Unlock the Hidden Gem: The Robert Redford Film That Outsmarted Time and Still Packs a Powerful Punch Today

Robert Redford — ever feel like he’s that elusive figure at the corner of a buzzing room? You know, the one who’s always there but somehow just out of sight? That was my experience at every major Democratic gathering I’ve attended over the years. Like a spectral whisper, he was both rumor and reality, a silent force shaping conversations without ever demanding the spotlight. But Redford wasn’t just Hollywood glamour or Sundance magic; he was an earnest crusader, championing environmental causes and indigenous rights with a quiet intensity that deserved more than a passing glance. And here’s a nugget for you — ever wondered what happens when real ideals clash with the polished spin of politics? Redford’s lesser-known gem, The Candidate, dives right into that gritty birth of mass media politics in the 70s, leaving us with that lingering question: after the win, what’s next? It’s a puzzle still unwound today. Through it all, Redford played the everyday man — whether a newsroom grunt or a reluctant CIA analyst — giving an honest day’s work that somehow feels like the perfect legacy in a world chasing flash and fame. Intrigued? LEARN MORE

2 min read

Robert Redford was always around, but I never saw him, let alone met him. At every large Democratic gathering that I’ve attended in my career, he was a kind of ghost, a rumor, but a presence nonetheless.

Beyond his career as one of the last authentic matinee idols, a fine actor and director, and the creator of the Sundance Resort and Field Institute that revived independent film, Redford was a political actor for those causes he adopted, especially concerning the environment and, by extension, indigenous rights.

One of the lesser-known films on his CV is The Candidate, a shrewd examination of the birth of mass media politics in the 1970s. In it, Redford portrays Bill McKay, the activist son of a crafty former California governor, who runs against a veteran senator. As the campaign grinds on, we see the process sanding down the sharp edges of the young McKay until, in the final scene in the film, on the night he has scored his upset win, McKay looks up at his campaign guru, played by Peter Boyle, and says, “What do we do now?” I’m not sure, 50-odd years on, that we know the answer to that yet.

In the best of his films, Redford played off his looks as a working stiff, albeit in very specialized jobs. In All The President’s Men, his Bob Woodward was a grunt on the metro desk of The Washington Post. In The Sting, he was a workaday grifter forced into a high-level con. In Three Days Of The Condor, he worked for the CIA, but only as an analyst who read books until an internal plot turned him into a natural field agent. He was an everyman in his own distinct way, and he gave an honest day’s work. That’s not a bad way to be remembered.