By Brad Balfour
Director David Lowery’s “The Old Man & the Gun” is much more than a simple crime drama — it’s also legendary actor Robert Redford’s last film he’ll ever star in, or so he has declared. But besides that, this film becomes a meditation on a whole slew of issues especially because of Redford’s interaction with co-star Sissy Spacek.
Any new film Redford stars in is certainly worth a viewing but for his farewell to acting, the 81 year-old chose a real doosey of a final vehicle. Playing senior-aged career criminal Forrest Tucker, hepulls off a stream of bank jobs in the Southwest with his associates Teddy Green (Danny Glover) and Waller (Tom Waits). They confound authorities with their unperturbed, polite manner and low-keyed approach while enchanting the public. Rookie detective John Hunt (Affleck) becomes his nemesis, finally seeing a pattern to their heists which eventually catch up with Forrest and his crew. While having a commitment to his bank-robbing craft, he also pursues a woman (Spacek) who, despite his chosen profession, eventually falls for him.
Without revealing a very telling ending, it can be said that audiences and Spacek both struggle with the enigma behind a guy like Tucker who, despite his obvious intelligence and charm, prefers to pursue a life path that inevitably leads to imprisonment or possibly even worse. Nonetheless, almost compulsively, he continues his errant ways, robbing banks and living life on the lam.
Without overtly trying to answer all the questions the film prompts audiences to wonder about, it provokes serious reflection on why this man would continue to lie and steal when it’s obvious to everyone around him that he could have done something a little more stable and possibly more successful. Nonetheless, there’s such joie de vivre to his character — despite having what obviously must have a been a dark youth — that he’s almost scary in how he makes us accept him.
Actually, throughout his career, Redford has been great at doing exactly that: deceptively using his good looks as a screen to effectively hide the dark side to a character or narrative … never making us feel uncomfortable for liking him.
In many ways, it’s understandable why Redford chose this film as his swan song. Underlying his subtle and complex portrayal is the question of how a man with obviously good qualities can commit a crime that, on the surface, might seem harmless, but is unambiguously wrong but most standards. In doing so, the actor causes us to ask ourselves how we can admire people who clearly support concepts, ideas and actions that are clearly wrong … but are continually tolerated and accepted just because these people have good looks, charm and some kind of appeal. This is one notable, thought-provoking way for a great actor to end his on-screen acting career — and possibly garner a few award nominations as well.