The world grieved the passing of a titan of cinema, Robert Redford, on Tuesday morning. He became a Broadway star by the early ’60s and conquered Hollywood with starring roles in movies like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting, and All the President’s Men. And then he really shifted the landscape with his work as a director and as co-founder of the Sundance Film Festival. As his collaborators and fans mourn his loss, our minds went to the best way to pay tribute to his legacy: Watch one of his movies. This shortlist is divided into three sections, an alphabetical run-through of ten of his best acting efforts (both the classics and the ones that deserve more attention) and five of his turns behind the camera.
Note: If there’s a streaming service listed, it’s always available on VOD, too. If a movie is labeled as only “available on VOD” below, it usually costs about $4 to rent and is not currently available on streaming services.
Five Acting Classics
All the President’s Men (1976)
A movie about the importance of speaking truth to power feels more essential in 2025 than it has in a long time, doesn’t it? Redford stars alongside Dustin Hoffman in this Alan J. Pakula journalism thriller about the work of Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward to expose Richard Nixon and the Watergate scandal. A huge hit when it was released shortly after the president stepped down, it was nominated for eight Oscars, winning four. It’s as timely as ever. Streaming on The Criterion Channel.
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
One of Redford’s earliest huge roles, this is also arguably the best film to introduce a young person to his talent and legacy (and the western genre, really). Of course, Redford plays the impossibly charming Sundance Kid, opposite the equally impossibly charming Butch Cassidy, played by Paul Newman. A playful entry in a genre marked by self-seriousness, it stands up today and not just because it helped inspire a little Utah film festival that would change independent moviemaking forever. Available on VOD.
Downhill Racer (1969)
A very young Roger Ebert called this film “the best movie ever made about sports — without really being about sports at all.” Michael Ritchie’s directorial debut is about the life of David Chappellet, a U.S. Ski Team star competing in Europe. Redford disappears into this part, playing a man who can think about little more but being on the slopes. Available on VOD.
Sneakers (1992)
This is for all you Gen-Xers out there, the people who grew up in the ’80s and likely discovered Redford through this ridiculously stacked thriller from 1992. It may have seemed like a lark at the time, but this movie about security specialists and surveillance kind of feels prescient in an era when so much privacy has been eliminated. It’s a great example of how Redford could be giving as a performer, never stealing focus from his incredible co-stars. (The stacked ensemble includes Ben Kingsley, David Strathairn, River Phoenix, Sidney Poitier, and Mary McDonnell.) Available on VOD.
The Sting (1973)
Redford reunited with his Cassidy co-star and director for a movie that was arguably the biggest hit of his career, the only time he would be nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor, and a movie that won Best Picture. Widely regarded as having one of the best screenplays ever written, this flick recalls a time when a movie could be a massive critical and commercial darling at the same time and a case study in its star’s bottomless well of charisma. Available on VOD.
Five Underseen Acting Gems
All Is Lost (2013)
Few movie stars understood silence as well as Robert Redford, who has a total of 51 spoken words in this survival thriller. He plays an unnamed man who is stranded on the Indian Ocean, and the movie star disappears into this challenging role in a manner that won him Best Actor from the New York Film Critics Circle. (His snub by the Oscars for a nomination remains one of the Academy’s greatest sins.) Streaming on Prime Video.
The Old Man and the Gun (2018)
Redford gave his final great performance in this drama from David Lowery about the life of Forrest Tucker, a career criminal. He announced his retirement after this delicate character study, making it his last official film role. It’s a beauty, a film that also plays like an ode to its star’s boundless charm. Available on VOD.
Pete’s Dragon (2016)
While the live-action adaptation subgenre of Disney animated films is correctly savaged almost every time, this is the exception. Easily the best of such films, it carves its own story out of the 1977 animated film. Redford plays a perfect part for him: a storyteller, the father to Bryce Dallas Howard’s character, and the man who told her about the legendary dragon. Connecting an artist and environmental crusader to a history of imagination and Mother Nature is a brilliant bit of meta casting in this truly lovely flick. Streaming on Disney+.
Spy Game (2001)
Few actors understood the assignment every single time like Robert Redford, who would carefully calibrate his charisma depending on the part. Take this Tony Scott flick in which he teams up with someone to whom he was often compared, Brad Pitt. This is really a cross-generation action flick with legends from each generation working together for pure entertainment. Available on VOD.
The Twilight Zone (1962)
The 16th episode of the third season of Rod Serling’s masterful sci-fi anthology series cast a 20-something Redford as Death himself. “Nothing in the Dark” stars Gladys Cooper as a woman who knows she has reached her end point if she opens the door to Redford’s Harold, a man who claims to be a building contractor but is actually the Grim Reaper. Redford uses his already remarkable charm to play the end of life as a passage instead of a crisis. Streaming on Paramount+ and Prime Video.
Five Directorial Beauties
Lions for Lambs (2007)
It’s certainly not Redford’s best directorial work, but this one remains a curiosity for the sheer acting power in front of the camera, including Redford himself, Meryl Streep, Tom Cruise, and a young Andrew Garfield. Redford allows his politics to take center stage in a film that’s really about how governments use the bodies of young people in war for political capital. Streaming on Fubo and Paramount+.
The Milagro Beanfield War (1988)
It took Redford eight years to follow up his Best Picture–winning directorial debut, and the result was a comparatively minor yet tender drama based on a novel by John Nichols. A film that feels important to Redford’s Californian roots and his willingness to fight for the little man, this one stars Rubén Blades as a man who battles the man to save his bean field. Available on VOD.
Ordinary People (1980)
Any list of the most notable directorial debuts of all time that doesn’t include Ordinary People is simply incomplete. Adapting the novel of the same name by Judith Guest, Redford used his deep empathy to tell the story of a family torn apart by the death of a son and brother. It won Redford an Oscar for Best Director and took home trophies for Best Supporting Actor and Best Picture too. History once diminished this movie because it “stole” Oscars from Raging Bull, but it’s an essential piece of ’80s filmmaking in its own right and key to understanding its director’s legacy. Streaming on Fubo,Philo, and MGM+.
Quiz Show (1994)
A solid case can be made that this is Redford’s best directorial effort, a true story that transcends its subject matter to become a character study about pride. Ralph Fiennes plays Charles Van Doren, who was a part of a scandal in which ’50s game-show contestants were given the answers to up the entertainment value. In an era in which it feels like less and less of what we see on TV can be believed, this one is overdue for a reappraisal. Available on VOD.
A River Runs Through It (1992)
This one feels like the purest expression of Redford’s heart on film. He adapts the novella of the same name about a Montana family, and he does so with deep empathy and love for the natural world. Redford was underrated in his ability to avoid melodrama, always seeking truth in his characters instead of just manipulating the sympathies of his audience. Streaming on Fubo, Philo, and MGM+.