What Are The Best Robert Redford Movies of All Time?

10. All Is Lost (2013)

Writer/director J.C. Chandor (go watch Margin Call right now) gives us a script that is pure behavior and instinct. And he puts it in the hands of one of the greatest actors of all time to carry it.

I loved this marriage between director and actor. It's just two people letting each other work hard and work on little tasks. It all matters as we see this ship sinking and we realize how human and how terrifying this stuff can be. There's so much character here in even the smallest details.

9. Jeremiah Johnson (1972)

This movie is all about isolation and building a myth. It’s a tough, quiet, and brutal film. Redford plays a man who is actively leaving society in search of something more in nature. But what happens is that he finds himself and he finds love and he finds peace, until society takes that away from him as well. And then he finds vengeance.

8. The Old Man & the Gun (2018)

This is a perfect example of a script (by director David Lowery) that is in conversation with its star. It’s a simple movie about a career criminal who just loves robbing banks so much, maybe more than anything else.

It's so fun to watch Robert Redford play someone deeply charming. You buy in and embrace how beautiful and wondrous the world is, and the legacy of Redford is all over the screen.

7. Sneakers (1992)

Man, this movie rocks. It's such a fun look at the people who are really running national security, and it has a fun riff on Redford's activism, too. It's also the kind of high-concept, star-driven thriller they just don't make anymore.

It's a heist movie where the "gold" is information. It was way ahead of its time, and it holds up perfectly.

6. The Candidate (1972)

This might be the most cynical and honest political movie ever made. Redford plays Bill McKay, a handsome, idealistic lawyer who gets talked into running for Senate. The hook? He's guaranteed to lose. So, he can say whatever he wants. He can tell the truth. And the truth starts to connect with people.

This leads to an unlikely win. And in the final scene, he pulls his campaign manager into a room and asks, "What do we do now?" It's a poignant end and sums up the era of people who didn't believe what they saw and heard.

5. The Way We Were (1973)

This is one of the greatest and maybe saddest romance movies of all time. Redford plays Hubbell Gardiner, the golden-boy novelist who lives a charmed life. Barbra Streisand is Katie Morosky, the fiery activist who has to fight for everything.

The script is smart enough to know that the very things that make them fall in love—his charm, her passion—are the exact same things that will tear them apart. I love this performance because Redford plays a guy who finally doesn't have it all, and breaks your heart with it.

4. Three Days of the Condor (1975)

This is the "guy on the run" paranoia thriller that movies like The Fugitive and the Bourne movies owe some credit to. Redford plays Joe Turner, a bookish CIA analyst. He's not a spy; he's a nerd. Then one day, he goes out to get lunch, and when he comes back, everyone in his office is dead.

It's such an amazing start to a movie. You are completely terrified of what could happen next. Director Sydney Pollack said his whole pitch for the movie was about taking a man who trusts everyone and turning him into a man who trusts no one. It’s anchored by Redford’s terrified, intellectual panic.

3. The Sting (1973)

I love a good con man movie. And this is a great one, probably the best. It's a movie that tricks the audience and a movie that would only work with stars like Redford, who make you believe anything they say. Re-teaming with Paul Newman, this movie weaponizes the charm they built in Butch Cassidy.

2. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)

This is the movie that made him Redford. The William Goldman script is perfect. It’s funny, it's tragic, it's cool. It completely deconstructs the Western. And it fits who Robert Redford is and who he would be for American film.

This movie defined the "buddy film" and created one of the greatest character introductions of all time (the card game). It's a movie about running out of time, but packing in an incredible life and experiences behind it.

1. All the President's Men (1976)

This isn't just the best Robert Redford movie. It's one of the best American movies ever made.

And it only exists because Redford made it exist. He was the one who bought the rights, hounded Woodward and Bernstein, and starred in it so the studio could not ignore it.

This incredible movie makes journalism feel like a thriller. It’s not about Watergate; it's about the work. It’s about two guys in a room with a deadline, a phone book, and a suspicion.

It’s a movie about the boring, unglamorous, iterative, soul-crushing, and essential work of finding the truth. I truly think this is a the perfect screenwriter’s movie. And Redford makes it all shine.

Summing It All Up 

Today is a sad day, but Robert Redford left behind a legacy of movies that we can watch over and over again. Let them inspire you to do your best work and to find the themes and stories that resonate with you.