Robert Redford died at present at his Utah mountain retreat at age 89, and with him passes one thing Hollywood has spent a long time making an attempt to kill: genuine masculinity.
Not the cartoonish chest-thumping that fuels at present’s superhero factories, however the true factor. The quiet confidence. The ethical spine. The person who may command a room with out elevating his voice, who didn’t want a cape or a committee to inform him what braveness appeared like.
Breaking: Robert Redford, the award-winning actor and director and the pressure behind the Sundance Movie Pageant, has died. He was 89. https://t.co/xrIhDJBxxw pic.twitter.com/pnBNa90QeZ
— The Wall Avenue Journal (@WSJ) September 16, 2025
Redford was one of many final nice male icons, a breed that walked tall when Hollywood nonetheless believed males might be heroes value emulating. He rose beside Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, Clint Eastwood and Gene Hackman, actors who didn’t want handlers to make them memorable.
They carried themselves with a weight and presence no trainer-sculpted physique or green-screen explosion may pretend. They got here from a time when a number one man was anticipated to steer, not sit there nodding like a skilled seal repeating no matter line the group demanded.
Take “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Child.” Redford was by no means simply one other face on the display. He was courageous, loyal, reckless and unafraid when demise got here calling.
The Sundance Child may draw quick and wisecrack quicker, a mixture of hazard and appeal few have matched. He picked his battles with care however by no means backed down from those that counted.
That remaining freeze-frame, pistols raised in opposition to not possible odds, spoke extra about heroism than 100 trendy blockbusters mixed. And way over any bloated, three-hour CGI carnival Hollywood serves up at present.
In “The Sting,” Redford performed Johnny Hooker with the form of cocky appeal at present’s script medical doctors would kill earlier than web page one. He drifted by Melancholy-era Chicago with a smile and a shrug, pulling cons that felt each harmful and pleasant.
The movie swept seven Oscars as a result of audiences understood one thing timeless: typically dangerous males should be taken down, and typically good males bend the principles to make it occur.
“All of the President’s Males” (1974) confirmed him at his most disciplined—Bob Woodward, the reporter who helped topple a president armed with nothing however notebooks, nouns and shoe leather-based. Redford embodied a form of journalism that served the story as an alternative of ideology.
Evaluate that to at present’s media, the place fact is trimmed, twisted and traded for clicks.
Even behind the digicam, Redford’s instincts lower in opposition to the grain. “Bizarre Folks” explored household trauma with tenderness however with out turning fathers into buffoons or males into punchlines. He informed tales about individuals wrestling with actual burdens, not manufactured identities.
No man in his movies felt responsible for being male, white or profitable. They merely needed to wrestle with the results of being human.
Now examine that big to at present’s main males.
Marvel has given us a technology of soft-spoken soy heroes who appear to be they want permission slips to throw a punch. I’m speaking about Pedro Pascal, chasing each undertaking whereas selling no matter trigger is trendy. One week, he mouths off about borders, the subsequent, he chants trans mantras.
He’s shameless, prepared to say or do something to remain within the highlight. He initiatives nothing however insecurity and inauthenticity. He’s the very reverse of Redford, who carried authority with out effort.
Hollywood now treats masculinity as a flaw to be fastened. Male characters are forged as villains, clowns or casualties—by no means males value admiring. Scripts insist they be scolded, rescued or re-educated by ladies delivering lectures instead of dialogue.
The very notion {that a} man may present knowledge, power, or management has turn into radioactive.
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Redford belonged to an period when males might be flawed with out being feminized. His characters struggled, sinned and suffered, however they carried the load themselves. They knew that typically the world wanted sturdy males to face between civilization and chaos, and so they didn’t duck for canopy when known as.
What they name “poisonous masculinity” at present was merely masculinity then—plain, unapologetic, indispensable. The identical masculinity that settled frontiers, constructed cities and solid industries. The identical masculinity that stormed seashores, raised households and defended freedom in opposition to tyrants.
It gave us the prosperity our present tradition squanders whereas sneering on the very males who made it potential.
Redford’s passing is greater than the demise of an important actor. It’s the closing of a chapter when males on display nonetheless appeared like males off display, when Hollywood nonetheless understood that boys wanted heroes who didn’t weep their approach by each disaster.
With him goes one of many final representatives of a breed that was hunted down by the very business that after celebrated it.
Relaxation in peace, Sundance. You may be missed greater than phrases can carry.
John Mac Ghlionn is an everyday contributor to The Hill, The Blaze and The Spectator.