It’s very likely that Robert Redford has been – and perhaps always will be – best known for his various acting roles over the decades. He rose to fame in the 1960s, largely thanks to beloved films like Barefoot in the Park (1967) and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), appearing in both starring and supporting roles steadily over the decades that followed, all the way up until 2018’s The Old Man & the Gun.
Yet alongside his dozens of acting roles, Redford has also had a decently prolific career as a filmmaker, and has pulled double duty in some instances by both starring in and directing certain movies. Between 1980 and 2012, he directed a total of nine movies, with the lot of them ranked below, roughly from worst to best.
9 ‘The Company You Keep’ (2012)
A stellar cast mostly wasted
In the 1970s, Robert Redford had significant roles in political drama/thriller movies that largely hold up to this day, like 1976’s All the President’s Men and 1975’s Three Days of the Condor. Maybe it’s fitting then that at least one of the films he directed can also be categorized in such a way; indeed, this is the case for what is, to date, the last film Redford directed: The Company You Keep.
To keep things a little positive, at least there’s an impressive cast assembled here. Robert Redford movies seemed able to attract considerable talent, with notable stars here, like Julie Christie, Brendan Gleeson, Susan Sarandon, Stanley Tucci, and Nick Nolte. But beyond the acting talent, there isn’t too much exciting about The Company You Keep, and it’s an overall by-the-numbers drama/thriller based around journalism and risky activism.
8 ‘Lions For Lambs’ (2007)
Streep plus Redford deserved better
Like The Company You Keep, 2007’s Lions For Lambs has a remarkable cast. Beyond Redford, stars here include Meryl Streep, Tom Cruise, Andrew Garfield, and Michael Peña, and this is all in a movie that runs for just over 90 minutes. Ultimately, it ends up cramming so many people into such a short movie by having three stories play out simultaneously, all in real time.
It’s ambitious, that’s for sure. It sounds intriguing on paper, but the execution unfortunately doesn’t quite deliver, with capable actors only able to do so much in a movie that’s a little lacking from a writing perspective. At least it doesn’t waste too much time, and a movie that takes risks without quite sticking the landing is always going to be more admirable than a movie that never really tries in the first place.
7 ‘The Legend of Bagger Vance’ (2000)
Much-hyped sports movie disappointment
Once again, The Legend of Bagger Vance represents Robert Redford biting off a little more than he could chew as a director. This 2000 release combines a fairly standard underdog/sport movie premise with some mild fantastical elements, with the sport here being golf, and the setting being the state of Georgia.
Golf isn’t the most cinematic of sports either, but at least The Legend of Bagger Vance makes something of an attempt to get it working within a broader story. Despite the effort on Redford’s part, and some solid acting courtesy of Will Smith, Matt Damon, and Charlize Theron, the movie ended up severely underperforming at the box office, and isn’t particularly well-remembered nowadays, either.
6 ‘The Conspirator’ (2010)
A middling historical drama
Two years before Daniel Day-Lewis won an Oscar for playing Abraham Lincoln in 2012’s Lincoln, Robert Redford directed a movie about what happened after his assassination. Specifically, the focus is on Mary Surratt, and the way she was tried in court as a co-conspirator in Lincoln’s killing, all the while maintaining her innocence.
A legal drama with such a high-profile trial at its center sounds inherently interesting, but The Conspirator doesn’t quite rise above being decent, unfortunately. It’s overall fairly well-made, and Robin Wright is good – as expected – in the role of Surratt, but it’s not quite one of Redford’s best efforts as a filmmaker (but at the same time, at least it’s not one of his worst, either).
5 ‘The Milagro Beanfield War’ (1988)
Unusual and underrated Oscar winner
The Milagro Beanfield War is probably the most obscure movie among the titles Robert Redford’s directed, and with a title like The Milagro Beanfield War, it’s sort of understandable why. Still, it’s perhaps overlooked, all things considered, as it tells a decently entertaining story about a dispute over land between a group of Latino farmers and uncaring real estate developers who want to build a golf resort.
Like many Redford films, it’s well-shot and scored, with the music composed for the film – by Dave Grusin – earning an Oscar. It’s ambitious, again, with it tackling comedy, drama, and a little by way of fantastical elements all at once, and the resulting film is interesting and worth checking out for fans of Redford’s more well-known directorial efforts.
4 ‘The Horse Whisperer’ (1998)
Uneven but enchanting bestseller adaptation
16 years before they were both featured in one of the best movies in the MCU, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Robert Redford and Scarlett Johansson were both in The Horse Whisperer (Redford also directed). Johansson’s character feels like the protagonist, at least at first, with the film centering on her attempts to recover following a traumatic accident that’s injured both her and her horse.
Redford’s the titular horse whisperer, and he comes in to try and help Johansson’s character, all the while catching feelings for her mother (played by Kristin Scott Thomas). Balancing the story about recovery with a whole romantic subplot feels a bit unwieldy, especially with The Horse Whisperer being nearly three hours long. Maybe it’s a film that ends up less than the sum of its parts, but at least some of those parts are quite good – notably, the acting, visuals, music, and outdoor locations used.
3 ‘A River Runs Through It’ (1992)
Appealing, stodgy period family saga
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Starting in the early 1990s, Brad Pitt was starting to pick up some steam career-wise, with a prominent role in A River Runs Through It counting as one of his earliest notable/popular performances. He’s not quite the star, but is in the film significantly throughout as Paul Maclean, with Craig Sheffer perhaps being closer to the main character in his role as Norman Maclean.
The story spans a considerable number of years, mostly from the end of World War I and into the early days of The Great Depression. It’s a family drama, and a fairly subdued one at that, so while it might not be the most exciting or ploy-heavy film out there, it explores several characters well and features some solid performances from its cast members. It’s a solid movie about brotherly bonds, and how families get by when it comes to living through trying, tumultuous times.
2 ‘Quiz Show’ (1994)
Flawlessly acted genre hybrid
Quiz Show would probably be more well-known if it had come out in a year that wasn’t 1994, because 1994 is known for being one of the greatest years in cinematic history for movie releases. For as good as Quiz Show is, it faces some competition when showier movies from that year – like Pulp Fiction, The Shawshank Redemption, and Forrest Gump – are also all competing for attention.
But still, Quiz Show shouldn’t be ignored, no matter what, because its story about the investigation into the quiz show Twenty-One is very interesting, given there were signs that the whole game was rigged. Things unfold a bit more like a drama than a thriller, but it’s all still very interesting and decently paced, with Redford getting typically great performances from the likes of Ralph Fiennes, John Turturro, and Paul Scofield.
1 ‘Ordinary People’ (1980)
Groundbreaking, timeless drama masterwork
Remarkably, the very first feature film Robert Redford directed ended up being his most successful critically, and arguably his best overall, too. That movie was Ordinary People, with it being a straightforward yet very emotionally effective family drama about various people all trying to grapple with a terrible loss, and the way this loss leaves what might be a permanent hole within the family unit.
As the title suggests, the family is pretty ordinary, and their hardships are experienced by normal people daily all around the world, too. Redford directs the film with sensitivity and in an understated way, with this suitable approach (plus all the great acting) making it a big Oscar success; it won Best Picture, and Redford won Best Director, too.
