the seminal biography of the movie star and environmental activist

At 85 today, Robert Redford remains in mind as the charismatic blond actor with the irresistible smile, the male star of the 1970s. But the glitter, of which he was hardly fond, gives way to the very artist demanding in his choices as an actor, director and producer, but also in his ecological commitment. DThe artist and the committed man, two facets of a complex personality very concerned and devoted to his family, twice married, father of four children and five times grandfather.

Born in 1936 in Santa Monica, California, Robert Redford remains an icon of cinema even if the new generations no longer identify him with the star he was in the 1970s. Michael Feeney Callan, author of this biographical sum of more of 750 pages, retraces the origins and career of a man supported by three pillars: cinema, ecology and his family. First painter, he turns out to be a theater actor, then on television and in the cinema, then as a star after Butch Cassidy and the Kid by George Roy Hill in 1969.

“Whole” is the qualifier that comes up most often in the hundreds of hours of testimonials from directors Sidney Pollack – with whom Redford shot seven films – and Alan J. Pakula, producers from MGM or Columbia, his wives and children… But also those of Redford, in his diary, letters and newspaper clippings which complete a detailed documentation. That around an artist who wanted above all to be a citizen, husband, father and ecologist. Initiator of the independent film festival at Sundance, the company is in the image of man, demanding towards cinema, environmental protection, and in its local roots. Thus the cinema serves him to support his family but also to finance his commitments.

Michael Feerney Callan recounts his difficult and formative journey to Rome and Paris in the 1950s, then his passage to the theater in New York, his discovery from Utah which he discovers back in the United States. She will permeate it all her life, building a ranch there which will become the family home. It was then that he acted in environmental defense as an environmental activist. Also an entrepreneur, the filmmaker owns a ski resort, Sundance Mountain (sold in 2020, after 50 years of management). If his ecological fiber is sincere, it also serves him as an inhabitant of an exceptional setting, at the head of a company that relies on the environment. Anxious to work for the greatest number, it would be excessive to see a calculating Robert Redford, if not for the good of all. A Democrat who supported the re-election of Barack Obama in 2012, he also got involved with local Republicans. The Native American cause, and recently LGBT, are also at the heart of his positions.

Robert Redford is a bit of the antithesis of Clint Eastwood, star also politically engaged, but Republican. They find themselves in the love of cinema. Robert Redford is a creator, in his acting compositions (Jeremiah Johnson, The President’s Men) then director (And in the middle flows a river) and producer (his achievements and others). The Sundance site is above all dedicated to cinematographic art and its ski resort is the icing on the cake. His artistic aspirations are sincere and strict: we can speak of a work by its coherence and its independence, with all American fabric. Michael Feeney Callan reports on this in what appears to be a definitive biography, avoiding any hagiography, but sharing the admiration for the artist and revealing the man.

Robert Redford
Michael Feeney Callan
Editions La Trace
757 pages, paperback (B&W photo notebook), 22 euros