I’ve always wanted to be Robert Redford when I grew up. I just didn’t know what version I wanted to choose.
Redford died earlier this week at the age of 89 and left a lasting impact on many people, including journalists all across the globe. Obviously I became a journalist nearly three decades ago and like many before me had previously watched Redford portray legendary Washington Post writer Bob Woodward in All the President’s Men (the book is even better).
All these years later I crack up and smile at Redford who seemed to be able to do a lot in a film without saying a word than many actors who won’t shut up for three minutes. That was one of his gifts.
For example, if you’ve worked as a journalist — especially in Vallejo — you’ve no doubt had the same expressions Redford makes in that film when he is calling Kenneth Dahlberg about a $25,000 check. Redford cradling the phone with one hand and blocking his ears to prevent background noise with the other, him pleading with God for a source to reveal anything after they say, “I really shouldn’t be telling you this” are some examples.
Robert Redford in ‘All the President’s Men.’ (Associated Press)
Interesting tidbit about that film — Redford actually wanted a young Al Pacino to play the role of Carl Bernstein. Film might have been a little different had he been in the film rather than Dustin Hoffman.
“You gave me a first initial of a last name. What d’you want for that, a junior g-man badge?”
But as a young kid I didn’t want to be a journalist. I wanted to be a baseball player. More specifically, I wanted to be Redford’s character from the “The Natural.”
I wanted more than anything to be Roy Hobbs.
I first saw the Natural when I was around 9 years old, maybe two years after the film came out and it instantly became not only one of my favorite sports films of all time, but a top favorite film, period.
Every time I came up to bat in Little League after I saw that film I could just imagine my coach yell out, “OK Gase, knock the cover off the ball.” Then I imagined the weather becoming overcast and Randy Newman’s score being blared out of speakers from all over the diamond.
If you play Newman’s “Knock the Cover Off the Ball” on YouTube or CD, when you get to the 46-second mark, the mood of the song turns dark, eerie and causes goosebumps to form on my arms. As the pitcher in the film smiles and the catcher does the same, Redford as Hobbs is locked in. In that moment, the music washes over you with a sense that says, “Pay attention, something huge is about to take place. Watch this.”
At the 1:03 mark, the cymbals and horns crash together in the score as Hobbs connects, and, yeah, knocks the cover off the ball. The film shows Richard Farnsworth, Wilford Brimley and a young Michael Madsen (also RIP) not overcome with emotion but doing a great job of acting and just showing their perplexed faces that say, “Wait, did he just….KNOCK.THE.COVER.OFF.THE. BALL???”
It’s every kid’s dream to do the same thing, but how Redford did it, not how former Brewers catcher Martin Maldonado did it in 2014 with a weak ground ball to third. The extra-base hit by Redford causes the crowd, now soaked in rain to ask in a line familiar in another Redford epic film, “Who is this guy?”
The Natural came out in 1984, a year of great movies including Beverly Hills Cop, Ghostbusters and This is Spinal Tap, but the Redford film directed by Barry Levinson and also starring Glen Close, Robert Duvall, Kim Basinger, Robert Prosky and more, helped usher in possibly the best era for baseball movies between 1984 and the mid 90’s.
Four years after the Natural came out it was followed by Bull Durham and Eight Men Out. The following year (1989) brought Field of Dreams and Major League, while A League of Their Own, Little Big League all came out in the early 90’s. We’ll pretend nobody ever saw Major League II or III.
But the Natural is in my opinion, the second best baseball movie of all time, with Field of Dreams leading the list. The film has at least five epic scenes — the final game scene (I won’t tell you what happens, but think Kirk Gibson), the first scene where the camera pans over a bat recently made from a tree branch that says, “Wonderboy”, Redford as a pitcher striking out “The Whammer” and finally Redford blasting one off the scoreboard of Wrigley Field as Close stands up in the bleachers because, “I didn’t want to see you fail.”
But possibly the best part of The Natural is the speeches he gives to Close, one of them mimicking the famous Ted Williams speech where he hopes people will walk down the street and say, “There goes the best hitter of all time.” Or something to that degree.
My favorite line by Redford in the film is when he just relaxes for a second, looks to the sky and mutters to himself, “God I love baseball.” So simple, yet, so true.
Earlier this week many were saying the same thing only muttering, “God I loved Redford’s acting.”
RIP Robert Redford, or what I like to call you, Roy Hobbs.