“Spy Game” (2001)
A late-career triumph for the dearly departed Tony Scott, “Spy Game” is an ingeniously structured thriller that has Redford playing an about-to-retire (literally, it’s his last day) CIA agent who has to work in secret to free an agent who has been captured (played by Brad Pitt). In the “modern day” timeline (set in 1991), we watch as Redford sneaks around and tries to accomplish things without his superiors noticing, while there’s a second plot strand that shows the relationship between Pitt and Redford through the years, from the time when Redford recruited Pitt through their training together and how Pitt wound up being captured. The dynamic of a partnership is something that Redford had built his career upon, and what’s fun about “Spy Game” is watching him serve in the same capacity that Newman did so many years ago in “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.” Redford is Pitt’s elder and the two play off of each other wonderfully. It would have been very easy to have the roles flipped and let Pitt have more screen time, but this is Redford’s show through and through, with him having fun with the idea that he is an outmoded model for the CIA and still getting one past everyone who thinks he’s past his prime (easily read as a metaphor for Redford’s career). While Redford had spent many years later in his life shepherding his independent film festival to fruition, it’s nice to see that he was still capable of big, smart studio fare like “Spy Game.”
Of course we have left out a number of wonderful Redford performances throughout the years, of varying quality, in order to whittle down our list, among them: ski movie “Downhill Racer” (directed by Michael Ritchie), “The Way We Were” with Barbara Streisand, war movie “A Bridge Too Far,” and Sydney Pollack‘s Oscar-winning romantic drama dynamo “Out of Africa” (less successful was their team-up for “Havana“). We also, it goes without saying, cannot wait to see Redford as the head of S.H.I.E.L.D. in next spring’s “Captain America: The Winter Soldier.” Even at nearly 80, Redford’s choices still have us jazzed. How many actors can you say that about?
The Way We Were is for me best Redford's performance ever, along with Out of Africa
THE MOST ACCOMPLISHED and AWARE MAN in the USofA, bar none. He gets it done, NRDC, Independent Film Institute, Indie Film Fest ranks with Cannes and Berlin and Toronto, great director of risky subjects, outspoke and money where his mouth is ECO politics. BEAUTIFUL INSIDE AND OUT.
Downhill Racer should be on the list just for the fact that it's the only time the image-conscious Redford ever played an out-and-out unsympathetic character with his self-absorbed, egocentric ski racer David Chappellet.
Pollack directed him in This Property is Condemned. I thought 3 days was lame as a thriller and the Dunaway /Redford relationship was ridiculous. Downhill Racer is a great movie. The Natural is also not a good movie, but a fun one to watch.
He'll never top All The President's Men.
– Jake Yenor
not a fan of 3 days of condor :/
I agree with Tristan that Downhill Racer needs to be in this list.
The Clearing was a great movie also.
It was Butch (Newman) that pushed Katherine Ross in the bicycle basket.
Needs more Downhill Racer.