Robert Redford Part 9

"Of course there was economic fallout," says d.i.c.k Ayres, working with the NRDC. "But you have to measure it contextually. What do you do? Allow one generation to thrive at the cost of a loss to all future generations? The truth was, Cal Edison planned an 'oil by wire' monster that would have ruined the Grand StaircaseEscalante [national monument area] forever. That was an unacceptable loss, and Bob reversed it." Still, Redford felt empathy for those disappointed by the lost immediate financial advantages of Cal Edison investment: "There's no question that low-income folk suffered. But a quick fix that damaged our heritage was not the answer. As I saw it-and Ted, Stewart and many others-this was a one-issue case. We were certainly not dumping on Utahans. There were battles to be fought in Utah and elsewhere for fair educational opportunities, for jobs, for Indian rights, for species protection. We understood this. But this was about conservation. And one important thing emerged from all the furor about Kaiparowits: plain and simple, people understood very little about environmental threat."

It was the greatest irony that the Nixon administration could claim environmental achievements-it saw in the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency (pollution control) and the pa.s.sage of the Environmental Quality Policy Act (monitoring impact statements), the National Air Quality Standards Act (monitoring auto emissions), the Resource Recovery Act (controlling recycling) and the Water Pollution Act. But Nixon certainly never deserved all the credit. Some of those achievements were the result of work by eco-activists in Congress and a handful of lobbyists like Nader and the scientist Barry Commoner. The Water Pollution Act, for example, survived Nixon's veto, and the first Clean Air Act in 1970, championed by Senator Edmund Muskie, only won Nixon's support as a political maneuver to counteract Muskie's rising popularity as a Democratic presidential candidate. Probing this deeper understanding of environmental politics horrified Redford. In 1970 Americans const.i.tuted less than 6 percent of the world's population but used 40 percent of the earth's resources while producing 50 percent of global pollution emissions. Cheap energy, almost half of which was imported oil, powered the rapid economic growth, but when OPEC embargoed oil in 1973 and sent prices soaring, the advocates of unrestricted domestic development for self-sufficiency-of ma.s.sive strip mining, offsh.o.r.e oil drilling and relaxation of environmental regulations-took center stage. After Earth Day in 1969, the work of Barry Commoner and the NRDC dented public apathy by creating an awareness of imminent irreversible ecological damage and inspiring pockets of activism akin to the civil rights and antiwar movements of the sixties. But the sustainable development lobby was inconsistent at best and in danger of being lost under the economic exigencies of successive administrations dealing with recession and inflation.

"Education was the answer," says d.i.c.k Ayres. "But people have an extraordinary difficulty with the word 'education.' Too often it implies self-discipline or personal reform, and there's a natural resistance to such things." Redford believes, "The message was pure. We are in stewards.h.i.+p of the earth. We have a moral obligation. We accomplished something morally important at Kaiparowits and I had hoped it would advance a trend. I believed the country was ready for change. We finally had a liberal Democratic Congress that was becoming truly energized. Jimmy Carter was headed for office. The confluence of factors was telling us that for the first time in fifteen years we were ready for social reform."

In the run-up to the election Redford dedicated himself to study. He had aligned with the Utah Native American Consortium and dedicated a slice of his time to two PBS doc.u.mentaries, The New Indians The New Indians and and The Wolf Equation, The Wolf Equation, which were further ecological wake-up calls. All this work concentrated him on the battleground of wilderness preservation. In Ford's last days in office, Congress had ordered the Bureau of Land Management to survey all roadless areas to establish new wilderness designations in the Federal Lands Policy Management Act, an extension of the 1964 Wilderness Act. Redford saw this as a golden opportunity to widen debate about the environment. Addressing the use of land was critical because of the recent movement of the population. Over the last fifteen years, Americans had started migrating en ma.s.se to the Sun Belt of the South and southwestern states, where populations had doubled since 1960. Arizona, his next-door neighbor, had shown a population growth of 25 percent in five years. "Clearly resources were already strained, and the situation would worsen," he felt. "I thought this was a marvelous thumbnail to bring to the attention of the next administration to show how quickly we were losing ground to civilization changes and consequent mismanagement of what we had." Along with John Adams and NRDC, which was immersed in clean air initiatives, Redford prepared doc.u.mentation to land on the next president's desk. which were further ecological wake-up calls. All this work concentrated him on the battleground of wilderness preservation. In Ford's last days in office, Congress had ordered the Bureau of Land Management to survey all roadless areas to establish new wilderness designations in the Federal Lands Policy Management Act, an extension of the 1964 Wilderness Act. Redford saw this as a golden opportunity to widen debate about the environment. Addressing the use of land was critical because of the recent movement of the population. Over the last fifteen years, Americans had started migrating en ma.s.se to the Sun Belt of the South and southwestern states, where populations had doubled since 1960. Arizona, his next-door neighbor, had shown a population growth of 25 percent in five years. "Clearly resources were already strained, and the situation would worsen," he felt. "I thought this was a marvelous thumbnail to bring to the attention of the next administration to show how quickly we were losing ground to civilization changes and consequent mismanagement of what we had." Along with John Adams and NRDC, which was immersed in clean air initiatives, Redford prepared doc.u.mentation to land on the next president's desk.

During the primaries, Carter summoned a number of study groups to his headquarters in Plains, Georgia. Redford visited, representing the Hollywood PAC contingent, with his land use doc.u.mentation. "I was under no misapprehension of what he was looking for," says Redford. "It was power alliances. I liked his plain talking. He was interested in the same thing FDR was interested in: the voice of the common man." Redford, though, had learned his lessons from Joan Claybrook. In the final a.n.a.lysis, Carter was as unfocused on the issues that seemed critical-energy and the environment-as the Republicans before him. But Redford was not dissuaded. "I thought, He's looking for the Hollywood endors.e.m.e.nt from me. So I'll look for something from him. I'll play by the rules of the game."

Two years before, the governor of Idaho, Cecil Andrus, a renowned environmentalist, had written a fan letter to Redford, inviting him to bring film business to the state. In his research Redford had discovered that Andrus had made conservation his main concern in Idaho, a state as fundamentally conservative as Utah. Like Redford, Andrus had tackled a major power plant-Pioneer, near Boise-and blocked strip mining in the White Cloud Mountains. A friends.h.i.+p developed and Andrus became, says Redford, part of his "education team." Now Redford decided to employ Andrus as a bargaining tool. Without guilt, he pressured Carter into considering Andrus for the job of secretary of the interior. "I don't think Carter had anyone in sight, but I knew Cecil's values, I knew we were both motivated by Earth Day concerns and I knew he would be a big a.s.set for the country if Carter continued to be under pressure with rising oil prices and the moves to increase our own oil production."

When Carter was elected, Andrus got the Interior job. Joan Claybrook, too, took a post in the new administration. Redford thought the appointments were critical, since Carter "had no energy or environment policy to begin with." The overarching national energy crisis focused everyone. Nixon and Ford administration policy had been to counter oil price hikes by extending leases for drilling along the southeastern coast. Carter wanted retrenchment, initially with the emphasis on limiting leases. Andrus proved hugely influential, and his impact on the new policy was evident by April 1977 when, in a television speech, Carter cited the resolution of the energy crisis as having the importance of "the moral equivalent of war." But the continued high oil prices, exacerbated by the Iran crisis, weakened Andrus's hand and compromised his determination to apply conservation measures based on alternative energy sources. Elsewhere, he lost the fight to roll the Interior Department, the Forest Service and other resource agencies into one department of natural resources. Redford was disappointed. According to the timber industry, the scheme failed because the argument for unity was unclear; according to Andrus, it failed-despite Carter's open-mindedness-because of White House hubris. "Here in the West is example after example in which the administration wouldn't listen to experienced voices, or mismanaged a problem, and it turned people off," said Andrus, "The inside-the-Beltway crowd blew the one real chance they had to get some much needed rangeland reform."

John Adams and the NRDC continued to deploy legal arguments to force strong new provisions in a revised Clean Water Act, and in this, at least, there was success. Adams was very appreciative of Carter's and Andrus's support in this effort-but mostly of Redford's. "He was not properly credited with that achievement," says Adams. "Those revisions got voted through largely because of Bob's awareness campaign. He was here, there and everywhere at that time, writing letters to congressmen, pillorying people in business, taking meetings with Andrus, popping up on radio spots all over the nation, week after week." Adams calculates that Redford alone was responsible for increasing NRDC members.h.i.+p by a hundred thousand. "He became the face of clean air, but he was much more than that. Bob was an ideas generator, and though Andrus-and ultimately Carter-were frustrated in office by the events in the Middle East overtaking them, they always had Bob in their sight as a reformer. They always had room for him."

In an effort to bolster CAN, Redford launched another awareness program with the Environmental Defense Fund, this time to publicize cancer-causing agents in pervasive, nationwide pollution. He set up a spin-off, Citizens Action Now, a variation of Consumer Action Now, structured like the Business Roundtable, which raised $50 million a year to lobby for solar, geothermal and other alternative energy sources. NRDC did the heavy lifting, then Redford persuaded Ted Ashley at Warners to become involved. "This was two or three years before the nuclear meltdown at Three Mile Island," says Redford, "so we had no bad publicity from the energy sector working in our favor. But what it boiled down to was profile. We knew the Business Roundtable was powerful, but we also knew we could match their profile in the media. They were committed to more drilling, more strip mining, more nuclear excess. We were pledged to reduce all of it."

Warners arranged sixteen special premieres across the country to raise money for this "Hollywood CAN," and Redford flew to Nashville to drum up support from performers like Willie Nelson, Charlie Daniels, Waylon Jennings and Harry Chapin. An ambitious series of benefit concerts was planned, but ran out of steam after the premiere event with Daniels. In the end, says Redford, Hollywood CAN went the way of Carter's energy policy. "We were too uncoordinated, just like Carter's camp. We naively believed activists of the same stripe fight together. They don't. Ralph Nader is a great guy, but his first interest is Ralph Nader. We partnered with his Congress Watch on the basis of splitting the monies fifty-fifty. It's sad to admit that bureaucracy-including our own admin-istrative slowness-bogged it all down." A decade later, such global ini-tiatives as Bob Geldof's Live Aid would prove the curative value of high-profile music fund-raisers. Hollywood CAN, alas, raised little and lasted less than a year.

What Redford had achieved in a year of hunkering down with Andrus was a personal understanding of diplomacy. "There was no use in throwing stones. I began to understand that the sustainable development issue was a coming together of big business and special interest groups and legislators in goodwill, to shared ends. Today, in the twenty-first century, we see the undisputed problems with global warming. Thirty years ago, it was just a dim warning light flickering away. But we had to find a way to tackle it, and I believed this couldn't be resolved with a big stick. We needed camaraderie."

With Andrus, Redford sketched out a potential National Academy of Resources. In 1978 he laid it out for the Los Angeles Herald Examiner. Los Angeles Herald Examiner. The academy would be The academy would be a specialized inst.i.tution for the higher studies of our natural resources and wouldn't specialize only in environmental preservation. The academy would be all-inclusive in respect of the various disciplines that guide our use of resources, including biology, zoology, oceanography, geomorphology and environmental law. It would be a defense academy of our resources in much the same way that West Point, Annapolis, and the Air Force Academy exist for our armed defenses. The resource academy would be designed to educate people about the nature of our resources and to establish guidelines for which resources should be preserved intact, and which should be developed in the safest, cleanest, most efficient way. The academy would be funded by the Department of the Interior and therefore would be able to utilize its facilities around the country, such as the national parks.

The academy went down like Hollywood CAN. "It failed," says Redford, "partly because it had to get past Energy Secretary James R. Schlesinger, who was well intentioned but just about the worst person to take Carter's policies to the public. It really annoyed me, but I didn't quit."

If the government wouldn't produce the working model, he resolved to do it himself.

It was one thing to preach conservation and energy restraint, another to practice it.

After Redford decided on a sabbatical from film, two priorities took precedence beyond politics: family and reordering Sundance as a model of self-sufficient eco-friendliness. The previous fall he had started planning a radical new home just up the meadow from the A-frame that would encompa.s.s cutting-edge design techniques and energy-saving devices. To develop it, he sought out the innovative architect Abe Christensen, who was currently exploring uses of solar and alternative sources in design. Construction of the house, affectionately tagged the Big House, would serve as a model for a scheme Christensen and Redford agreed on to build moderately priced solar-heated homes throughout Utah. In tandem with the new house, Redford decided to expand Sundance business into farming and horse breeding, nonpolluting initiatives long native to the area that would help fund the ailing resort.

As building commenced, Redford sent out the word about suitable new farmland. Brent Beck found a fifty-six-acre farm called Spanish Fork at the mouth of the canyon and, on a cross-country flight, Redford told Gary Hendler he wanted to buy it. Hendler said it made no commercial sense. "That was a blessing," says Redford, "because I could then say to Gary, 'Okay, let's make changes: from now on you guide my tax affairs. I do not want guidance in my arts work or my businesses.'" The next day, Hendler called from Los Angeles to recommend a new adviser, his mild-mannered office manager, Reg Gipson. Gipson, a lawyer in his early thirties, was the Idaho-born son of a missionary who had reared his family in rural India. He recalls Hendler summoning him in some confusion: "Gary a.s.sumed that I'd have some agricultural experience, since I grew up on a mission settlement. I didn't. But I did know you don't buy a ranch from the comforts of an urban office. I flew to Utah to check out the water rights, sorted it and bought the ranch. So began Bob's next phase of experiment with Sundance."

Spanish Fork, rechristened Diamond Fork Ranch, became the base for breeding Arabian and quarter horses, an operation that ran for ten years until another farm, Charleston, replaced it and Redford started growing crops. Acres of corn, sugar beets, tomatoes and alfalfa were sown just a mile or two from Christensen's new homestead. Jerry Hill, officially the mountain manager, served as a general overseer and worried that Sundance had overstepped. "We were still the same small group of caretakers, but the lands we were supervising grew. The task list became bigger and bigger. I've been in this area since I was a kid, and it was weird to see the canyon become like a little town. It just kept growing and growing. I thought, It'll be real hard to keep up with all this. I also thought, A lot of the folk around here will resent Redford's determination to keep expanding."

Regardless of Redford's motivation, the very sight of new faces on the canyon roads, of builders and surveyors and flatbed trucks piled with newly quarried stone, incited new waves of fury. The American League for Industry and Vital Energy was quick to add to its list of offenses. Its well-circulated handout detailed every transgression: "Whereas, Mr. Redford has laid waste a great swath of timber lands in Provo Canyon for his own personal aggrandizement. Whereas, Mr. Redford delights in the unnecessary utilization of electric power for night skiing at his resort. Whereas, Mr. Redford has reputedly wasted a great deal of propane gas in the heating of his present home. Whereas, Mr. Redford is despoiling a beautiful meadow to build a new $600,000 home with an unsightly cyclone fence surrounding it. Whereas, Mr. Redford has supposedly secured a quarter-million-dollar grant from a federal agency to develop solar power for his new home...."

Anguished, Redford chose not to respond. "We were sitting ducks," he says, "because Lola and I had affiliations outside the state that were not of the Utah tradition. The fact that CAN had established a lobbying office in Was.h.i.+ngton with a specific mandate for solar energy development didn't sit well with the Utah energy lobbyists. The fact that we were partnering with the Smithsonian to install educational solar displays in the Science and Technology Hall was considered some kind of scam. All these factors were twisted into presenting us as counterculture radicals who were crippling the state's economy. We were the villains in their midst."

It didn't help that all the Redfords had severed their Mormon links. Brent Beck, Jerry Hill, Stan Collins and most of the other resort supervisors remained active Mormons; much of the junior staff-the farmhands, restaurant waiters and ski attendants-came from Brigham Young University; many of the day-trippers were local Mormons. But the Redfords stood apart. "Since the early seventies Mom had lost interest in the church customs," says Shauna. "Dad wanted to distance himself, too. For him, it was more an ongoing tussle with the Mormon infrastructure-the day-to-day dealings with staff and businesspeople-than any religious disenchantment. From a spiritual point of view, he was on another path entirely."

Redford strove hard to recover domestic normality, though time and age had enforced a fragmentation. For Lola and the children life was still centered around schooling in New York, with summers in the canyon and skiing en famille en famille with Tom Brokaw and his family, usually at Vail, Colorado, in the winters. Shauna cherished her father's determination to keep the family order going. "We'd all arrive in Utah in early June and break up on Labor Day-that became the hard-and-fast rule. When we were together, we did the normal things, though Dad's restlessness meant we were always in motion. He wasn't a sit-down-and-watch-TV dad. He liked to play tennis, take a sauna, swim, build a fence. He did it with all of us, but he and I made a special connection when we took out the horses. I valued my time on horseback with him. We discussed everything under the sun. I wanted to study art, and he was supportive. The fact that he'd not been encouraged as a child made him want to make up, I think." For Amy, who was five, the bright physicality of her father's presence was enough: "He was a movie star, so he was often absent. I took for granted that that's how life was. But when he was there, he was this vortex that came along and swept me into all kinds of sports and activities. I loved him for that child-energy." with Tom Brokaw and his family, usually at Vail, Colorado, in the winters. Shauna cherished her father's determination to keep the family order going. "We'd all arrive in Utah in early June and break up on Labor Day-that became the hard-and-fast rule. When we were together, we did the normal things, though Dad's restlessness meant we were always in motion. He wasn't a sit-down-and-watch-TV dad. He liked to play tennis, take a sauna, swim, build a fence. He did it with all of us, but he and I made a special connection when we took out the horses. I valued my time on horseback with him. We discussed everything under the sun. I wanted to study art, and he was supportive. The fact that he'd not been encouraged as a child made him want to make up, I think." For Amy, who was five, the bright physicality of her father's presence was enough: "He was a movie star, so he was often absent. I took for granted that that's how life was. But when he was there, he was this vortex that came along and swept me into all kinds of sports and activities. I loved him for that child-energy."

Jamie, however, was struggling. He was p.r.o.ne to stomach ailments diagnosed as irritable bowel syndrome, and by his mid-teens his general health was unstable. At Dalton his grades were bad, and his only interest was drama: "But, like Dad, I'm superst.i.tious. I read the signs. And the signs told me early on that acting was not for me." In fifth grade Jamie wrote a school adaptation of The Iliad; The Iliad; he was offered the lead but, true to his father's perverse nature, chose instead "the bad-a.s.s b.a.s.t.a.r.d" Achilles. "Everything in that play informed me I would never be the next Robert Redford. First, my helmet didn't fit, so it was a struggle to hear the lines. Then, when Odysseus comes onstage to beg Achilles to join him in battle, I had my best lines, which ended, 'Forget it, I shall sit in my tent and wait till Agamemnon comes.' When I opened my mouth, out came, 'I shall s.h.i.+t in my tent.'" he was offered the lead but, true to his father's perverse nature, chose instead "the bad-a.s.s b.a.s.t.a.r.d" Achilles. "Everything in that play informed me I would never be the next Robert Redford. First, my helmet didn't fit, so it was a struggle to hear the lines. Then, when Odysseus comes onstage to beg Achilles to join him in battle, I had my best lines, which ended, 'Forget it, I shall sit in my tent and wait till Agamemnon comes.' When I opened my mouth, out came, 'I shall s.h.i.+t in my tent.'"

Increasingly Jamie drifted toward music for self-expression and would soon become a fixture on the club scene, hanging out at Manhattan's Studio 54 until "the potentially lethal atmosphere for a kid with money and an a.s.sociation with fame drove me for cover." Utah, in the circ.u.mstances, was an escape, though Jamie, who had no interest in horses, related to it as a boyhood laboratory where he had learned to ski and discipline himself with hard labor. Now he preferred to strut the deck that faced Timpanogos, with his amp turned to the max, blaring Eric Clapton riffs across the canyon. "I saw that Dad was putting more time and energy into Utah, but I also saw Mom at the center of this strong group of CAN women that tugged at her time. It was a family situation where trouble lay ahead."

Christensen's eco-home, Redford hoped, would be the magnet to draw the family back together. But as the demands of the new farm and horse business grew, Redford was prematurely forced to contemplate Hollywood work again. "I never made a movie decision based on money," he says. "But that year was the exception." All the President's Men All the President's Men had proved a phenomenon throughout had proved a phenomenon throughout 1976, 1976, winning three New York Film Critics Circle awards and four Oscars, among them best supporting actor for Jason Robards and the one for Bill Goldman as screenwriter. The competing films that year included winning three New York Film Critics Circle awards and four Oscars, among them best supporting actor for Jason Robards and the one for Bill Goldman as screenwriter. The competing films that year included Rocky Rocky and and Taxi Driver, Taxi Driver, movies that introduced new contenders to the Hollywood A-list in Stallone and De Niro. The following year brought movies that introduced new contenders to the Hollywood A-list in Stallone and De Niro. The following year brought Star Wars Star Wars and the sweeping technology revolution. But Redford was still in demand. Prospective projects poured in. Even Hitchc.o.c.k, preparing his swan song, and the sweeping technology revolution. But Redford was still in demand. Prospective projects poured in. Even Hitchc.o.c.k, preparing his swan song, Family Plot, Family Plot, expressed interest. Redford was "thinking differently. I knew acting per se was no longer enough. Directing now took center stage in my thinking. I knew nothing about the technicalities of cameras. All I knew was from observing great talents like Gordon Willis and Duke Callaghan. But I began to imagine some story I could visualize on-screen, with absolute control, like a painter." He asked Barbara Maltby, a CAN friend, to try to find some story "about behavior and feelings" and was surprised when she quickly gave him the galleys of a novel by Michigan-born Judith Guest, a great-niece of the poet laureate Edgar Guest, called expressed interest. Redford was "thinking differently. I knew acting per se was no longer enough. Directing now took center stage in my thinking. I knew nothing about the technicalities of cameras. All I knew was from observing great talents like Gordon Willis and Duke Callaghan. But I began to imagine some story I could visualize on-screen, with absolute control, like a painter." He asked Barbara Maltby, a CAN friend, to try to find some story "about behavior and feelings" and was surprised when she quickly gave him the galleys of a novel by Michigan-born Judith Guest, a great-niece of the poet laureate Edgar Guest, called Ordinary People, Ordinary People, about a dysfunctional family's attempts to survive. "It hit me very profoundly. The point of contact for me with a script or story was always, Do I know these people? I did know the characters in about a dysfunctional family's attempts to survive. "It hit me very profoundly. The point of contact for me with a script or story was always, Do I know these people? I did know the characters in Ordinary People. Ordinary People. They were people I'd met at the university, wealthy North Sh.o.r.e Chicagoans who dealt in a specific way with issues of solution finding and communication. The book was about just that: communication. A family is in distress with the death of one son, and the mother can no longer relate to her remaining son or her husband. How do they communicate their inner feelings? How do they go forward?" Redford called the writer Alvin Sargent, and Wildwood commissioned a script. "But I had no idea where to start mounting such a production. Who would trust me to direct? I knew one thing: I wouldn't make money from it. It was a labor of love." They were people I'd met at the university, wealthy North Sh.o.r.e Chicagoans who dealt in a specific way with issues of solution finding and communication. The book was about just that: communication. A family is in distress with the death of one son, and the mother can no longer relate to her remaining son or her husband. How do they communicate their inner feelings? How do they go forward?" Redford called the writer Alvin Sargent, and Wildwood commissioned a script. "But I had no idea where to start mounting such a production. Who would trust me to direct? I knew one thing: I wouldn't make money from it. It was a labor of love."

But money he needed, and a remarkable opportunity fell into his lap. The British actor-director Richard Attenborough had been trying for years to mount a film on Gandhi. When the project stumbled for the umpteenth time, a producer friend, Joe Levine, offered him an alternative. Levine was a onetime garment maker who started his Hollywood career distributing Italian musclemen movies before producing significant successes like The Graduate The Graduate and and The Lion in Winter. The Lion in Winter. While neither as prolific nor as discerning as Sam Spiegel, Levine had sound instincts and was happy to package Fellini's While neither as prolific nor as discerning as Sam Spiegel, Levine had sound instincts and was happy to package Fellini's 8 8 for American distribution alongside Steve Reeves's for American distribution alongside Steve Reeves's Hercules, Hercules, despite the fact that he personally considered Fellini "as phony as a gla.s.s eye." Whether the barons of established Hollywood yet took him seriously, Levine was undeniably a force in maverick moviemaking and was known for his clever marketplace footwork. He had earned more than $30 million from despite the fact that he personally considered Fellini "as phony as a gla.s.s eye." Whether the barons of established Hollywood yet took him seriously, Levine was undeniably a force in maverick moviemaking and was known for his clever marketplace footwork. He had earned more than $30 million from The Graduate The Graduate and pushed much of it back into his company, Avco Emba.s.sy. When it stalled, he set about establis.h.i.+ng a new venture, the Joseph E. Levine Presents company, whose flags.h.i.+p, he decided, would be a prestige cla.s.sic. and pushed much of it back into his company, Avco Emba.s.sy. When it stalled, he set about establis.h.i.+ng a new venture, the Joseph E. Levine Presents company, whose flags.h.i.+p, he decided, would be a prestige cla.s.sic.

During a conversation in a bar in Los Angeles, seventy-year-old Levine explained to Attenborough his pa.s.sion for A Bridge Too Far, A Bridge Too Far, Cornelius Ryan's posthumously published book detailing the Allies' attempt to foreshorten the war in Europe in September 1944. Attenborough saw immediately that the project was as complex as any potential Cornelius Ryan's posthumously published book detailing the Allies' attempt to foreshorten the war in Europe in September 1944. Attenborough saw immediately that the project was as complex as any potential Gandhi, Gandhi, and that though Levine constantly invoked another Ryan opus, and that though Levine constantly invoked another Ryan opus, The Longest Day, The Longest Day, which had been a triumph for Fox in 1962, the dramatic dynamics of the stories had little in common. which had been a triumph for Fox in 1962, the dramatic dynamics of the stories had little in common. The Longest Day The Longest Day concerned the success of D-Day. concerned the success of D-Day. A Bridge Too Far A Bridge Too Far was the account of Operation Market Garden, a story of failure. During the fated mission, nine thousand airborne troops had slipped behind enemy lines with the objective of taking the bridge across the Rhine at Arnhem; only six hundred survived to dig in and fight two elite panzer divisions with small arms. Unquestionably the event was laden with tales of individual heroism, but the campaign was defined by its gross mismanagement. was the account of Operation Market Garden, a story of failure. During the fated mission, nine thousand airborne troops had slipped behind enemy lines with the objective of taking the bridge across the Rhine at Arnhem; only six hundred survived to dig in and fight two elite panzer divisions with small arms. Unquestionably the event was laden with tales of individual heroism, but the campaign was defined by its gross mismanagement.

"You can fool all of the people all of the time," Joe Levine famously said, "if the advice is right and the budget is big enough." And he was ready to throw countless millions into A Bridge Too Far. A Bridge Too Far. Attenborough was impressed by Levine's stated desire to make a tribute to fallen heroes. "We've had three decades of lousy noisefests like Attenborough was impressed by Levine's stated desire to make a tribute to fallen heroes. "We've had three decades of lousy noisefests like Midway, Midway," Levine told a journalist in 1977. "All those movies were self-congratulating. Operation Market Garden couldn't be like that. It had to be honest and compa.s.sionate because it was about the self-sacrifice of forgotten men." Attenborough was persuaded by the sentiment, the star-studded vision Levine had-and the $20 million budget, part pledged by United Artists, a company then cruising on its James Bond profits. UA was in for distribution, though only on condition that Levine could supply more than a dozen high-profile stars in the style of The Longest Day. The Longest Day. Levine instructed Attenborough to go out and find the biggest names around. It was then agreed that Bill Goldman would be the screenwriter. Levine instructed Attenborough to go out and find the biggest names around. It was then agreed that Bill Goldman would be the screenwriter.

In a matter of weeks, and without a script yet, Attenborough had secured the services of Michael Caine, Sean Connery, Dirk Bogarde, Laurence Olivier and a number of other notable British stars, many of whom were friends of his. "Once we had that ring of quality," said Levine, "we went for Hollywood."

The offer to Redford came during the height of the excitement about All the President's Men All the President's Men. Attenborough was in Holland a.s.sembling a demi-army and wanted a name to fill the lead role of Major Julian Cook. Steve McQueen had been offered the part and was procrastinating. At first Redford demurred. He had made his commitment to lobbying, family and Sundance. Hendler, though, saw a golden moment. McQueen was driving the fee higher and higher, Levine was running out of time...and suddenly Redford, if he accepted the role, would be able to cover the extra costs incurred in developing his property. Hendler closed the deal, securing a record-breaking $2 million, with very lucrative penalty money for Redford if the movie overran.

Whereas at first the role seemed to Redford "like a name in a telephone directory," there was a sentimental dimension for him. Operation Market Garden was a prelude to the Third Army thrust during which his uncle David was killed. "In that way A Bridge Too Far A Bridge Too Far was a kind of homage to Uncle David. I'd never been to the battlefield area where he died. The movie gave me a chance to visit his grave in Luxembourg and acknowledge him in a personal way." was a kind of homage to Uncle David. I'd never been to the battlefield area where he died. The movie gave me a chance to visit his grave in Luxembourg and acknowledge him in a personal way."

Levine sweated like a workhorse, he said, to make his movie work. "Darryl Zanuck had the best advantage with The Longest Day The Longest Day because the heroes die in his movie. That makes for a dramatic audience experience. We were faced with the opposite. None of the leading guys died, and then the mission failed. Add to that all the different skirmishes, the airborne a.s.sault with gliders, the ground attacks, the planes, the boats, the tanks, the parachutes, and it was because the heroes die in his movie. That makes for a dramatic audience experience. We were faced with the opposite. None of the leading guys died, and then the mission failed. Add to that all the different skirmishes, the airborne a.s.sault with gliders, the ground attacks, the planes, the boats, the tanks, the parachutes, and it was War and Peace. War and Peace. d.i.c.kie [Attenborough] worked harder than any director I have ever known just getting the military hardware right. He was having daily breakdowns trying to negotiate with the Dutch and the Brits and the Germans to borrow guns, tanks, trucks, and everything else we couldn't afford to build. I regarded that movie as a nightmare. Gratifying, but a nightmare." d.i.c.kie [Attenborough] worked harder than any director I have ever known just getting the military hardware right. He was having daily breakdowns trying to negotiate with the Dutch and the Brits and the Germans to borrow guns, tanks, trucks, and everything else we couldn't afford to build. I regarded that movie as a nightmare. Gratifying, but a nightmare."

Goldman overcame the inherent dramatic weakness by redefining the scenario simply as "a story about the cavalry that arrives too late." The roles of the lesser ranks who fought and died were beefed up. Redford liked the approach: "The risk with the story was always diffusion. It was a three-hour movie doc.u.menting parallel stories about the parachute a.s.saults from the 1st British, the 82nd American and the 101st American Airborne Infantry paving the way for the main British thrust. That's a lot of moving targets, a lot of talking heads, a lot for the audience to comprehend and remember." Employing immediately recognizable faces-Ryan O'Neal, James Caan and Anthony Hopkins, among others-solved the problem. "I normally dislike movies that rely on star casting, but this time it seemed valid for plot clarity." There was also much to admire, he felt, in the sharp-focus roles written for Caan, playing a lowly sergeant who fights for his principles, and Anthony Hopkins, as Lieutenant Colonel John Frost, the tenacious frontline British commander. Redford came to love his own irascible character, Cook, who unwittingly led his men into a ma.s.sacre while crossing the Waal River to back up the Arnhem bridge defenders. Among the most moving moments in a movie every bit as full of action and as noisy as Midway Midway was Cook's conducting his men in the communal recitation of the Hail Mary as they dove into battle. "Bill gave me some good words to work with," says Redford. "That role could easily have been a cipher, but the choices that Attenborough and Goldman made gave it a great dignity." was Cook's conducting his men in the communal recitation of the Hail Mary as they dove into battle. "Bill gave me some good words to work with," says Redford. "That role could easily have been a cipher, but the choices that Attenborough and Goldman made gave it a great dignity."

Though A Bridge Too Far A Bridge Too Far took six months to shoot, Redford was in Holland just four weeks. Throughout the shoot at Deventer, thirty miles north of Arnhem, he was hounded by the media as never before. When Costa-Gavras, the Greek director of took six months to shoot, Redford was in Holland just four weeks. Throughout the shoot at Deventer, thirty miles north of Arnhem, he was hounded by the media as never before. When Costa-Gavras, the Greek director of Z, Z, invited him to dine in Paris, he fled willingly. "I was trying to escape the craziness," says Redford, "because Europe was saturated with invited him to dine in Paris, he fled willingly. "I was trying to escape the craziness," says Redford, "because Europe was saturated with All the President's Men, All the President's Men, and by a.s.sociation I was being connected with the downfall of Richard Nixon. I'd rarely had to use personal security guards, but the violations were freaky. One German newspaper sent a naked woman to my hotel room with a birthday cake, presumably to get a scandal story. The paparazzi were all over Deventer like flies. One New York guy even flew to Amsterdam, spending a fortune in time and dollars just to get one candid shot. I naively thought, If I get away from the production location, I'll be fine. Paris will be a break from all that madness." and by a.s.sociation I was being connected with the downfall of Richard Nixon. I'd rarely had to use personal security guards, but the violations were freaky. One German newspaper sent a naked woman to my hotel room with a birthday cake, presumably to get a scandal story. The paparazzi were all over Deventer like flies. One New York guy even flew to Amsterdam, spending a fortune in time and dollars just to get one candid shot. I naively thought, If I get away from the production location, I'll be fine. Paris will be a break from all that madness."

Sanctuary turned into a circus. "It was worse," Redford recalls. "The crowds outside the restaurant were insane. Gavras's wife was knocked to the sidewalk and I tried to lift her up, but Alan Burry, a publicist present, shouted, 'Don't do it!' The paparazzi would just die to get that shot: Redford helping some broad to her feet. In the end we escaped through the kitchen and I had to run ten blocks back to the hotel." The next day, Burry summoned Century Security, an internationally recognized bodyguard agency. "The guy who ran it knew his stuff," says Redford, "and he chilled me to the bone. This wasn't just fan delirium, he said. Century did some digging to find there was a kidnap plot against me. You could have knocked me over with a feather. A plot against me against me? Why? Who could I have offended so badly? In fact, I had offended the right-wing contingent, the Nixonites. All the President's Men All the President's Men left a stink, and they had me on the hit list. When I was in Paris all those years before, it was predominantly left-wing. Now it was the other way, and the press had me as the Man Who Took Down Nixon. The security guy literally threw me in the back of a car and took off for the border like he was competing at Le Mans. I thought it was melodrama and, to be honest, I believed none of it. I was wrong. We later learned, from an independent investigation, that it was justified, that those people were real, and their order to get me was real. I read the reports, I saw the evidence and it horrified me." left a stink, and they had me on the hit list. When I was in Paris all those years before, it was predominantly left-wing. Now it was the other way, and the press had me as the Man Who Took Down Nixon. The security guy literally threw me in the back of a car and took off for the border like he was competing at Le Mans. I thought it was melodrama and, to be honest, I believed none of it. I was wrong. We later learned, from an independent investigation, that it was justified, that those people were real, and their order to get me was real. I read the reports, I saw the evidence and it horrified me."

A Bridge Too Far was released with great fanfare in June 1977. Redford had seen the rushes of the movie, thought it was fine, thought Hopkins was good, "but overall it was not as good as was released with great fanfare in June 1977. Redford had seen the rushes of the movie, thought it was fine, thought Hopkins was good, "but overall it was not as good as The Longest Day. The Longest Day."

Back tending to his horses in Utah, he surprised himself with the realization that he'd seen just four movies in a year. Only Bunuel's Cet Obscur Objet du Desir Cet Obscur Objet du Desir left a good impression. Woody Allen's left a good impression. Woody Allen's Annie Hall Annie Hall was too parochial for his taste; others were just unmemorable. "I was also not touched by the big new movements in technological and disco films. They seemed hidebound, with nowhere to go in terms of substance." was too parochial for his taste; others were just unmemorable. "I was also not touched by the big new movements in technological and disco films. They seemed hidebound, with nowhere to go in terms of substance."

With Pollack, he resumed work on the script for Robert Penn Warren's A Place to Come To; A Place to Come To; at Wildwood he continued to collaborate on Alvin Sargent's retooling of Judith Guest's novel. Pollack believed his friend was suffering burnout. "I knew him well enough to know when the fire was gone. He was a guy with such remarkable discipline. He was up and out jogging at 7:00 a.m. He was playing tennis in subzero temperatures. He was relentless. But when he was tired, he was ornery and not disciplined, and that's how he had become. We fought a lot over at Wildwood he continued to collaborate on Alvin Sargent's retooling of Judith Guest's novel. Pollack believed his friend was suffering burnout. "I knew him well enough to know when the fire was gone. He was a guy with such remarkable discipline. He was up and out jogging at 7:00 a.m. He was playing tennis in subzero temperatures. He was relentless. But when he was tired, he was ornery and not disciplined, and that's how he had become. We fought a lot over A Place to Come To, A Place to Come To, and that summed up the problem. He was juggling too many sidelines. He needed to stop." and that summed up the problem. He was juggling too many sidelines. He needed to stop."

Redford continued to blend art with activism. He collaborated with Saul Ba.s.s and Charles Eames on a Daliesque animated short promoting alternative energy, called The Solar Film. The Solar Film. Solar energy had become another battle cry of his. Over the weekend of May 36, 1978, to help increase awareness of it, CAN mounted Sun Day, launched with a tribal sunrise ceremony on the steps of the U.N. in New York. Barry Commoner, Margaret Mead, Bishop Paul Moore and Andrew Young were among the event leaders, lecturing and giving media interviews. "Earth Day identified the environmental problems," said Lola. "Sun Day identifies the solutions." Central among the solutions Redford expounded upon in an interview he gave to his friend Tom Brokaw on NBC's Solar energy had become another battle cry of his. Over the weekend of May 36, 1978, to help increase awareness of it, CAN mounted Sun Day, launched with a tribal sunrise ceremony on the steps of the U.N. in New York. Barry Commoner, Margaret Mead, Bishop Paul Moore and Andrew Young were among the event leaders, lecturing and giving media interviews. "Earth Day identified the environmental problems," said Lola. "Sun Day identifies the solutions." Central among the solutions Redford expounded upon in an interview he gave to his friend Tom Brokaw on NBC's Today Today was a national commitment to exploring solar energy for industrial and domestic use along the lines of the Christensen experiment he had committed to at Sundance. This interview incited Mobil Oil to place a large advertis.e.m.e.nt in was a national commitment to exploring solar energy for industrial and domestic use along the lines of the Christensen experiment he had committed to at Sundance. This interview incited Mobil Oil to place a large advertis.e.m.e.nt in The New York Times The New York Times sniping at the principles of Sun Day and defending the practicality of fossil fuels. Herb Schmertz, vice president of Mobil, went so far as to rebuke Redford personally in a letter to the editor. Redford found this "a real victory for the cause, because the fact that they took note meant they were scared. It was the Ralph Nader principle at work again: think globally, act locally, and you shake up the big boys." sniping at the principles of Sun Day and defending the practicality of fossil fuels. Herb Schmertz, vice president of Mobil, went so far as to rebuke Redford personally in a letter to the editor. Redford found this "a real victory for the cause, because the fact that they took note meant they were scared. It was the Ralph Nader principle at work again: think globally, act locally, and you shake up the big boys."

Depending on whom you asked, Redford's compet.i.tion with Lola was either a spur or an omen. President Carter appointed her as EPA representative for the International Year of the Child, and she was now also on the boards of the National Audubon Society, the U.S. Committee for UNICEF, and the Chicago-based National Sudden Infant Death Syndrome Society. "I don't believe their compet.i.tiveness was a negative thing," says Stan Collins, "but it was real enough. Its basis wasn't vanity. It was results. They had their own goals within environmental politics, and they stuck the course." Jamie wasn't so certain. He knew his parents had started marriage counseling, and he feared the end of the marriage was near: "They also had a widening separation of interests. Mom was the great academic politician. Dad wasn't like that. He saw grand themes. Mom would target the fine detail of phosphate damage to crops and carcinogens in the food chain. Dad went for the wide sweep. He was arguing for heritage, tradition and cultural integrity. I admired him for his devotion to anthropology, but I admired him from afar. I was too ill to be of any help."

After years of being attended to by stomach specialists at the Utah Medical Center in Provo, during his senior year at Dalton, Jamie achieved a proactive breakthrough. Watching a PBS television special late one night, he learned about new endoscopy procedures in the GI tract. "Truthfully, I felt that no one had paid enough attention to getting me a proper diagnosis. The feeling always was, 'Hey, Jamie is freaking out again!' I don't blame Dad or Mom. But you can only push the problem on the back burner for so long. After the PBS special, I made the appointment independently and walked into the gastroenterologist's office in New York and handed over my files. The reaction was, 'Oh boy, you have a serious ulcerative colitis condition and you need radical treatment very urgently.'" Redford spotted Jamie's declining health-and the terminal crisis of his marriage-from the corner of his eye. "I was distracted," he admits, "and in error."

A Place to Come To had him fully engaged, more excited than he'd been about any story since the Woodward-Bernstein adventure. had him fully engaged, more excited than he'd been about any story since the Woodward-Bernstein adventure. Close Encounters of the Third Kind Close Encounters of the Third Kind may have been booming at the box office, but that wasn't his kind of film. Robert Penn Warren's epic is about Jed Tewksbury, a southerner whose beginnings remind one of Tot's history and whose resolution tackles the human need for meaning. Tormented by his choice of women, Jed feeds his wandering urge, distinguishes himself as a jock and scholar, fights against the n.a.z.is and becomes a figure of world renown. In the end he addresses the emptiness he still feels in a pilgrimage to his mother's neglected grave: "I thought...maybe I might be able to weep. And if I could weep, something warm and blessed might happen. But I did not lie down. The trouble was, I was afraid that nothing might happen, and I was afraid to take the risk." may have been booming at the box office, but that wasn't his kind of film. Robert Penn Warren's epic is about Jed Tewksbury, a southerner whose beginnings remind one of Tot's history and whose resolution tackles the human need for meaning. Tormented by his choice of women, Jed feeds his wandering urge, distinguishes himself as a jock and scholar, fights against the n.a.z.is and becomes a figure of world renown. In the end he addresses the emptiness he still feels in a pilgrimage to his mother's neglected grave: "I thought...maybe I might be able to weep. And if I could weep, something warm and blessed might happen. But I did not lie down. The trouble was, I was afraid that nothing might happen, and I was afraid to take the risk."

The poetry of Warren's writing, the metaphor, the subtext were what appealed to Redford. In years to come, the books he would choose for his own directorial adaptations would often be distinguished by metaphor and symbolism. "Yes, it was a story you had to reach for," he says. "But it was a terrific Everyman tale. I also thought Penn Warren was neglected, and that his stories were powerfully visual in a way no one explored. I had the highest hopes."

But in the summer of 1978 Pollack announced that the deal he'd been trying to set up with Warners was dead, and that the project was un-doable. Redford agreed that the script they had in progress with David Rayfiel was inadequate, but he was "p.i.s.sed" that Pollack pushed it aside in favor of a new project for Columbia. "I thought we didn't need to quit, and I told Sydney so. We argued some. In the end, the friends.h.i.+p was more important than the film."

In his notebook he records his feelings: Wildwood stationery lies fallow in the briefcase unused. Unnecessary. Accouterments of waste. The swarm of beehive activity is but the noise of antic.i.p.ation. Nothing more. All is calm. No wind blows and no birds sing. Sitting here heavy headed beneath the enveloping shroud of depression and clarity. The clear eye I've waited for. The eye that sees what really is, and there is nothing. Alice in Wonderland Alice in Wonderland is my book. Hollywood has paid me back in full for my disloyalty. Fear and trembling pa.s.s as business as usual. Lying, cheating, treading water, waste, anxiety, resentment, distortion, shallowness are the trade qualities and if you are so possessed-then-you are all right. is my book. Hollywood has paid me back in full for my disloyalty. Fear and trembling pa.s.s as business as usual. Lying, cheating, treading water, waste, anxiety, resentment, distortion, shallowness are the trade qualities and if you are so possessed-then-you are all right.

He was not all right, and he knew it. In a state of suppressed rage he agreed with Pollack to take on The Electric Horseman The Electric Horseman for Columbia. Anything but epic, yet mordantly resonant, it was a movie about a champion rodeo rider and a champion horse abused by commercialism and about to make a valiant escape to more honorable values. It had, for Redford, a poignant biographical ring. for Columbia. Anything but epic, yet mordantly resonant, it was a movie about a champion rodeo rider and a champion horse abused by commercialism and about to make a valiant escape to more honorable values. It had, for Redford, a poignant biographical ring.

17.

Painted Frames America had vastly altered over the last ten years, beginning with the deaths of Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., then with the debacles of Vietnam and Watergate. The dissidents who smoked pot in the Summer of Love became the graduate environmentalists and politicians who, too briefly, breathed hope into the seventies. But while politicians like Jerry Brown, Gary Hart and Jimmy Carter promised much and accomplished little, some significant spiritual ground s.h.i.+ft was undeniable.

Redford's relations.h.i.+p with Pollack had also changed. Over the decade Pollack's career had been consistent. He had made half a dozen movies and enjoyed a stable married life with Claire Griswold and their three children. Redford's career was stellar. This was the decade that gave him superstardom beyond his wildest imaginings, where his name and image were so ubiquitous that even dictionaries listed him under words like "glamour" and "idol." He had acclaim, wealth and opportunity, but he also had a failed marriage. Now, when the men got together, they inclined toward argument. Three of Pollack's six movies that decade were Redford movies. In the same period Redford had made a dozen movies, of which The Sting The Sting and and All the President's Men, All the President's Men, movies unrelated to Pollack, garnered the most attention. When movies unrelated to Pollack, garnered the most attention. When All the President's Men All the President's Men proved so successful, Redford felt Pollack was jealous. Pollack expressed "surprise" that the movie worked at all and told Redford wryly, "I should have done it." Pollack, for his part, found his friend less accommodating and kind. proved so successful, Redford felt Pollack was jealous. Pollack expressed "surprise" that the movie worked at all and told Redford wryly, "I should have done it." Pollack, for his part, found his friend less accommodating and kind.

John Saxon, who joined the cast of The Electric Horseman, The Electric Horseman, saw Redford, fifteen years after they worked together on saw Redford, fifteen years after they worked together on War Hunt, War Hunt, as a man divided. That his fame was "monolithic" Saxon found ironic: "Not least because I was once a studio contract star. I played by the rule book, the studio way, and saw my career terminated by studio decree. Bob did it the other way, by bucking the system. He was an emblem of the new style, where artists took control of their destinies. This was what the seventies were about, from Scorsese to Lucas, from Redford to Stallone." Redford was a decent man, Saxon says, a man who had secured his casting in the film without making any big deal of it: "But he wasn't an easy guy to say thank you to. There was a chasm, a distance he'd put between himself and the rest of the world. I thought, This is the price you pay for that kind of fame." as a man divided. That his fame was "monolithic" Saxon found ironic: "Not least because I was once a studio contract star. I played by the rule book, the studio way, and saw my career terminated by studio decree. Bob did it the other way, by bucking the system. He was an emblem of the new style, where artists took control of their destinies. This was what the seventies were about, from Scorsese to Lucas, from Redford to Stallone." Redford was a decent man, Saxon says, a man who had secured his casting in the film without making any big deal of it: "But he wasn't an easy guy to say thank you to. There was a chasm, a distance he'd put between himself and the rest of the world. I thought, This is the price you pay for that kind of fame."

"I was aware of it," says Redford. "I knew I was facing a sea change. I knew what was coming and it probably made me a tough person to be around."

The Electric Horseman was very much a stopgap that facilitated continuity in the relations.h.i.+p between Pollack and Redford, which might otherwise have fractured irreparably. Its preproduction, according to Pollack's files, was a mess, commenced upon with no script, no coherent casting plan, no sensible scheduling. All they had, in fact, was an agreement to make a movie for Ray Stark's company, Rastar, to be distributed by Columbia. Part of the trouble, said Pollack, was that he had panicked when was very much a stopgap that facilitated continuity in the relations.h.i.+p between Pollack and Redford, which might otherwise have fractured irreparably. Its preproduction, according to Pollack's files, was a mess, commenced upon with no script, no coherent casting plan, no sensible scheduling. All they had, in fact, was an agreement to make a movie for Ray Stark's company, Rastar, to be distributed by Columbia. Part of the trouble, said Pollack, was that he had panicked when A Place to Come To A Place to Come To failed to gel and had rummaged around Stark's optioned projects until he found this oddball outline from the mid-sixties that was sure to interest Redford. Redford had been speculating about making a rodeo movie for years; Pollack thought Sh.e.l.ly Burton's treatment was a perfect fit. Later Steve Bernhardt, Redford's old friend from the Emerson Junior High days, would contend it was he who, years before, sent failed to gel and had rummaged around Stark's optioned projects until he found this oddball outline from the mid-sixties that was sure to interest Redford. Redford had been speculating about making a rodeo movie for years; Pollack thought Sh.e.l.ly Burton's treatment was a perfect fit. Later Steve Bernhardt, Redford's old friend from the Emerson Junior High days, would contend it was he who, years before, sent The Electric Horseman The Electric Horseman to Redford. Redford believes Bernhardt may be right: "The seventies were awash with script submissions." to Redford. Redford believes Bernhardt may be right: "The seventies were awash with script submissions."

In the story, Sonny Steele, an exrodeo rider, is employed by a multinational corporation called Ampco to promote Ranch cereal, riding a doped show horse around at entertainment spots. Anesthetized with alcohol, Sonny goes AWOL. The original story went only as far as Sonny's flight from the venality of Las Vegas to the great outdoors and leaned heavily on symbolism. It then fell on Pollack to create and shape a full-length movie. "I saw we had problems even when I commissioned the first script," said Pollack. "The story ended after the first act. I scrambled around for more. I like that part, wringing out a film story. The redemption, I decided, must be in a romantic relations.h.i.+p. Sonny needed to be saved by love. And so we invented the character of Hallie Martin, a television journalist who has a good feeling about Sonny's integrity and follows him into oblivion to get his side of the story."

Pollack commissioned Bob Garland, a writer he knew from television, to develop the screenplay, but, Redford says, the resulting work was "spaghetti junction. It was just so many unresolved incidents sitting there. I thought it was ironic that Sydney abandoned the Robert Penn Warren because it was so tricky, and then we ended up with this mishmash."

They soldiered on. Redford requested that Jane Fonda take the co-lead when Pollack's first choice, Diane Keaton, was allegedly blocked from partic.i.p.ating by her possessive boyfriend, Warren Beatty. "Quite simply, Warren wouldn't have Diane kissing Bob Redford, the most desirable star in the world," said Pollack. "He wasn't dumb. He wouldn't want the compet.i.tion."

The previous year Fonda had lambasted Redford in an article in The Village Voice. The Village Voice. "I've known two Robert Redfords," she'd said. "When we made "I've known two Robert Redfords," she'd said. "When we made Barefoot in the Park Barefoot in the Park he was a young man full of interests, sensitive to the problems of the time, politically and socially involved. But now he's perfectly integrated, and an instrument of the star system. He is, and remains, a bourgeois in the worst sense of the word." Redford stayed silent. He was sensitive to the tumultuous changes she had been through. In 1966, when he'd last worked with her, Fonda was approaching what she calls "the psychological metamorphosis" that steered her toward the leftist campaigning that branded her Hanoi Jane. Her marriage to Roger Vadim ended and she turned to leftist activist Tom Hayden, head of Students for a Democratic Society and author of the "Port Huron Statement" (the group's manifesto calling for partic.i.p.atory democracy), who would become her husband and crusade partner through the seventies. Today, a.n.a.lyzing her espousal of extremist activism, she expresses regret for excesses. "Everyone now understands it: it was a transitional time for most thinking Americans, and for me personally it was a painful and exploratory time." he was a young man full of interests, sensitive to the problems of the time, politically and socially involved. But now he's perfectly integrated, and an instrument of the star system. He is, and remains, a bourgeois in the worst sense of the word." Redford stayed silent. He was sensitive to the tumultuous changes she had been through. In 1966, when he'd last worked with her, Fonda was approaching what she calls "the psychological metamorphosis" that steered her toward the leftist campaigning that branded her Hanoi Jane. Her marriage to Roger Vadim ended and she turned to leftist activist Tom Hayden, head of Students for a Democratic Society and author of the "Port Huron Statement" (the group's manifesto calling for partic.i.p.atory democracy), who would become her husband and crusade partner through the seventies. Today, a.n.a.lyzing her espousal of extremist activism, she expresses regret for excesses. "Everyone now understands it: it was a transitional time for most thinking Americans, and for me personally it was a painful and exploratory time."

When they reconnected, Redford was pleased to find he still had much in common with Fonda. She had worked with Alan Pakula in Klute, Klute, for which she won an Academy Award, and was about to receive her second, for for which she won an Academy Award, and was about to receive her second, for Coming Home. Coming H