Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Religious Music & Entertainment
Robert Redford’s Greatest Performance Might Not Be What You Think

Robert Redford’s Greatest Performance Might Not Be What You Think

Last updated on: August 8, 2018 at 11:23 am by Paul Asay

Robert Redford’s Greatest Performance Might Not Be What You Think 2018-08-08T11:23:02-06:00 Paul Asay

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Robert Redford from All Is Lost, photo courtesy Lionsgate trailer

Robert Redford announced a couple of days ago that he’s retiring from acting at the age of 81. He’ll appear in The Old Man & the Gun this fall, but that’s it, he says. Probably.

“Never say never, but I pretty well concluded that this would be it for me in terms of acting, and [I’ll] move towards retirement after this ’cause I’ve been doing it since I was 21,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “I thought, Well, that’s enough. And why not go out with something that’s very upbeat and positive?”

For a good chunk of the 1960s and ’70s, Redford was arguably Hollywood’s most handsome leading man. And when people look back at Redford’s six decades worth of work, they naturally turn back to Redford’s heyday and can point to his classic, iconic performances in such movies as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting, The Way We Were, The Great Gatsby and so many others. Others might point to his mid-1980s resurgence in The Natural and Out of Africa.

But for me, Redford’s greatest turn came much, much later. In 2013’s All Is Lost.

The movie is all Redford: He’s the only person on screen, in fact. Playing a character known only as “Our Man,” Redford operates a small-but-tastefully-outfitted yacht, sailing the wide open ocean alone. We don’t know much about him, really—where he’s been, where he’s going. We only know where he is: On the open sea, utterly alone. And when his boat springs a leak, that’s some bad, bad news for Our Man.

For the rest of the film, Our Man struggles to simply survive out there, working to patch his boat, fix his radio, find a way to save himself. One of the few words uttered in the entire film is a primal f-word, screamed in frustration. (Honestly, if I was in as equally perilous position, I might utter a few choice words myself.)

In snippets of letters, we hear hints of his backstory: How he feels he failed his family in so many ways. That he’d not been as loving as he could’ve been.

We get the sense that, long before he boarded his boat, Our Man still lived and moved very much alone.

All Is Lost works as a tremendous, daring story of peril and adventure, but it’s also a metaphor for how he, and so many of us, live lives alone. We pride ourselves on our self-reliance. We don’t like asking for help. Sometimes, we shove away the people who care for us most in our own pride and self-security.

Sometimes, only when we’re sinking, do we ever reach for help. And so Our Man finally does—the moment when all seems lost indeed.

In my review of the film, I wrote this for Plugged In:

All Is Lost is not a Christian movie, [but] there’s something spiritually profound in the fact that, for all of Our Man’s laudable efforts to save himself, in the end he needs help, someone else to save him—a hand from above, reaching out to pull him from his isolation and disaster.

As Christians, we believe that that saving hand is ultimately God’s. But it can come from people around us too, as it does here. We can’t live this life alone. We need community. We need help. We need friends and family to pick us up when we’re down—sometimes very literally.

If you haven’t seen All Is Lost—and gathering from the $6.2 million it made in theaters, that’s a lot of you—it’s worth a look. Redford is at his very best, and the story sticks. It’s available to stream on Hulu or Amazon Prime for free right now. You won’t be disappointed.

Previous Post

August 2, 2018

Four Great Lessons from Christopher Robin (With a Spiritual Twist)

Next Post

August 9, 2018 Move Over, Odysseus: Christopher Robin Takes a Classic Hero's Journey

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category books celebrities Editor's Choice games movies music news sports superheroes television Uncategorized

Select a Month May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 December 2025 October 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 September 2023 March 2023 February 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 December 2021 October 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 October 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

How many verses are in the shortest chapter in the Bible?

Select your answer to see how you score.

5 2 7 10

Books by This Author Books by Paul Asay

See All Titles »