The golden boy of 1970s cinema, the éminence grise of American indies, Robert Redford made a typically laconic start to his filmmaking career, dropping out of college and only drifting into acting after living in Europe for a year as a struggling artist. He learned his trade in TV and on stage, upgrading to leading actor on film in the mid-1960s, but once Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid (1969) had conferred superstar status upon him, Redford was not slow in taking control.

After problems with the studio on Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here (1969), Redford formed his own production company, Wildwood. The flaxen-haired film idol has continued to maintain his distance from Hollywood by setting up the Sundance Institute and Festival, which has nurtured and promoted a whole generation of independent filmmakers. Quentin Tarantino and Steven Soderbergh are the most famous alumni of Sundance, though it has to be said that the festival winners are usually of the worthy but dull variety. It’s an earnestness which is sadly in evidence in Redford’s own directorial efforts. This propensity for solemnity, however, didn’t stop Ordinary People (1980) from unexpectedly snatching the best director Oscar from under the noses of both Martin Scorsese and David Lynch.

Redford’s directorial style often mirrors his screen presence: distant, good-looking and laid-back. Too often, however, laid-back turns to lax, especially when the script itself is rambling, as with the tedious The Milagro Beanfield War (1988). Sometimes the films, possibly like Redford himself, can be too handsome for their own good. While the unexpectedly enchanting hymn to fly-fishing A River Runs Through It (1992) boasted imagery that was genuinely Edenic, the same Montana landscape was the object of soft-focus platitudes in the interminable The Horse Whisperer (1998). Both were suffused with a New Age spiritualism which found its full, cringing expression in The Legend Of Bagger Vance (2000) in which Will Smith was wincingly miscast as a caddy with mystical powers. It’s in Quiz Show (1994) that Redford’s laconic directing style has really paid dividends, which suggests perhaps that he should ditch the pastoral and mystical, and concentrate on the coruscating and satirical.

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