Your Independent Journal from the Heartland
Screen actors have for decades intermingled work with politics. From Ingrid Bergman, Katharine Hepburn and Jane Fonda on the left; to John Wayne, Charlton Heston and Ronald Reagan on the right, Old Hollywood has long been a soapbox for the politically minded rich and famous.
Today’s lists easily surpass those from Hollywood’s salad days, not just in numbers but also intensity. As with the rest of the country, New Hollywood is highly politicized: While not every actor has a cause, every cause has an actor.
In between the two distant cinematic eras lives the outstanding but dwindling “bridge” generation of liberal activist-screen stars, best personified by Robert “Bob” Redford who died in September at age 89.
If Redford’s body of work seems unparalleled, it’s because it is. Over the course of a 60-year career, Redford infused a progressive sensibility into his work; whether as an actor, director, producer, confounder of a nonprofit to promote independent artists (Sundance Institute) or torchbearer for independent films (Sundance Film Festival).
Nothing in his middle-class Californian childhood and youth would’ve pointed to such talent across roles. By his own accounts he majored in getting and staying in trouble. Same with a shortened period at college.
After stints in college baseball and oil rigging, Redford set out to become a visual artist. His interest in set designs led to small parts on Broadway, then television, then the 1967 movie version of “Barefoot in the Park.”
Quality parts in mostly quality films followed, including co-starring with Paul Newman in “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” (1969), establishing Redford as, in Hollywood terms, “bankable”.
Redford’s versatility made for a string of box office successes, none more critically acclaimed than 1975’s “All the President’s Men” — a film depicting the Watergate meltdown engineered by Richard Nixon and his inner Republican circles, and co-featuring Dustin Hoffman. It would also be Redford’s first foray behind the camera in his role as executive producer.
For the next two decades Redford starred in, directed and produced some of the “bridge” cohorts’ finest movies — most with an undertow championing, directly or indirectly oppressed people and places.
But Redford described Sundance Institute and Sundance Film Festival as his greatest contributions to cinema — the one to promote independent filmmakers, the other to help make way for quality independent films, including documentaries on the arts, wild horse populations, environment, LGBT+ equality, Indigenous Americans and music.
Redford heavily contributed to progressive political action committees, many related to climate change and climate justice.
Redford’s accomplishments and influence were as diverse as his work: One Oscar, five Golden Globes, two Emmy nominations, Kennedy Centers Honors, the Presidential Medal of freedom and dozens of honorary doctorates.
Yet for all the accomplishments and recognition for a life well lived, Redford consistently challenged other privileged celebrities to share their wealth and influence for the betterment of others. A few years back an interviewer asked Redford what it was like to be famous. He paused, then replied with the candor of a true “bridge” cinematic giant:
“It’s got a dangerous side to it. I think that people should be paying a lot more attention to issues, rather than who’s the Top 10 this, or the Top 5, or who’s the sexiest or most beautiful or this or that.”
Don Rollins is a retired Unitarian Universalist minister in Jackson, Ohio.
Email donaldlrollins@gmail.com.
