Charles Robert Redford, Jr. was born in Santa Monica, California, to Charles Redford, Sr. and Martha Hart. He had one brother. His father worked as a milkman in Santa Monica. The family moved to Van Nuys where he changed professions and become an accountant with Standard Oil Company. Robert grew up in this neighborhood excelling in sports. Upon graduation, he accepted a scholarship in baseball to the University of Colorado located in Boulder. After losing his scholarship he moved to Europe for a year to study painting. On returning to the United States, he married, and his wife encouraged him to continue studying art. They moved to New York where he attended the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. He also thought he might like to try theatrical set design, so he enrolled at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Then one of his friends suggested him for a fill-in role on a Broadway play, Tall Story. In 1959 he became a full time actor. By 1970, he was father to three children, Shauna, David, and Amy.
In the last 42 years, he has acted in 49 films. In 1980, he turned to directing. He has directed the films: Ordinary People, Milagro Beanfield War, A River runs Through It, The Horse Whisperer, and the Legend of Bagger Vance.
Redford told People Magazine, ” Directing has given me a new surge of energy. It’s a new beginning” (Gale Research, 1998). He has changed from the young actor he was and stated to Natalie Gittelson, a correspondent for McCalls Magazine, I am into middle age and am more mature in many ways. I care what my kids think now – and I have a need for a more personal commitment and dignity. The world has grown up fast, it’s become a very serious place and I want to spend my time more wisely” (Gale Research, 1998).
Robert Redford is a man who is passionate and committed to saving what is left of the Old West. He believes that our past is our future. He does not need the high technology that is being used to create nature in films today. In an interview with Howard Scripps on May 20, 1998, he stated, ” The real West is romantic and powerful and dramatic enough just as it is, in my view. My idea is to show how it is and in doing so present the audience with something that is about to go away. The view of the West is important to me, the truth of what the West is.” His concern is that the west is portrayed truthfully and honestly, not the mythology that many other picture makers use to represent that part of his homeland. In the same interview he said, “I thought this could be almost a homage to that way of life” (Nando).
His passion for the west is so great that he formed a group of eight men who with him and the National Geographic created a coffee table book called The Outlaw
Trail. It is a photographical and historical story of the trail used from Hole-in-the-Wall, Utah to Circleville, Arizona, by the outlaws of the old west. Redford wanted to tell the story before there was no one left who remembered, to preserve it for future generations.
Robert Redford feels the need to put something back into the business that has given him so much pleasure and fulfillment over the years. This led him to donate the land near his home in Sundance, Utah for the Sundance Film Institute. On their web page, it states:
Over 400 filmmakers benefit annually from Sundance’s programs and over 20,000 annually attend the Sundance Film Festival. Robert Redford and his Colleagues have found a way to enhance the artistic vitality of the American film
through their support of independent dramatic filmmaking and documentary films” (Sundance).
The three films directed by Robert Redford that I have chosen for this discussion are:
A River Runs Through It, The Milagro Beanfield War, and The Horse Whisperer. There are four themes common to all the films: 1) the West and its use to define the people and character of the films; 2) young persons whose innocence of youth is forever changed by cruel circumstances beyond their control; 3) adults whose failure to understand contribute to the youths’ problems; and 4) use of animals to tell a story.
The film, A River Runs through It, is set in Missoula, Montana, at the fork of the Big Blackfoot River. This is located between the Bitterroot Forest and the Garnet Range of the Rocky Mountains. It is a true story written by Norman MacLean of two brothers coming of age during the 1920’s. Their father is a Presbyterian minister, Rev. MacLean (Tom Skeritt), and their mother (Brenda Blethyn) is a very quiet woman who is never referred to by name except Mrs. MacLean. The only way that Mr. MacLean can relate to his two boys is through teaching them the art and grace of fly fishing. The oldest. Norman (Craig Sheffer) is the brother who has both feet firmly planted on the ground. The young of the two, Paul (Brad Pitt) is the rebellious one.
The film begins with a narrative as told by Norman, “In our family there was no clear line between religion and fly-fishing” (Redford, 1992). Later, he tells us how he and his brother grew up believing that Jesus’ disciples were all fly fishermen. Rev. MacLean teaches the boys fly-fishing to the four beat count of a metronome. The boys grow up, and Norman leaves home to attend Dartmouth College in the east and discovers an entirely different world. He studies literature and teaches poetry. Paul moves to Helena, Montana and becomes a reporter for a newspaper. He is the quiet, wild child and becomes involved in gambling and carousing. His father doesn’t understand what motivates him. He even rebels against the lessons of fly-fishing taught by his father and forms his own pattern, which Norman later describes as “shadow casting- keeping the line above the water just long enough to cause a rainbow trout to rise” (Redford 1992). Watching his brother fish, he says that while he was gone, his brother, through the fly-fishing had become an artist.
The gap between Paul and his father grow when he gets into trouble, and Norman is the one who steps in and helps him. Except for one fistfight when they are teens the two brothers admire and love each other. Norman becomes the father figure that Paul so desperately needs. When talking about important things the boys always return to the river to fish. Any time spent with their father is on the river fishing. Norman announces that he is going to Chicago to become a professor of Literature. He asks Paul to come with him, but Paul says he will never leave Montana. He is unwilling to leave a fish he has never caught. You are caught by surprise at the end of the film when Paul is killed. At this point you discover that Rev. MacLean thought his son was not only a wonderful fisherman but also beautiful. The end of the film is poignant when an old Norman is shown fishing on the river and says,” All existence seems to fade to a being with my soul and the memories of the sounds of the Big Blackfoot River and a four count rhythm and a hope that a fish will rise. Eventually all things merge into one and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the worlds great flood and runs through the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops and the rocks are the words and some of the words are theirs ( his family’s and loved ones). I am haunted by the waters” (Redford 1992).
This film was very emotionally moving for me. I love the West and the outdoors as passionately as Robert Redford. In many places in the film, the sound director Mark Isham uses the music of the river and birds chirping in the background as opposed to manmade music. These are the sounds of heaven. Amidst the music of Isham and the cinematography of Philippe Rousselot you can feel yourself standing on the rocks being splashed by the water as it moves over your feet. You feel the grandeur of the mountains in the background while you feel your heart bursting with the beauty of it. With the brilliant directing of Robert Redford, you really feel as if you are there. The magic of Redford’s films is the ability he grants the audience to lose themselves into the scenes that are playing before them.
The film The Milagro Beanfield War was filmed in New Mexico in 1988. It is a hilarious fantasy-comedy based on the novel by John Nichols about a fictitious small town in New Mexico. The story is about David,, [in this case Joe Montage (Chick Venerra)] against Goliath, who is Ladd Devine (Richard Bradford) of the Devine Land Development Company. Devine wants to turn the town of Milagro into a resort complete with hotels and golf courses. He has already bought out some of the residents. When Joe realizes by accident that he can irrigate his father’s bean field, he decides not to sell his land; instead he will plant the bean field and fight Devine. Throughout the film is an angel of an old Mexican man playing the concertina who appears at random to talk with the residents of Milagro. When Joe plants the bean field, the entire town comes to watch. Over the course of the entire film are the antics of a very large pig that eats everything and just generally creates havoc but is loved and taken care of by everyone. Her true owner is one old man named Amarante Cordova (Carlos Riquelme) who totes a six-gun shooter and worships Indian saints.
The fun begins when Devine devises ways to stop Joe from ruining his plans for his resort. When the town stands behind Joe, the hilarity begins as they try to have a town meeting. Throw in the mix a city college student (Daniel Stern) who is sent from a Sociology grant to observe the town’s people and is told by the town mayor, Sammy Cantu (played by the 1970’s country singer Freddy Fender) that, “If we don’t know it, chances are we are not interested” (Redford 1988). In the end, Joe and the rest of the county gather to harvest the beans and there is a showdown between the lawmakers and the townspeople at the bean field. When the townspeople triumph, they have a huge celebration as they gather the beans and party.
Cinematographer Robbie Greenberg again emphasizes the theme of the West with his appreciation of New Mexico’s rustic beauty and shows man in sync with the land. The young person who is dysfunctional is Joe Mondragon. He doesn’t understand why he can’t take his kids fishing, or picnicking in the mountains as his father did with him. He wants the same childhood he had for his children. His father figure in the movie, Horsethief Shorty (James Gammon), who is a townsperson, in the beginning refuses to give him a job on Devine’s crew. In the end he protects him from being found by Devine’s hired gun, which reviews Joe’s faith in taking care of your own. Redford’s use of Joe is effective as the innocent young man who, with a family of his own, still believes in family virtues and whose beliefs are almost smashed by the evil of corporate destruction. Virtually all the elders in this film do not understand what motivates Joe to fight the development company but they all stand behind him in his decision.
Robert Redford directs this film as brilliantly as the others. His integration of the land and man are again at the forefront of the story. I spent a week in New Mexico three years ago and traveled through many villages that could have been Milagro, so it was easy for me to see the truth and yet the comedy of the film. Again, I have a zealous concept for the imagery that Robbie Greenberg was able to convey in this film with the landscape of New Mexico.
The film, The Horse Whisperer, is based upon the book by Nicholas Evans and filmed in 1998. The beginning location is a farm in Connecticut and then the film moves to Montana. It is a story about Grace (Scarlett Johannsen) and her horse Pilgrim who are involved in a tragic accident that leaves both of them physically and emotionally scarred. While riding with her friend Judith (Kate Bosworth) they try to get the horses up an embankment when Judith’s horse falls and begins dragging her. Grace tries to grab the reins, but she and Pilgrim come face to face with a semi-tractor trailer that cannot stop in time. The truck hits them with Pilgrim raring up to protect Grace. Grace loses her leg, and Pilgrim has horrific wounds to his face and chest. Grace’s mother, Annie, refuses to make the decision to do the humane thing and have Pilgrim put down. Knowing she can do nothing to help her daughter physically heal, Annie (Kristen Scott Thomas) tackles finding someone to help Pilgrim with the intensity that she tackles everything else in her life. She must be in control. When she locates a man (Tom Booker who is played by Robert Redford) who is labeled a Horse Whisperer that can help horses, she contacts him. He tells her he cannot help her. He only helps horses with people problems. Refusing to take no for an answer, Annie packs up Pilgrim and Grace and drives from Connecticut to Montana to convince him to help the horse. The story continues with his healing of both Pilgrim and Grace. He also finds himself falling in love with the indomitable Annie, which he never believed he could do again after a painful divorce. There are a few scenes where you wonder if the cowboy gets the girl, but in the end they realize that they are both obligated to different ways of life. It is a time when love does not overcome all. When Grace is able to ride Pilgrim again, and they do not need Tom’s help any longer, they return to Connecticut. The finally scene is of Annie driving away and the scenes of the beautiful Montana mountains and the endless blue Montana sky.
This is one of Redford’s tearjerker movies. There are so many poignant moments interwoven throughout the film. I love it when he tells Annie, “I don’t help people with horse problems. I help horses with people problems” (Redford 1998). Joe Heim of Salon.com describes the music soundtrack, “as one of the most honest and moving collections of Western and country music to ever accompany a film. Loveliness and loneliness conspire on song after song to create a palpable sense of the desperate romantic West. One that is neither sentimental nor contrived, but wrought from the unrelenting pangs of wanting , desire, and hope against wide-open hope” (Salon). This film was nominated for many awards but won none of them in the United States.
The themes are again the use of the West as symbols of the characters’ feelings. The vastness of space underlines the feelings of being lost and confused felt by the players in the film. The young Grace loses her best friend, the trust of her horse, and the enormous loss of her leg. Added to these losses, is a mother who must be in control and is determined to do everything to help her daughter and the animal she loves.
I loved this film. I cried from the opening scenes to the very end. As this film spoke to many personal moments in my life I saw beauty beyond words. Not only is the story compelling ( I was unable to put the book down when I read it.), but I was in Montana when I saw this film. We were staying on the Malmstrom Air Force Base that is in Great Falls, Montana. It is in a valley with the mountains all around. After watching this film, I stood in a field and felt the vastness of the open space and never ending sky. My heart fills up with longing for those open spaces every time I see this film. The cinematography by Robert Richardson captures the essence of the West. It is a rich visual presentation of the emotional resonance of the film. Of all the films directed by Redford, this is my favorite.
Robert Redford has been an innovator in filmmaking by using the environment and ecology to define his films. This reverts to the discussion at the beginning of this paper about Redford’s determination to preserve something very special for future generations. He cares about the desecration of our environment and uses his films to advance the truth about what the West was really all about and still is. He uses his character’s connection with the land to tell the story.
In a USA Today article by Wes D. Gehring in May, 1999, he entitles the article, “The Populist Films of Robert Redford.” He compares the works of Redford to the populist tradition of director Frank Capra whose films were popular in the 1930’s and 1940’s. Frank directed the film Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) that is based on the novel, The Gentleman from Montana. Gehring’s opinion of Capra and Redford’s focus is: 1) the past is preferable to the present; 2) the superiority of the past often is tied to a country setting; 3) characters are given a mythical aura which fittingly belong to the past and are defined by the land; 4) these films often posit that the world’s ills are the result of an evil minority; and 5) the difficulty of modern love.”
Gehring also quotes from a 1992 interview, “Redford coupled his interest in the personal grace expressed by MacLean (from a River Runs through It) with the opportunity to say [via beautiful images from rural Montana] that this is the way our environment was when we took it for granted, and for the most part, it’s gone. The environmental message is a given in all of his populist pictures.” Gehring infers that Redford’s films are based on dysfunctional family relationships and the article refers to the three films discussed in this paper. I did not know what the word “populist” meant.
Webster’s Dictionary defines “populism” as a political philosophy directed to the need of the common people and advocating a more equitable distribution of wealth and power.” I agree with Gehring’s assessment that Redford’s films promote this philosophy.
His power uses of intellectual and emotional characters seem to be a celebration of his life. His films have provided a provocative portrayal of the American Western experience. They are a legacy to this man and his passion for the environment and the art of filmmaking.
If I were a filmmaker, I would choose to direct a film based on another Nicholas Evans novel, The Loop, The story is set in the town of Hope, Montana. Wolves are returning to an area where years ago they were slaughtered by cattlemen and now the law protects them. At the center of this storm is, Helen Ross, a wolf biologist who is sent to this remote area to protect the wolves from those who wish to destroy them. I would as Redford has done, use the West as the focal point in defining the characters of this film.
Helen falls in love with the rancher’s son Luke and is torn between her loyalty to the preservation of the wolves and the love she now feels. Luke is torn between loyalty to this father’s cattle ranch and the love he has for Helen. Both are living a minimalist life living in a cabin void of any modern conveniences. Luke is also torn by feelings of responsibility for the destruction of these beautiful and mysterious creatures. He begins helping Helen track the wolves so that they can be relocated and finds himself drawn into a love of the creatures he has been taught are his enemy.
I would choose Brian Dennehy to portray Buck Calder, the almighty cattleman and rancher. He has a commanding stature that I believe would portray this character very well. I would choose Robbie Benson to play Luke. He has the innocent look and portrays young serious men effectively. To play Helen, I would choose Melissa Gilbert. She has the outdoor look, and she has played strong female roles that show her true character and grit.
I would choose Mark Isham who in 1993 was nominated for Best Music, Original Score at the Oscar’s for A River Runs Through It to write the music for my film. His use of nature sounds in the film A River Runs Through It really impressed me. His choice of natural sound was phenomenal in portraying the elements of nature. I can just hear the wolves howling in scenes portraying their fight for survival.
I chose this theme because I love the work of Nicholas Evans. His stories are compelling. They are novels you do not want to set down once you start reading them. The words capture your heart and soul. I am a strong believer in environmental responsibility. Man has overdeveloped areas of this country and in trying to protect our natural resources has many times destroyed them. Nature and animals have been destroyed because of the greediness of man. It must be stopped. The media of books, films, and art can be used to show man what is happening to this planet and what can be done to preserve it for our children and their grandchildren. We are responsible for the future of this earth. I believe that this is the message coming across in Redford’s films as well as in Evan’s novels. It is a message I have taught to my children and am teaching to my grandchildren as well.
