“The Candidate” (1972)
Today, Redford’s politics sometimes have a way of outshining his work, but at the time of “The Candidate,” journeyman director Michael Ritchie‘s surprisingly resonant political satire, Redford was very much an unshaped young man. The scenario at the heart of “The Candidate” is delicious: the Democratic party, faced with an unwinnable senate race in California, whimsically decides on Bill McKay (Redford), the son of a former governor (Melvyn Douglas). Since at this point the election is something of a lark, Bill is able to say what he wants, although when he sees just how horribly he’s losing, he begins to smooth out his message, making it more palpable and steering it away from the hot button topics he was opening pushing. Jeremy Lamer, a former speechwriter for Senator Eugene J. McCarthy, wrote the Academy Award-winning screenplay, and even though “The Candidate” can be somewhat wacky, it still bristles with authenticity. It’s hard to think of another idealistic young Democrat who was forced to compromise when he made the big time while watching “The Candidate” today … It’s just as funny and smart as ever, with Peter Boyle, as the political machinist responsible for Bill McKay, putting in an absolutely outstanding performance (“Cut the hair and 86 the sideburns” is one of the first directives for Redford). But, of course, it’s Redford who shines as the doe-eyed idealist who shows surprising political cunning and then has an abrupt change of heart; you can look at him and feel both the naïveté and ambition bubbling underneath. While the set-up might seem predetermined, there are enough surprises both within the film and Redford’s performance to always keep you on your toes.
“Jeremiah Johnson” (1972)
The first of seven (!) films that Robert Redford would make with director Sydney Pollack, “Jeremiah Johnson” was, at least on paper, an attempt to replicate the western formula that made “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” such a hit. It was, like ‘Butch Cassidy,’ at least partially based on the true story of “Liver-Eating” Johnson, a Mexican War veteran and mountain man of the American Old West who got his nickname by pledging to heat the liver of every Crow Indian he came across (his young wife was killed by a Crow warrior). The film was written by John Milius, who himself was kind of a soulful mountain man, and the film is filled with witty dialogue without an ounce of fat (when Jeremiah comes across a man, played by Stefan Gierasch, who is buried to his neck in the sand, Redford asks if he’s alright and Gierasch shoots back: “Sure, sure, I’ve got a fine horse under me”) and a nicely rambling plot that has Johnson (among other things) taking in a young boy as a surrogate son, getting married, and vowing revenge (in slightly less bloody form). While pieces of Redford’s performance seem out of place, particularly the “look” of the character, which screams ’70s surfer and not Mexican War veteran, the spirit of the character seems very much in character with a through-line of Redford’s up until “All Is Lost“—sometimes he very much just wants to be alone. The addition of a child or wife only makes this more clear, especially since they are quickly taken away from him. Redford brings the story of a man who sets out to be alone and winds up being forced into solitude to vivid life. Even with those ridiculous sideburns.