Robert Redford died yesterday. He was 89.
I met him once, very briefly, when I was working for Bob Woodward. Redford portrayed Woodward on screen in the 1976 movie All the President's Men, about Watergate.
My small office was next to Woodward's, with a door that didn't really close. People would poke their heads in to say hello on the way to see Woodward.
Sometimes: "Hi, I'm here to service the air conditioner."
This time: "Hi, I'm Bob Redford."
I remember thinking, Oh, so this is what a movie star is like in real life: charisma, charm, good looks that he clearly worked hard at maintaining, while somehow making it all look effortless.
But there are a lot of good-looking people in the world, and Redford was much more than that.
His career spanned six decades. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The Sting. The Way We Were. Out of Africa. The aforementioned All the President’s Men.
He directed Ordinary People and won an Oscar. He founded the Sundance Film Festival, which reshaped independent film. He was an activist for many causes.
The list is long.
But if I had to pick one role to remember him by, I’d choose something a bit less well-known: All Is Lost (2013).
In fact, I watched it yesterday (on fast-forward, which sort of undermines it, but I wanted to ensure I remembered it right).
It’s a very unusual film. No backstory, no ensemble cast. Just Redford, alone on a sailboat in the Indian Ocean after a collision at sea.
There's virtually no dialogue. Just survival.
Redford’s unnamed character tries to fix his boat, fights storms, nearly runs out of water, and is cast adrift in an inflatable raft. With no way to steer or propel his tiny lifeboat, he's left hoping and maybe praying someone will find him.
The ending still gets me. (Spoiler alert if you haven’t seen it.)
After two ships pass by without seeing him, he sets his raft on fire in a final attempt to draw attention. It fails. He dives beneath the waves, seemingly giving up. Then, suddenly, a small boat appears above the water, and a hand reaches down.
Redford reaches up. The screen fades.
Is it a rescue? A dream? God? The movie never says.
It's a 105-minute movie with almost no spoken words and no other characters.
He tries to call for help on a water-logged radio once, and he unleashes a stream of expletives when he realizes his potable water supply has been tainted.
Otherwise, silence, a tiny amount of music, and the sounds of the boat and the sea.
Apparently, the shooting script ran only 31 pages. A typical script is 100 to 120 pages. (Source: me, person who wrote many of them.)
How many actors could pull that off?
I mean: They made a movie out of The Old Man and the Sea starring Spencer Tracy in the 1950s, but it has a narrator, and Tracy's character has a convenient habit of talking to himself throughout.
That’s the power Redford carried through his whole career.
He could be the charming outlaw, the determined reporter, the romantic lead, the silent sailor at the end of everything.
He made each role feel inevitable, as if no one else could have done it.
Heck, he even played the part of "guy who shows up at Murphy's office door looking for directions" with panache.
Rest in peace Bob Redford: a man with a lot to say, and whose most unpredictable role was nearly silent.
7 other things worth knowing
Here's the charging document for Tyler Robinson, charged with aggravated murder and facing the death penalty in the killing of Charlie Kirk. It quotes full confessions from Robinson to someone it describes as "his lover/roommate" including: "I had the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk and I’m going to take it." and "Shouldn’t be long until I can come home, but I gotta grab my rifle still. To be honest I had hoped to keep this secret till I died of old age. I am sorry to involve you." (Document Cloud)
Having secured big payouts from Disney/ABC and Paramount/CBS in recent months, Donald Trump is now once again taking The New York Times to court — for at least $15 billion dollars. “The newspaper’s editorial routine is now one of industrial-scale defamation and libel against political opponents,” the photo-heavy 85-page document says. “As such, the Times has become a leading, and unapologetic, purveyor of falsehoods against President Trump on the legacy media landscape.” (Deadline)
Israel launched its ground offensive in Gaza City on Tuesday, as thousands of Palestinians fled in vehicles strapped with mattresses and other belongings that clogged a coastal road. The military would not offer a timeline for the offensive that aims to crush the militant group’s ability to fight, but Israeli media suggested it could take months. (AP)
What my former boss, Bob Woodward, had to say about the death of his friend, Bob Redford. (The New York Times)
Work crews have started cutting down trees, removing shrubs and digging up parts of the South Lawn of the White House as they begin work on President Donald Trump’s project to construct a $200 million, 90,000-square-foot ballroom on a site just south of the building’s East Wing. Details of the project remain shrouded in secrecy and uncertainty. (The Washington Post)
A retired four-star U.S. Navy admiral was sentenced on Tuesday to six years in prison for his conviction on corruption charges that he agreed to exchange a military contract for a lucrative postretirement job. Retired Adm. Robert P. Burke, 63 — once the second-highest uniformed officer in the Navy — was commanding its forces in Europe and Africa when he engaged in a bribery plot with two business executives, according to federal prosecutors. (Yahoo News)
"Two hours later, I checked my Coinbase balance. Nearly zero. I refreshed again and again in disbelief. Then the pieces started to click: new devices in my Google account, a strange recovery phone number, and a trail of transactions I couldn’t reverse.I work in tech. I design authentication experiences. I know you’re not supposed to share verification codes! And yet, I got phished. This mistake cost me $130,000 and months of peace of mind. If my story stops even one person from falling for a scam like this, it will be worth sharing." (Bewildered)
Thanks for reading. See you in the comments.
Beautiful memory of an amazing man who made a positive difference in the world around him - his loss is deeply felt & really hurts! Thanks for sharing your loving reflection!
btw, our community sends out scam alerts on a regular basis. I just rec'd the following:
Scammers seem to come up with new tricks every day. One that has tricked a lot of residents involves Google and other well-known internet search engines.
Search engines can be very helpful. However, scammers have learned how to insert their contact information into search results. Sometimes they buy their way to the top of search results with paid ads. They can also sometimes get their information into the organic results (the ones that are not ads or “sponsored”), so those are not necessarily safe either. If you do a search looking for customer assistance from your bank or any large company, you are likely to be offered scam results. They look real, and if you call the number, they will sound real. You will not know the difference until they steal your money or information.
Some of the most dangerous ones pose as Microsoft, Apple, the Geek Squad, or other tech support. These scammers may say they can help if you just click a link on an image or give them access to your computer. Don’t do it.
The scammers may use teams of actors to convince you they are legitimate. For example, they can easily impersonate Microsoft, your bank’s fraud department and the FBI—all of them working together to help you. They will probably know a lot about you. It seems good until all the money in your bank account disappears.
Many residents have done internet searches and been connected to a scammer. Some of those residents lost significant amounts. Instead of using Google or another search engine:
Find the number you want elsewhere. Regular statements from your bank and other companies you deal with should have safe phone numbers on them. Your credit card issuer’s phone number is on the back of your card.
If you must get the number online, go to the company’s website. Be sure you are on the real website. Check the URL carefully. Remember that the scammers can duplicate any company’s website with almost no effort, then change the contact information and sit back and wait for your call.