‘I’m not talking about making a living. I’m just talking about… living…’
I’ve been on a real Robert Redford kick since his death in September of 2025 and I’ve gone from being fairly ambivalent about the guy to now considering him one of my favourite actors. He’s a safe pair of hands. You know any film will instantly be elevated by his presence. That being said, I’ve mostly concentrated my efforts on peak era Redford. Writer-director David Lowery’s crime biopic from 2018 allowed me to enjoy a later Redford performance, and, sure enough, both he and the film are excellent…
Forrest Tucker (Redford) was a serial bank robber and prison escapist who notably carried on robbing banks well into the twilight of his life. An incredible veteran cast sees Sissy Spacek as Redford’s love interest, Danny Glover and Tom Waits as members of his crew, and Casey Affleck as the detective on his tail.
It would have been so easy to make The Old Man & the Gun an extended victory lap in the style of The Expendables – all in jokes and knowing winks to camera. This isn’t that at all, however. Sure, there are references to growing older, but these characters don’t feel like caricatures, far from it. Instead, Lowery’s smart script humanises Redford’s ailing thief whilst never losing sight of the fact that this is essentially a heist movie and therefore it should be both fun and entertaining. And it is all of those things. Redford, Glover and Waits have a blast (one wonderful scene simply consists of Waits telling his partners-in-crime a story about an old infidelity), Affleck is as reliable as ever, and Spacek, always an underrated actor, provides some much-needed emotional depth.
The Old Man & the Gun surprised me. The depth and texture of Redford’s performance surprised me (although it shouldn’t have, I’ve seen him be brilliant enough times now), Lowery’s wonderful screenplay surprised me, and most of all, the film’s emotional resonance surprised me – an underrated gem.
