Redford is a very good director. He and Clint Eastwood are maybe the two finest actor-directors in Hollywood. They both have a reputation for consistently drawing out excellent performances from the casts in their movies.Lucimay wrote:...doesn't Redford make a better director than he does an actor? uh-huh. yeah. (why does everybody dog on Ordinary People?? i loved that movie!!)
I love Ordinary People. It's among my thirty or so favorite films of all time. It tells its story simply, and it is emotionally honest in a way that very few other films are, in my opinion. This is one of the least pretentious movies I've ever seen. And this was Redford's directorial debut, no less! It was brave of him to make such a movie, but it merely played to his strength as an "actor's director."
Redford's other directing efforts haven't affected me as powerfully as Ordinary People, but I have not seen all of them. However, Quiz Show was very good, with a very fine performance by Ralph Fiennes (as usual).
Hey, I liked Butch and Sundance! Newman and Redford were a great duo.if i must watch Redford act...he and pitt really work great together in Spygame...best thing Redford's ever done
*ducking all the debris from the Butch Cassidy fans*
underrated film
But you've made me want to check out Spygame. I had thought about seeing it when it was in theatres, but I ended up skipping it.
And while I was plodding away on my post, that danlo dude snuck in.

I liked Strange Days a lot. Very underappreciated movie. It conjured an appropriately paranoid and hysterical "end-of-the-millenium" atmosphere. Intoxicating stuff. Oh, and I'll be watching The Constant Gardener this weekend.danlo wrote:Never saw Quiz Show--my fav Finnes movie is Strange Days (I even love Tom Sizemore's role, and lusted after Juliette Lewis), but everyone thinks it's weird and disagrees with me--The Constant Gardener looks excellent, I must see it!
Sorry, what was this topic about? Oh, Brad Pitt. Yeah, he's good. Se7en was superb - in a repulsive sort of way, heh. But I had problems with 12 Monkeys, as I said in the Terry Gilliam thread. While everyone else found Strange Days weird, I found 12 Monkeys incomprehensible. But at least Pitt and Willis made the film watchable, even if I couldn't understand the story. (Later, someone finally explained the ending's meaning to me. Sort of.)