many anxiety inducing moments, especially for those who fear the ocean
Redford's Sundance Institute and Sundance Film Festival was a monumental contribution, changing the film industry for the better, a boon to indie filmmakers. IMO this is Redford's most important legacy.
This is so essential now especially as Hollywood has become more consolidated and corporate.
Quentin Tarantino went through Sundance Lab while preparing Reservoir Dogs. There is some test footage of him and Steve Buscemy he shot there reciting some dialogue.
He also met Terry Gilliam there, and he always recounts this first meeting fondly, so the festival led him into meeting an important mentor.
Outside of Quentin, Paul Thomas Anderson, a lot of people are called the Sundance Generation. Sundance changed cinema.
I used to feel some sort of strange reassurance whenever I'd see him on screen, in any kind of film, in any kind of role.
Being an espionage lover, of course, Spy Game will have a special place; then there's him playing Sundance Kid, but I remember him for Out of Africa and The Way We Were. I know many might say, 'But he was not central in them'; I'd say that he was. And no, not the only central role. That's how I remember him and these films. What masterpieces of films, and how beautifully he played his roles in these; and the things he stood for.
His performance in Spy Game is really great — recently rewatched it. The way he captured so well the idea that younger generations think they've got it all figured out — but the old hats still have some tricks up their sleeve.
Unfortunately I feel that while it's very well shot and paced, the gendered interplay from RR and his co-star feels a little iffy in the modern day - particularly since the romantic sub-plot requires so much suspension of disbelief. So much so that the main characters in the Elmore Leonard spy-comedy "Out of Sight" ridicule it.
Apparently, as per Reddit, the director kept wanting her to look more scared in her initial scenes; explaining the horror of being kidnapped and imprisoned in her own home by a strange man. She kept pleading "But it's Robert Redford"!
If you like the espionage and unique feel of films of that era though, you can't do much better than Francis Ford Coppola's 'The Conversation', starring a wonderfully morose Gene Hackman. A very worthy Palme D'Or winner in '74.
Fred Zinnemann's 'The Day of the Jackal' in '73 is also a high-point for espionage-thrillers of the decade.
Completely agree with everything you've written. I probably missed my chance to enjoy Three Days of the Condor by not watching it earlier in life because - to me - it doesn't hold up to viewing through a modern lens. The interplay between the two leads is wild, the sex scene almost plays as a rape with the way she's acting.
Purely in terms of watching great actors at work, I think the penultimate scene is more striking. It sets up the excellent scene you shared rather well, too.
Yes. And credit where it's due when it comes to Redford: he is the star but nevertheless he doesn't try to steal back the scene from Max, and the result is amazing.
(I'm not a film nerd, but perhaps some credit is due to whoever edited that scene as well. The end of the scene hits pretty hard.)
Ordinary People, Redford's directorial debut, is one of my favourite movies. A movie that deceptively appears simple but that is wonderfully emotionally deep with great performances from the entire cast. I must give it a rewatch.
They really don't make them like Robert Redford anymore — truly one of my favorite actors who could elevate anything he was in. 89 is an impressive run — especially given how sharp he was right up til the end.
If you've never seen his movies, you can basically pick them at random and you'll find a good one. But All the President's Men is one of my favorite films of all time.
Any actor with even 10% of successful movies that Redford would be considered an "A" lister. Thanks for all the entertainment for 5 decades, Robert. RIP.
War games, was one of the first Western movies appeared in USSR at time of "global discharge" (or better translation global easing), it was so fresh wind.
I have seen movies with Redford later, but unfortunately, I just now got info about connection of Redford with War games.
What a loss. Sneakers inspired me to pursue my dream of being a penetration tester.
I first discovered his acting via a long forgotten torrent site.
I used to go onto Suprnova[0] and sort by "most seeded" and alongside a sea of pornography, up filtered gems like the 1992 cult classes we all know and love. (As well as, at the time, a lot of really got big beat electronic albums, but the uhn tiss tiss is a conversation for another thread.)
I had been a big gamer growing up, but found that folks weren't growing out of toxicity, and migrated to being a film/tv geek. More art galleries, less LAN parties, that sort of thing.
I guess he's jammin' revolvers into Russian dude's backs at the opera in heaven now...
I haven't found another film that captures the feeling of blowing past building security, the front desk, and the CEO's secretary to inform them if you were the guy who'd been threatening their NGO, they'd be dead -- and oh, by the way, here's a list of the systems I could own without setting foot in your building.
Nowadays, you're weird if you socialize offline and eschew social media, but back in the day being a hacker was not considered cool or interesting -- if anything, we were scary.
Not just that, but the wholly plausible concept of "Redfordations" - a fictional U.S. law establishing reparations for descendants of racial injustices in the form of lifetime tax exemptions - seemed very on-brand for the man and his legacy.
The introduction to a river runs through it is an interesting read. I never realized how much creative influence Redford had over the production of the movie until I read it a few months ago.
Oh no - we’ve lost a great defender of democracy and the environment. Throughout his personal life and professional film career, he consistently sought to spotlight government, corporate, and military-industrial corruption while shining a light on the importance of democracy. The world has lost a remarkable person!
Do yourself a favor and watch some of his most important movies that represented his ideology "Truth", "Brubaker", "Sneakers" or "Spy Game".
FYI, I think the term you're slightly misusing is "running the gauntlet", which means to face a difficult trial, usually in public. Although you may be mixing it up with "to pick up the gauntlet" (but not run with it), which means to accept a challenge.
Oh wow, last night I was just listening to his commentary on "All the President's Men" (which came up a couple of weeks ago here on HN when we were talking about ratfucking).
I know we live in an age where if someone dies, you cannot criticize him, but Redford is famous for the blackballing of James Woods. I vehemently disagree with Woods' politics but that shouldnt preclude him from employment. Its very clear people like Redform made sure people like Woods were targeted for their political and personal views. Redford was a huge Hollywood power, not just this 'kindly grandpa' actor but a power-player of the highest order. Redford ran a major film and television production company and as such decided, personally, who to hire or fire on his own whim.
Robert Redford is also the founder of the Sundance Film Festival, so getting on his bad-side is strongly career-effecting. People lived in fear of getting on this guy's bad side.
On set, he sounds like the typical Hollywood nightmare with famous clashes with his costars and directors. Arthur Laurents, the writer of The Way We Were, described Redford as an "ego maniac" and control freak for his on-set behaviors.
I say this as a leftist, but "The Truth" is liberal catering-to, and whitewashes Rathers's
lack of due diligence in the Bush document, which even to a largely uniformed person like me thought, "Uh isnt that a modern font?" Dan Rather's rush to to this story is not a 'victim' but the failure of basic journalism. I dont think Rather should have resigned, but the idea that's he's this kind-hearted innocent, as the film mostly portrays him as, is just dishonesty. Rather saw money and fame in breaking a big story, and ran with it without much care.
Shrug, I've always seen his PR as very heavily manufactured and played towards the NYTimes and Variety and Sundance crowd in a very targeted way. And it worked, Redford died with an estate worth at least $200m. Capitalism gonna capitalism I guess, but the reality is Redford was quite the vindictive partisan who used his wealth and power against his perceived political enemies and whitewashed some questionable people.
What evidence is there that Redford blackballed James Woods? I know Woods claims he's been blacklisted, but is this true, and where is the evidence it was Redford?
The article also describes him as the kind of environmentalist who makes my eyes roll - a rich person principally concerned with making sure their local area looks untouched and beautiful so they can ride their Ferrari through it.
That's a good point. I have less criticism there because there is potential for someone like that to affect national or global policy and the individual can't often do much on a persona consumption level. Like I dont want to nitpick someone for driving a corvette or using paper cups. Its not like driving an SUV or running the dishwasher daily is so much better. If he lived a very modest life, would anything be different environmentally? Maybe slightly less carbon out there? The same way I dont think reusing straws is helping for me.
But the carbon footprint of the jetset crowd is significant and worth pointing out. And, yes, how a lot of it is things like protecting wealthy-coded wildlife touristy-type areas in California and such and less effort in cleaning up factories in Alabama or India and such. Or how as a capital owning class person, he negotiated against the working class with his productions, and as such the dynamics that make Alabama and India poor, the capitalistic effect of driving down wages and the political power of these working people who want reform, well, he's part of the problem there too. He can't be both 'the boss' and a worker at the same time.
And the zero effort for him and his cohorts to fly first class instead of private jet or take a regular boat and not a mega yacht or other massive carbon producers.
But his behavior on set, his bias in "The Truth,' and his hiring policies are entirely his choice and can be made nearly entirely meritorious. He simply decided to not act meritorious.
"Sneakers" is such an entertaining watch for anyone that's never seen it. Well worth your time.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105435/
A friend of mine that was in Desert Storm taught me this. Of course, he was on the other side
One of my favourites. Great cast.
Kingsley and Redford on the roof: "There's a war out there, old friend. A world war. And it's not about who's got the most bullets. It's about who controls the information. What we see and hear, how we work, what we think... it's all about the information"
They're not on the roof for that scene; they're in his office, using the computer room's air conditioning as a sound mask (and using a Cray Y-MP as a bench). While the movie takes some very early-90s liberties with technology (especially the scene where they use the chip), it's remarkably respectful of hacking -- there's a stronger emphasis on social engineering then the purely technical, and my "head canon" is that the chip itself is a quantum chip capable of breaking any then-known encryption.
No, the roof: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Xk0Mzci2Sks
I'm thinking of the scene where they talk about the corrupting influence of money: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifJMFqSV7ic
I love the way you confidently relied on your 80s film trivia memory to correct someone online without double checking. Im not being sarcastic its kinda cool.
Sneakers is from 1992.
We have already established that not double checking is kinda cool.
Thus the “late 80’ies”…
The 80s ended in September 1991. One week “Use Your Illusion” was released, which meant it was still the 80s then. The following week “Nevermind” was released, so obviously the 90s started sometime during that week.
This is terrific, I’m totally stealing this line to drop at my next dinner party.
early nineties ?
Extreeemely late eighties
Nineteen eighty twelve.
1992, the year that was late to the 80's
So much so that it arguably accelerated the introduction of the Clipper Chip by unimaginative spooks only a year later.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clipper_chip
For me the biggest Hollywood liberty taken is the beautiful ASCII Colourized UIs for federal agencies and ATC that they reveal with the decrypt!
It's also remarkably respectful of Bay Area geography -- they got the major bridges right. None of that Dustin Hoffman going the wrong way on the Bay Bridge stuff.
Seeing as this is considered remarkable by some people, it makes me want to watch a compilation of all movie scenes that were an insult to Bay Area geography. There should be a channel someplace, where each video is a compilation of a different city/landmark.
> it's remarkably respectful of hacking
This is one of my favorite things about the movie, and why I always recommended it to my security friends.
> breaking any then-known encryption
(Also from fuzzy memory) Any then-known Western encryption. The chip was supposedly useless on Soviet/Russian encryption techniques, thus emphasizing who exactly the chip was meant to be used against.
Anyone interested in learning more about social engineering should check out "The Art of" books by legendary hacker Kevin Mitnick.
Or… sticking to the theme…
The Old Man and the Gun
… another great film by Redford, about an elderly man who leans on his charisma and confidence to rob banks. Based on a true story.
Or... The Sting!
Back when Social Engineering meant wearing a hell of a suit and dodging the 'Bunco Squad'. All the elements are there: Greed, Scarcity, a sense of urgency, all legitimised by the leveraging of Social "proof".
If it was remade today there'd be a good chance Redford would find Newman's character down on his luck running facebook ads for crypto scams featuring AI videos of prominent celebrities.
He more or less was everywhere when I was growing up in the 1970's. "The Sting", "All the President's Men", etc. "The Great Waldo Pepper" was often on T.V.
"Jeremiah Johnson" though is still a favorite of mine. Got me into blackpowder.
And surprised later when watching The Twilight Zone and he turned up as "Death": https://youtu.be/9tfyv4BZRug
And, of course, "Three Days of the Condor", ending in the middle of "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen".
“Spy Game” is one of be one of the best spy films I’ve seen in terms of recruiting and handling assets.
Thanks for the recommendation. If you want realistic, modern spy show, I strongly recommend “Le Bureau Des Legendes”. I heard there’s an American remake, which probably makes it over-the-top for their audience, but the original is top-tier TV.
Jeremiah Johnson is one of my favorites of all time. Such a great movie. "You'll do well, pilgrim"
Great scene, thank you for sharing!
Don't forget Three Days of the Condor[0] in which he's supported by a fabulous cast as well.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Days_of_the_Condor
Haven't rewatched since it was first released. As an audio person I was particularly impressed with a scene whereby someone who was locked in a trunk determined their location by remembering the sound made by bumps on a specific road. Is that right? Or am I thinking of the last time I was kidnapped?
You've got it right: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuIheGaiFLM
This tends to be a favorite scene of Bay area nerds. There's not too many other Hollywood mentions of the San Mateo Bridge.
The sounds that cars make over the different bridges iirc. Cool scene!
"Remind me to make you an honorary blind person."
Sneakers is one of the main factors that got me into computing from Mathematics. Cryptography was new to the main stream when this movie came out. RSA was big time. Spy Games, Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid and especially Jeremiah Johnson all bad ass.
There are moments when I’m driving over the San Mateo Bridge and I instantly think about this movie.
Any time I'm visiting and am on the Embarcadero. It's funny watching it, you can still see workers in the background cleaning up the median which used to have a freeway over it from the '89 quake.
Going to a cocktail party?
Why, yes. At the reservoir.
RIP Mr. Redford and Sidney Poitier.
I first watched it back when it came out. At the time I was living in a different country and San Francisco was just another US city to me. I just happened to re-watch it yesterday (it still holds up) for the first time since moving to the bay area.
It was interesting hearing the names of the locations and bridges that previously meant nothing to me (except the golden gate).
It's free to watch on youtube at the moment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qy9XYQBBIJ4
Someone released this a few years back.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36799776 https://github.com/bartobri/no-more-secrets
Interestingly, it has held up quite well, too: outside of the occasional bit of old tech sticking out here and there, the whole thing could be set in 2025 with a minimum of updating. The problem the MacGuffin solves, the methods for conducting their various heists, even the inclusion of the post-Soviet Russians as a player are all still valid today.
Not to mention one of the most ridiculously stacked casts — it's incredible how many greats are in it. And it's one of my favorite hacking movies of all time.
No more secrets, Marty.
Seatec Astronomy
I'm interested in all kinds of astronomy.
Where we are going we don't need roads.
I think it is one of the more realistic hacker movies. You can read also about Leonard Adleman's participation in the movie[1]. Adleman is the A in RSA.
Also, Lawrence (Larry) Lasker[2] was the writer of Sneakers AND War Games!
[1] https://molecularscience.usc.edu/sneakers/
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Lasker
Oh my. Those two movies always had a similar vibe to me and now I know why.
It's such a "old fashioned" kind of film, the key scenes are so memorable.
It’s also one of the few hacking movies that stands up - assume ‘the box’ is a prototype quantum computer. Better yet assume it has a production process with such a high failure rate they’ve been churning these out for years just to produce a single working instance.
My first thought when I saw his name. I love many of his movies but Sneakers has to be my favorite!
"My voice is my passport. Verify me"
"Alexa, buy me three tons of toilet paper"
Little riff on that:
I miss when Amazon had the "Dash" buttons, it was better than voice:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Dash
I saw it as a kid and it was one of the movies that inspired me to get into software.
I hope there are still movies being made today that inspire the next generation of programmers. It feels like it's all Marvel now.
just a few days ago I had an idea for a shirt and sent it to a designer on fiverr. I was very pleased with what I got back. "Secrets are Power" was my nod to one of my favorite movies Sneakers! Rest in Piece Mr. Redford.
http://bit.ly/3Ip3tr3 link to the shirt if you want to look at it. there is a message encoding in the background.
"All is Lost" (2013) funny enough got me interested in offshore sailing in my late teens.
Incredible performance by Redford, first film that really left an impression on me. There is only one or two lines of dialogue in the entire film.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2017038/
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/all-is-lost-2013
I do think this is one of Redford's very best films. A lot of detractors make the mistake of assuming the character is intended to represent an expert & experienced sailor, leading to a complete misread of the story. It is possible to be both clever & unwise.
Edit: Screenplay link! https://thescriptsavant.com/movies/All_Is_Lost.pdf
This is not a film, this is a lesson to all ocean sailors. When I travelled along the Pacific in 2009 we were prepared for the cases that happened in the movie. I have dreamt about them and then I watched them.
I loved this very much, and I've seen it a couple of times. Together with "Touching the Void" it ranks high on my list of the best survival pictures ever made, a specific genre I enjoy very much.
And it's very intimate. 106 minutes of just you the viewer, and Robert Redford. I might just rewatch it tonight. It feels fitting.
I got into mountaineering (movies) after reading Into Thin Air, about the disaster atop Mount Everest in 1996. Haunting story, fantastic book.
For real life lost at sea stories, there’s “438 Days: An Extraordinary True Story of Survival at Sea” telling the story of fisherman Salvador Alvarenga that spent more than a year adrift in the Pacific Ocean.
If you love survival stories, checkout “Deep Survival “ that analyzes why some people survive and others don’t. Brilliant
How interesting, there is another movie called "438 days", although in Swedish, which is about two Swedish journalists imprisoned in Ethiopia for espionage. https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/438_dagar (Swedish)
Not as long but similarly lost at sea, crossing the Atlantic in a life raft: "Adrift: Seventy-six Days Lost at Sea" by Steven Callahan.
I even got the protagonists watch (seiko Pepsi)
my favorite performance of his! its a movie that keeps you on the edge of your seat the whole time. so many anxiety inducing moments, especially for those who fear the ocean
Came here to say this. Incredible movie.
Redford's Sundance Institute and Sundance Film Festival was a monumental contribution, changing the film industry for the better, a boon to indie filmmakers. IMO this is Redford's most important legacy.
This is so essential now especially as Hollywood has become more consolidated and corporate.
I heard the late Roger Ebert once say that Robert Redford had done more for independent cinema than anyone.
Indeed. I read that movies like "The Blair Witch Project" and "Napoleon Dynamite" got their break at Sundance.
Quentin Tarantino went through Sundance Lab while preparing Reservoir Dogs. There is some test footage of him and Steve Buscemy he shot there reciting some dialogue.
He also met Terry Gilliam there, and he always recounts this first meeting fondly, so the festival led him into meeting an important mentor.
Outside of Quentin, Paul Thomas Anderson, a lot of people are called the Sundance Generation. Sundance changed cinema.
Yup! He was a huge part in giving so many filmmakers a shot at becoming household names. Not a lot of people know about this.
I'm sad about his passing. I've always been such a huge fan of his.
I used to feel some sort of strange reassurance whenever I'd see him on screen, in any kind of film, in any kind of role.
Being an espionage lover, of course, Spy Game will have a special place; then there's him playing Sundance Kid, but I remember him for Out of Africa and The Way We Were. I know many might say, 'But he was not central in them'; I'd say that he was. And no, not the only central role. That's how I remember him and these films. What masterpieces of films, and how beautifully he played his roles in these; and the things he stood for.
His performance in Spy Game is really great — recently rewatched it. The way he captured so well the idea that younger generations think they've got it all figured out — but the old hats still have some tricks up their sleeve.
Operation Dinner Out - is something I call team dinners in the company calendar at work - a nod to that movie.
If you like RR and spy films then definitely check “Three Days of the Condor”
Unfortunately I feel that while it's very well shot and paced, the gendered interplay from RR and his co-star feels a little iffy in the modern day - particularly since the romantic sub-plot requires so much suspension of disbelief. So much so that the main characters in the Elmore Leonard spy-comedy "Out of Sight" ridicule it.
Apparently, as per Reddit, the director kept wanting her to look more scared in her initial scenes; explaining the horror of being kidnapped and imprisoned in her own home by a strange man. She kept pleading "But it's Robert Redford"!
If you like the espionage and unique feel of films of that era though, you can't do much better than Francis Ford Coppola's 'The Conversation', starring a wonderfully morose Gene Hackman. A very worthy Palme D'Or winner in '74.
Fred Zinnemann's 'The Day of the Jackal' in '73 is also a high-point for espionage-thrillers of the decade.
Completely agree with everything you've written. I probably missed my chance to enjoy Three Days of the Condor by not watching it earlier in life because - to me - it doesn't hold up to viewing through a modern lens. The interplay between the two leads is wild, the sex scene almost plays as a rape with the way she's acting.
These are great but day of the jackal is more of a police procedural than a spy thriller.
There is a whole sub-genre called Paranoid thrillers of the 70s. Some more:
- Marathon Man
- Klute
- All the president’s men
- The Parallax View
- The China Syndrome
- Capricorn One
- The Boys from Brazil
- Z
- Blow Out
Last few minutes of Three Days Of The Condor[1] should be required watching for everyone.
[1] https://youtu.be/vZNnDiDSUiI?si=6hLz0X00uDhfVdPE
Purely in terms of watching great actors at work, I think the penultimate scene is more striking. It sets up the excellent scene you shared rather well, too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voPmfT09jlg
MvS a master of the art here. Completely convincing, never over acting. Always left me wanting to know more about how Joubert came to be.
Yes. And credit where it's due when it comes to Redford: he is the star but nevertheless he doesn't try to steal back the scene from Max, and the result is amazing.
(I'm not a film nerd, but perhaps some credit is due to whoever edited that scene as well. The end of the scene hits pretty hard.)
Ordinary People, Redford's directorial debut, is one of my favourite movies. A movie that deceptively appears simple but that is wonderfully emotionally deep with great performances from the entire cast. I must give it a rewatch.
They really don't make them like Robert Redford anymore — truly one of my favorite actors who could elevate anything he was in. 89 is an impressive run — especially given how sharp he was right up til the end.
If you've never seen his movies, you can basically pick them at random and you'll find a good one. But All the President's Men is one of my favorite films of all time.
Any actor with even 10% of successful movies that Redford would be considered an "A" lister. Thanks for all the entertainment for 5 decades, Robert. RIP.
War games, was one of the first Western movies appeared in USSR at time of "global discharge" (or better translation global easing), it was so fresh wind.
I have seen movies with Redford later, but unfortunately, I just now got info about connection of Redford with War games.
RIP Great man.
https://archive.ph/i00mB
130 comments and no one mentions "The Sting"? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nAIb_J9T5M
RIP "Wonderboy" ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Natural_(film)
"Alright, Hobbes...knock the cover off the ball."
”All Is Lost” is great too. Robert Redford, no dialogue at all in the film.
this gets me everytime: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsDnrFBpsBk
RIP RR
I knew which scene that was before I clicked the link.
What a wonderful narration.
What a loss. Sneakers inspired me to pursue my dream of being a penetration tester.
I first discovered his acting via a long forgotten torrent site.
I used to go onto Suprnova[0] and sort by "most seeded" and alongside a sea of pornography, up filtered gems like the 1992 cult classes we all know and love. (As well as, at the time, a lot of really got big beat electronic albums, but the uhn tiss tiss is a conversation for another thread.)
I had been a big gamer growing up, but found that folks weren't growing out of toxicity, and migrated to being a film/tv geek. More art galleries, less LAN parties, that sort of thing.
I guess he's jammin' revolvers into Russian dude's backs at the opera in heaven now...
I haven't found another film that captures the feeling of blowing past building security, the front desk, and the CEO's secretary to inform them if you were the guy who'd been threatening their NGO, they'd be dead -- and oh, by the way, here's a list of the systems I could own without setting foot in your building.
Nowadays, you're weird if you socialize offline and eschew social media, but back in the day being a hacker was not considered cool or interesting -- if anything, we were scary.
Truly a film before it's time, truly a loss.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suprnova.org
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Redford
I found the Watchmen HBO series alternate universe version of Redford as “liberal version of president Ronald Reagan” a fascinating thought experiment
Not just that, but the wholly plausible concept of "Redfordations" - a fictional U.S. law establishing reparations for descendants of racial injustices in the form of lifetime tax exemptions - seemed very on-brand for the man and his legacy.
I still re-watch Spy Game every now and then, classic Redford acting.
His directing skills were legend too: Quiz Show, The Legend of Bagger Vance, A River Runs Through It, ....
Rest easy "Sundance Kid".
"Why you crazy -- the fall will probably kill you!" [1]
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyR7XB0VBPM
Think you used enough dynamite, there, Butch?
The introduction to a river runs through it is an interesting read. I never realized how much creative influence Redford had over the production of the movie until I read it a few months ago.
"Lions for Lambs" is widely panned, but I think spoke to a particular subset of people interested in doing over talking. RIP to a great.
Sad. He was so prolific and such a good actor. I liked a lot of his films. Two in particular were The Last Castle and Spy Game.
Him at 89 was more handsome than me in my 20's.
To be fair, you're better looking now.
ಠ_ಠ
https://archive.md/QlkSj
Redford was an excellent human off screen. Applied his fame and resources in meaningful ways. His biography is worth a read.
#SETEC_ASTRONOMY
Spy Game is my favourite movie from him. Rest in peace Robert!
Jeremiah Johnson and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Epic films
RIP. The Last Castle.
Kobe.
Oh no - we’ve lost a great defender of democracy and the environment. Throughout his personal life and professional film career, he consistently sought to spotlight government, corporate, and military-industrial corruption while shining a light on the importance of democracy. The world has lost a remarkable person!
Do yourself a favor and watch some of his most important movies that represented his ideology "Truth", "Brubaker", "Sneakers" or "Spy Game".
Two remarkable people in less than one week. Damn shame, but more will pick up their gauntlets and run with them!
FYI, I think the term you're slightly misusing is "running the gauntlet", which means to face a difficult trial, usually in public. Although you may be mixing it up with "to pick up the gauntlet" (but not run with it), which means to accept a challenge.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Running_the_gauntlet https://www.dictionary.com/browse/throw-down-the-gauntlet
Yes, Ricky Hatton the popular British former boxing world champion affectionately known as “The Hitman” was a beloved figure in boxing.
Who is the other?
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RIP Bob Redford, your movies will stay with us forever.
Oh wow, last night I was just listening to his commentary on "All the President's Men" (which came up a couple of weeks ago here on HN when we were talking about ratfucking).
Great movie, great commentary.
...and a river runs through it.
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I know we live in an age where if someone dies, you cannot criticize him, but Redford is famous for the blackballing of James Woods. I vehemently disagree with Woods' politics but that shouldnt preclude him from employment. Its very clear people like Redform made sure people like Woods were targeted for their political and personal views. Redford was a huge Hollywood power, not just this 'kindly grandpa' actor but a power-player of the highest order. Redford ran a major film and television production company and as such decided, personally, who to hire or fire on his own whim.
Robert Redford is also the founder of the Sundance Film Festival, so getting on his bad-side is strongly career-effecting. People lived in fear of getting on this guy's bad side.
On set, he sounds like the typical Hollywood nightmare with famous clashes with his costars and directors. Arthur Laurents, the writer of The Way We Were, described Redford as an "ego maniac" and control freak for his on-set behaviors.
I say this as a leftist, but "The Truth" is liberal catering-to, and whitewashes Rathers's lack of due diligence in the Bush document, which even to a largely uniformed person like me thought, "Uh isnt that a modern font?" Dan Rather's rush to to this story is not a 'victim' but the failure of basic journalism. I dont think Rather should have resigned, but the idea that's he's this kind-hearted innocent, as the film mostly portrays him as, is just dishonesty. Rather saw money and fame in breaking a big story, and ran with it without much care.
Shrug, I've always seen his PR as very heavily manufactured and played towards the NYTimes and Variety and Sundance crowd in a very targeted way. And it worked, Redford died with an estate worth at least $200m. Capitalism gonna capitalism I guess, but the reality is Redford was quite the vindictive partisan who used his wealth and power against his perceived political enemies and whitewashed some questionable people.
What evidence is there that Redford blackballed James Woods? I know Woods claims he's been blacklisted, but is this true, and where is the evidence it was Redford?
The article also describes him as the kind of environmentalist who makes my eyes roll - a rich person principally concerned with making sure their local area looks untouched and beautiful so they can ride their Ferrari through it.
That's a good point. I have less criticism there because there is potential for someone like that to affect national or global policy and the individual can't often do much on a persona consumption level. Like I dont want to nitpick someone for driving a corvette or using paper cups. Its not like driving an SUV or running the dishwasher daily is so much better. If he lived a very modest life, would anything be different environmentally? Maybe slightly less carbon out there? The same way I dont think reusing straws is helping for me.
But the carbon footprint of the jetset crowd is significant and worth pointing out. And, yes, how a lot of it is things like protecting wealthy-coded wildlife touristy-type areas in California and such and less effort in cleaning up factories in Alabama or India and such. Or how as a capital owning class person, he negotiated against the working class with his productions, and as such the dynamics that make Alabama and India poor, the capitalistic effect of driving down wages and the political power of these working people who want reform, well, he's part of the problem there too. He can't be both 'the boss' and a worker at the same time.
And the zero effort for him and his cohorts to fly first class instead of private jet or take a regular boat and not a mega yacht or other massive carbon producers.
But his behavior on set, his bias in "The Truth,' and his hiring policies are entirely his choice and can be made nearly entirely meritorious. He simply decided to not act meritorious.