By Eddie on 18/09/2025
This week Hollywood and the world lost a legend of cinema, the one and only Sundance Kid, Robert Redford.
Passing away peacefully at the grand age of 89 years old, Redford was a mainstay of the movie industry since he began to really make his mark in the mid 1960’s, leading to a career that spanned well over 60 years.
An icon in front of the camera, behind the camera, winning his sole Oscar for his directional work on the 1980 hit Ordinary People and also in the grander picture with Redford a co-founder of the esteemed Sundance Film Festival, not many careers in Hollywood have been so fulfilling and all-round as Redford’s was.
One of the last true surviving superstars of the Hollywood golden era that ran from 1960 through to the early 90’s, Redford’s legacy will live long into the future and while we mourn the legend we have lost, we can celebrate the legend that was.
Vale Robert Redford, an icon whose impact will not soon be forgotten.
5 Must-See Robert Redford Films
Below are a collection of some of my personal favourite Redford films, highlight the diversity of Redford’s decades spanning career.
5. Quiz Show (1994)
Redford’s Oscar nominated drama was one Redford’s greatest achievements as a director. Not showing up in front of the camera, Quiz Show may not always be instantly associated to Redford’s catalogue but it’s one well worth revisiting.
4. An Unfinished Life (2005)
A seldom spoken about human focussed drama that co-starred Morgan Freeman and Jennifer Lopaz and was directed by Lasse Hallström, An Unfinished Life came and went without much fanfare back in 2025 but it’s a small but impactful drama that feature one of Redford’s best acting turns in his post 2000 period.
3. All is Lost (2013)
J.C Chandor’s dialogue free sea set survival feature may not be for everyone but it’s a very competent feat or filmmaking that ratchets up the tension to near unbearable levels at times. Redford is the sole presence in the film and he does a fantastic job holding down the fort, a telling example of his screen ability and persona.
2. The Sting (1973)
One of the most purely enjoyable films ever made, The Sting is a deservedly praised classic that for me is the best of the Redford and Paul Newman team-ups. At the time ranked at #117 in the IMDB’s Top 250 Movies of All Time ranking system, if it’s been a few years between viewings now is as good of a time as ever to revisit one of the most rewatchable films ever made.
1. Jeremiah Johnson (1972)
Sydney Pollack’s 1972 frontier epic that somehow spawned a meme for the generations decades later, Jeremiah Johnson provided Redford with one of his greatest characters, a “pilgrim” that became an icon of 70’s cinema. Becoming one of its release years biggest box office hits, Jeremiah Johnson has managed to live a long a prosperous life in the years since its release and remains a unique take on the time and place in American history when it’s set.
What are your personal favourite Robert Redford films? Let me know in the comments below!
Jordan and Eddie (The Movie Guys) 
I’m glad you mention ‘Quiz Show’, but sorry you left out ‘All the President’s Men’.
A great film mate, undeniably a classic. It was quite an eclectic CV over the years this list could’ve been far greater than 5 picks!
E
Sneakers (Phil Alden Robinson, 1992) and The Clearing (Pieter Jan Brugge, 2004) are really good too.
He executive produced three TV movies for the PBS in the US that are personal faves: Skinwalkers (2002), A Thief of Time (2003), and Coyote Waits (2003). Wes Studi, Adam Beach, and Graham Greene are in them.
The Clearing was indeed very good. Thanks for mentioning it.
Some great picks there Pugs! Sneakers is a lot of fun.
E
A lot of fun indeed. Especially seeing Robert Redford act along such greats as Sidney Poitier, Dan Aykroyd and Ben Kingsley.
I’ve been aiming to see Jeremiah Johnson and the Great Waldo Pepper for my whole life but I never seem to get around to it. Personally I like Redford more as a director than as an actor. Ordinary people was a great movie. Sneakers started off promising but turned into a tedious “Mission Impossible” action flic. Redford was OK in Thre Days of the Condor but he wouldn’t have been my first choice for the role. He’s way too old to play a professional baseball play in The Natural but I guess that’s the point. I haven’t seen the movie where he offers Demi Moore a million dollars for one night of sex but it sounds so damned silly I can’t imagine wanting to. Everybody in Hollywood sleeps with everybody else and I’m sure Demi would have tried it out just to say she did it. Not sure if Woody Harrelson would have been cool with it though.
Jeremiah Johnson is a very ageless film. My father use to speak very fondly of it and was excited to finally show me when I was old enough to take it in. Far from a typical Western that’s for sure.
E
One movie I would recommend is Brubaker. I never realized that the guy yelling “I wanna see the man” in the scene where Redford says “I’m the man” is Morgan Freeman. Somehow I can’t imagine him existing before the late 1980s.
A heartfelt and touching tribute to Robert Redford, captures his legacy as both a Hollywood legend and a champion of independent cinema.
A legend that will never be forgotten.
E