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Robert Redford has died

nytimes.com

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Re: Robert Redford has died

#61

Post by zoeysmithe »

I know we live in an age where if someone dies, you cannot criticize him, but Redford is famous for the blackballing of James Woods. I vehemently disagree with Woods' politics but that shouldnt preclude him from employment. Its very clear people like Redform made sure people like Woods were targeted for their political and personal views. Redford was a huge Hollywood power, not just this 'kindly grandpa' actor but a power-player of the highest order. Redford ran a major film and television production company and as such decided, personally, who to hire or fire on his own whim.

Robert Redford is also the founder of the Sundance Film Festival, so getting on his bad-side is strongly career-effecting. People lived in fear of getting on this guy's bad side.

On set, he sounds like the typical Hollywood nightmare with famous clashes with his costars and directors. Arthur Laurents, the writer of The Way We Were, described Redford as an "ego maniac" and control freak for his on-set behaviors.

I say this as a leftist, but "The Truth" is liberal catering-to, and whitewashes Rathers's lack of due diligence in the Bush document, which even to a largely uniformed person like me thought, "Uh isnt that a modern font?" Dan Rather's rush to to this story is not a 'victim' but the failure of basic journalism. I dont think Rather should have resigned, but the idea that's he's this kind-hearted innocent, as the film mostly portrays him as, is just dishonesty. Rather saw money and fame in breaking a big story, and ran with it without much care.

Shrug, I've always seen his PR as very heavily manufactured and played towards the NYTimes and Variety and Sundance crowd in a very targeted way. And it worked, Redford died with an estate worth at least $200m. Capitalism gonna capitalism I guess, but the reality is Redford was quite the vindictive partisan who used his wealth and power against his perceived political enemies and whitewashed some questionable people.

Re: Robert Redford has died

#63

Post by greesil »

wslh wrote: post #35
uptown wrote: post #2

"Sneakers" is such an entertaining watch for anyone that's never seen it. Well worth your time. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105435/

I think it is one of the more realistic hacker movies. You can read also about Leonard Adleman's participation in the movie[1]. Adleman is the A in RSA. Also, Lawrence (Larry) Lasker[2] was the writer of Sneakers AND War Games! [1] https://molecularscience.usc.edu/sneakers/ [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Lasker

Oh my. Those two movies always had a similar vibe to me and now I know why.

Re: Robert Redford has died

#66

Post by vinkelhake »

uptown wrote: post #2

"Sneakers" is such an entertaining watch for anyone that's never seen it. Well worth your time. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105435/

I first watched it back when it came out. At the time I was living in a different country and San Francisco was just another US city to me. I just happened to re-watch it yesterday (it still holds up) for the first time since moving to the bay area.

It was interesting hearing the names of the locations and bridges that previously meant nothing to me (except the golden gate).

It's free to watch on youtube at the moment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qy9XYQBBIJ4

Re: Robert Redford has died

#67

Post by jMyles »

Oh wow, last night I was just listening to his commentary on "All the President's Men" (which came up a couple of weeks ago here on HN when we were talking about ratfucking).

Great movie, great commentary.

Re: Robert Redford has died

#68

Post by mstade »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #3
uptown wrote: post #2

"Sneakers" is such an entertaining watch for anyone that's never seen it. Well worth your time. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105435/

He more or less was everywhere when I was growing up in the 1970's. "The Sting", "All the President's Men", etc. "The Great Waldo Pepper" was often on T.V. "Jeremiah Johnson" though is still a favorite of mine. Got me into blackpowder. And surprised later when watching The Twilight Zone and he turned up as "Death": https://youtu.be/9tfyv4BZRug

Great scene, thank you for sharing!

Re: Robert Redford has died

#69

Post by cm2012 »

zoeysmithe wrote: post #61

I know we live in an age where if someone dies, you cannot criticize him, but Redford is famous for the blackballing of James Woods. I vehemently disagree with Woods' politics but that shouldnt preclude him from employment. Its very clear people like Redform made sure people like Woods were targeted for their political and personal views. Redford was a huge Hollywood power, not just this 'kindly grandpa' actor but a…

The article also describes him as the kind of environmentalist who makes my eyes roll - a rich person principally concerned with making sure their local area looks untouched and beautiful so they can ride their Ferrari through it.

Re: Robert Redford has died

#70

Post by zoeysmithe »

cm2012 wrote: post #69
zoeysmithe wrote: post #61

I know we live in an age where if someone dies, you cannot criticize him, but Redford is famous for the blackballing of James Woods. I vehemently disagree with Woods' politics but that shouldnt preclude him from employment. Its very clear people like Redform made sure people like Woods were targeted for their political and personal views. Redford was a huge Hollywood power, not just this 'kindly grandpa' actor but a…

The article also describes him as the kind of environmentalist who makes my eyes roll - a rich person principally concerned with making sure their local area looks untouched and beautiful so they can ride their Ferrari through it.

That's a good point. I have less criticism there because there is potential for someone like that to affect national or global policy and the individual can't often do much on a persona consumption level. Like I dont want to nitpick someone for driving a corvette or using paper cups. Its not like driving an SUV or running the dishwasher daily is so much better. If he lived a very modest life, would anything be different environmentally? Maybe slightly less carbon out there? The same way I dont think reusing straws is helping for me.

But the carbon footprint of the jetset crowd is significant and worth pointing out. And, yes, how a lot of it is things like protecting wealthy-coded wildlife touristy-type areas in California and such and less effort in cleaning up factories in Alabama or India and such. Or how as a capital owning class person, he negotiated against the working class with his productions, and as such the dynamics that make Alabama and India poor, the capitalistic effect of driving down wages and the political power of these working people who want reform, well, he's part of the problem there too. He can't be both 'the boss' and a worker at the same time.

And the zero effort for him and his cohorts to fly first class instead of private jet or take a regular boat and not a mega yacht or other massive carbon producers.

But his behavior on set, his bias in "The Truth,' and his hiring policies are entirely his choice and can be made nearly entirely meritorious. He simply decided to not act meritorious.

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