By Christian Blauvelt

Copyright indiewire

The best Robert Redford movies are sometimes overlooked compared to the films of his New Hollywood contemporaries. Redford is undoubtedly one of the most influential figures in American film history with his founding of the Sundance Film Festival and the Sundance Institute. But that was simply a second act in what already been a luminous career for nearly two decades as one of Hollywood’s finest actors, before adding “director” to his list of titles with “Ordinary People,” for which he won the Best Director Academy Award at the 1981 ceremony.

Because of just how important his Sundance work was for the development of American independent film, his earlier roles are sometimes neglected, but the body of acting work he had put together by the early ’80s is towering and expansive. From his straight-man comedic shenanigans in “Barefoot in the Park” to the brooding misanthrope of “Downhill Racer” — Robert Redford unlikable? Yes! — to the Western heroes of “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” and “Jeremiah Johnson” to the overwhelming romanticism of “The Way We Were” and the procedural naturalism of “All the President’s Men” (a movie that features the best “phone acting” ever), these are very different roles. All excellent. You could never accuse Redford of repeating himself — down to his staunch resistance to ever making a “Way We Were” sequel.

Robert Redford’s best movies and performances show an actor committed to understatement, of serving the character rather than providing a showcase for himself. Redford took the mumbliness out of Brando’s naturalism and dialed back the hotter-headed scenery-chewing of some of his New Hollywood contemporaries, in a worthwhile embrace of subtlety that didn’t always resonate with the swing-for-the-fences brio that usually nabs Academy Awards. As such, the only Oscar nomination for acting he ever received was for Best Actor in “The Sting,” a film which does wear its movie-movie “Look at this bunch of characters!” personality on its sleeve way more than, say, “Jeremiah Johnson” or “The Candidate.” Let alone his turn as Fitzgerald’s doomed hero in “The Great Gatsby,” where his Hollywood image as a kind of cypher lent itself perfectly to a man who’s a total fabrication.

That idea of Redford as a cypher was undoubtedly also fueled by his extraordinary, perhaps generational, good looks. By any standard considered one of the handsomest men ever to appear on the big screen, Redford’s beauty — has any man ever looked better onscreen than when he’s playing catch in the wheatfield at the end of “The Natural”? And he was pushing 50! — was so overwhelming it probably resulted in him being taken less seriously as an actor. Hence, by layering himself with scruff and bearskin in as a mountain man “Jeremiah Johnson” he set the stage for Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio and other overwhelmingly handsome Hollywood actors to conceal their own beauty at various turns. With looks like Redford’s, it may have been hard for many viewers to appreciate his performances beyond projecting their own feelings upon him.

Look beyond the surface, though, and you’ll find extraordinary depth in Redford’s work. Robert Redford’s 15 best movies feature performances that are worth you firing up immediately — pinnacles of their New Hollywood era that have aged extremely well. —CB

Check out IndieWire’s list of the 15 best Robert Redford movies below.

With editorial contributions from Kate Erbland, Jim Hemphill, and Sarah Shachat.