The Oscar-winning Robert Redford movie nobody wanted to make: “Turned down everywhere”
It’s still horrible to have to type ‘the late Robert Redford’ now that a few months have passed since the legendary actor died aged 89, such was the enormous impact he had on the industry over a more than 60-year span, winning almost every award going as both an actor and director.
Redford had a huge influence on several generations of actors and movie makers, but he didn’t just let his performances and directing efforts stand as his epitaph; he also co-founded both the Sundance Institute and the long-running Sundance Film Festival, the first iteration of which took place in 1978.
His idea was to inspire future generations of filmmakers, and he named the festival, which is now the largest independent film festival in the US, after a plot of land he had purchased in Utah and named after his character in the multi-Oscar-winning 1969 movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, opposite Paul Newman.
In subsequent years, the festival was able to give a break to some true greats of modern cinema, including directors of the calibre of Quentin Tarantino, Paul Thomas Anderson and Steven Soderbergh. It also provided exposure to smaller budget movies that would go on to have global success, such as Little Miss Sunshine, drumming drama Whiplash and the creepy 2001 thriller Donnie Darko.
Establishing the festival also proved inspirational for Redford himself, who had just taken a two-year hiatus from starring in films, only making one in 1979, the rodeo romance The Electric Horseman, before he decided to try his hand at directing movies as well as acting in them. He chose 1980s Ordinary People to step behind the camera for the first time, a drama about the tragic breakdown of a wealthy family adapted from a novel and starring Donald Sutherland.
He spoke about his decision to direct some years ago, explaining: “(It was) for a couple of reasons: One was that I’d acted and produced, but I wanted to have complete control. I wanted to do a small film about the society I was living in and take full responsibility for it. Ordinary People was turned down everywhere. To my good fortune, Barry Diller at Paramount let me do it.”
Perhaps a reflection of his standing in Hollywood in 1980, after 20 years of making movies since his debut in 1960s Tall Story, was that he was given complete autonomy despite it being his directing debut, adding: “Nobody bothered me, nobody came around”.
Continuing, “Another reason was that I had been an artist and shifted to acting and wondered if I should have left art. By directing, I realized I could put the two together: I could ‘design’ the film. Suddenly, I got very excited.”
Once released, the success of Ordinary People showed that Redford was right to be excited and to put trust in his ability. It brought in $90million at the box office against a budget of just over $6m, plus it was a hit with critics too. The film earned six Academy Award nominations, including a win for Redford as ‘Best Director’ at the first time of asking, and won five Golden Globes, including ‘Best Picture’ and ‘Best Director’.
