The late Hollywood golden screen legend Robert Redford was a more prominent cultural icon in my dad's youthful and carefree days, compared to mine. My dad always says to me that during the old days of his youth, all the young male guns wanted to be as dashingly suave as Redford, while women all swooned over the movie star for his good looks and rugged charm.
But as an idealistic young man who idolized classic rock and Western pop culture, my dad would religiously head to the now-defunct Odeon Cinema in Malacca to watch all of Redford's latest movies with his close buddies. Regardless of whether it is the wild, wild west epic Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, or the Nixon Watergate Scandal-inspired political thriller, All the President's Men, the late Robert Redford is indeed a cut above gem of a stellar actor who genuinely excels in nearly all his many movie roles.
For someone who belongs to the younger Generation Y crowd, my affinity with an actor who was much older than my own dad started with the Oscar-winning classic movie The Sting. Not surprisingly, my favourite part of the movie was its epic piano theme song titled “The Entertainer.” For those living in the dark, the ragtime piano piece “The Entertainer” was actually composed by Scott Joplin, a talented New Orleans-born black musician who also composed another equally famous ragtime piano piece during his heyday for pianists to learn and play, such as Maple Leaf Rag and many more.
And for the avid romantics at heart, most of them could not resist watching the movie "The Way We Were." This melodramatic romance movie starred Funny Girl actress Barbara Streisand and Robert Redford as her handsome male love interest. In the movie, Redford's lusty character is hopelessly in love with Streisand despite her obviously plain Jane looks. Thus, it made almost every hormonally charged person of the fairer sex fantasize about making out with the actor Robert Redford in real life. Besides the movie's lovey-dovey storyline, I enjoy listening to its rather sad but still enchantingly melodic love theme song, famously sung by Barbara Streisand, who was also a remarkable singer in "The Way We Were."
On the other hand, there is one impressive movie of Robert Redford that I remembered watching as a pimply and overweight teenager. As I recall, this particular movie was titled "The Horse Whisperer," and it also starred a then-ingenue teenage actress, Scarlett Johansson. Back then, I recall that the very talented and beautiful Johansson also won the Young Independent Spirit Award at the Sundance Film Festival. Alternatively, the 1998 movie "The Horse Whisperer" also became a popular cultural phenomenon that successfully landed it a hilarious spoof on the iconic Family Guy cartoon show.
Talking about the prestigious Sundance Film Festival, this area of calibre was perhaps Robert Redford's greatest legacy left behind, other than acting and directing. The Sundance Film Institute, founded in 1981, has successfully nurtured numerous "creme de la creme" filmmakers, such as celebrated indie film director Quentin Tarantino of the much-popular Kill Bill film franchise, and another famous indie director Steven Sodenberg of the much successful Ocean's film series. For Robert Redford, Sundance was not merely a festival but a cultural movement that challenged filmmakers to be different yet original, and to break away from Hollywood's usual status quo.
Otherwise, I feel that the death of Robert Redford does not signify the end of a great movie era. Rather, I felt that his passing away due to old age should be turned into a celebration of life itself. After all, Redford has lived a long, fruitful life of 89 years. Therefore, let us all fondly remember the man who acted in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid as a trailblazing icon and voice to campaign for those who are different, original, and independent in nature and spirit.
Lim Su Yee (michellelimsuyee@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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