“I was a failure at everything I tried. I worked as a box boy at a supermarket and got fired. Then my dad got me a job at Standard Oil—fired again.”
Robert Redford
Success magazine
This year’s Sundance Film Festival began a few days ago and it’s a fitting time to look back at the man who started it all. By the time Robert Redford became a superstar with the release of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), he had already been acting for more than a decade. First on stage, then in TV programs, and then starring roles in features (This Property Condemned, Barefoot in the Park).
But his role as the Sundance Kid was the game changer. Many years ago I was at an AFI event in LA where someone attached to Butch Cassidy said that a producer or studio executive didn’t like the choise of Redford in the role of Sundance saying of the good looking actor, “Throw a stick at Malibu and you’ll hit ten Robert Redford’s.” But Redford turned out to be quite special.
Beginning with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid he had a ten-year run that has to be up there with the greats in film history. Just looking at a handful of films from that era would be a solid career for most actors.
Jeremiah Johnson
The Way We Were
The Sting
Three Days of the Condor
All the President’s Men
And he topped that all off by directing the 1980 film Ordinary People for which he took home the Oscar for Best Director. And it was in that wake that he began Sundance (along with Sterling Van Wagenen, John Earle and Cirina Hampton Catania) as a way to attract films to be shot in Utah and to celebrate and encourage American filmmakers who were making regional films outside the Hollywood system. (This blog, to borrow Diablo Cody’s phrase, is a “spiritual cousin” to that original vision of Sundance.)
Of course, in the 30 plus years Sundance and grown and morphed but like everything else in life—you either grow or die. Sundance is still one of the key places for independent filmmakers to showcase their work and every year a few filmmakers get deals that give them an opportunity to pay back their investors and have their films shown to a wider audience. That’s a good thing.
Here’s how Redford recently reflected on starting Sundance.
‘I was turning 40 and I had worked really hard in the ’70s, doing movies back-to-back. I thought that if I kept doing that, I’d get stale and begin to repeat myself. Maybe I should take a year off, step back and revitalize—think about where I am and what I’d like to do.
That’s something I’ve done my whole life, I call it ‘returning to zero.’ You’re at a high point in your life and, rather than ride it too far, you jump off and start all over again, like it never happened. I came up with the idea to give something back to the industry that had been good to me.
Also, there were two other things happening then simultaneously: One was that video and cable were about to explode and that meant an explosion for distribution. But at the same time the Hollywood system was becoming more centralized, narrowing their focus to the youth market. That meant that we’d probably have a reduction in quality.
I saw a space in there that could be filled, and I thought about what I personally want to do with it.I thought it would be great to have a place where people could come and work and not be afraid of failing.”
Robert Redford
MovieMaker magazine issue #2011
The Sundance Kid by Julie Jacobs
After a few years with Sundance up and running Redford was back in the acting saddle in 1984 playing Roy Hobbs in The Natural (1984). It’s my favorite Redford film. From the characters and story, to the novel by Bernard Malamud* and the screenplay adaption by Robert Towne and Phil Dusenberry, to Barry Levinson’s direction, the other actors, and Celeb Deschanel’s cinematography, the film is a pure delight and I return to that film again and again. (It’s a film strong on theme.)
Redford may have “failed at everything” he tried starting out, but he’s sure made up for it since then.
* Like Redford, writer Malamud (The Natural) didn’t find early success— “I felt the years go by without accomplishment.” You can read that extended quote on my post Can Screenwriting be Taught?
[…] “I was a failure at everything I tried. I worked as a box boy at a supermarket and got fired. Then my dad got me a job at Standard Oil—fired again.” Robert Redford Success magazine This year’s Sundance Film Festival began a few days ago and it’s a fitting time to look back at the […] Original Source… […]
I never knew this about Robert Redford. He’s a success now! I’d love to attend the Sundance Film Festival. There are a lot of good films being shown this year.