Hey! I Know That Guy! Episode #5

 

Hey! I know that guy!

Once again, we delve into the Hey! I Know That Guy! series.

This one has been a long time coming.  There are a few reasons for the delay of this entry. One being that most of my favorite movies that the featured actor has been in have already been covered elsewhere on The Midnite Drive-In.  

But in browsing the movies I have covered over the years, I found one film that I have been remiss in covering, even though I really liked it.  So without further ado, I present to you the featured actor for this entry in the series...

Robert Redford!

Robert Redford has become an icon in cinema over the past 65 years.  From simple beginnings as a bit player in several Tv episodes, he has carved a legacy in Hollywood.  Getting his start in the early 60's on such TV shows as Maverick and Perry Mason he burst onto the big screen inroles that would cement him as a powerful actor. 

His first real role in cinema was as a guy who has an affair with the titular character in Inside Daisy Clover and from there was the star of Barefoot in the Park. Just two years later he paired up with Paul Newman as the Sundance Kid in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and from there he never had to look back. Once he had made The Sting, once again with Paul Newman, he had a string of great roles, including The Way We Were, The Great Gatsby, Out of Africa and Sneakers (and there's a movie I highly recommend...)

The amazing thing about his career is that, despite having numerous great acting performances, he has been nominated in the Best Actor category for an Oscar only once (for his role in The Sting), and he didn't even win.  His one Oscar came as a director, that for Ordinary People. He did win a Golden Globe award for his role in Inside Daisy Clover and garnered a couple of other noms in other awards ceremonies over the years. But it seems a shame that he, like John Wayne, has had such a storied career onscreen but failed to get the accolades I think he deserves.

One of his first roles on TV was in an episode of The Twilight Zone, where he was not just a "blink and you'll miss him" character.  He played a policeman named Harold Belden, who appears in the episode "Nothing in the Dark". 

In that episode, a woman named Wanda (Gladys Cooper) lives alone in a condemned building.  She has stayed inside, away from everybody and everything, fearing that if she goes out she will encounter "Mr. Death". She is an old woman, but is afraid of dying, and thus she refuses to step out into the world beyond her door.

But when Belden is shot while performing his duties she reluctantly brings him inside her home. She is wary at first, but comes to believe that Belden can't possibly be "Mr. Death" because she touched him, and is sure that if he were Death she would have died.  Only one other person appears in this episode, a contractor (R. G. Armstrong) who was sent to try to coax her out so that he can demolish the building.

She thinks maybe the contractor is Mr. Death, but it eventually turns out that he can't see Belden, and she eventually realizes that her rescuee is actually "Mr. Death".

This episode of The Twilight Zone is that rare one that is a heartfelt and sentimental episode. Redford, as Belden, is a sympathetic character and you end up thinking that when Death actually comes for you, he will be a lot like Belden.

So, in searching for a film to pair with this episode, I tried to find a character that was like someone I could find at least somewhat sympathetic. While Bob Woodward might be just a tad on the obsessive side, especially in his determination to get to the bottom of the story, and his initial desire to work alone rather than with the partner that is forced on him, Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman). I could easily sit down with the Woodward and have a rapport with him.

The basic story is that Bob Woodward (Robert Redford) is a reporter with the Washington Post.  As one of his duties early on, he is a police reporter sent to cover a break-in of the Watergate Hotel and the arraignment of the 5 men involved in the break-in.  It turns out there is something screwy in the whole set up, however. It seems that the burglars have arranged for their own defense, rather than relying on court appointed defense lawyers.  This in itself is a new twist.

In his investigation behind the scenes, Woodward gradually finds out there is a connection between the burglars and some higher-ups in the Nixon White House.  Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman) is working on a different angle, but both of their stories seem to be meshed together.

Initial interaction with each other gets off to a rocky start when Bernstein tries to edit Woodward's article, but immediately after this brief kerfuffle they are both assigned to the same story.  And thus begins an investigation of "who knew what, and when, and where". The investigation uncovers some serious money switching hands and bugging of enemies of the Nixon administration, and well, you know all the rest if you have even the remotest knowledge of the history.

The movie is an intense thriller. The film ends with the inauguration of Richard Nixon in his second term in the Oval Office. The ultimate end of the historical story is reduced to a brief montage of newspaper teletypes to detail the aftermath, ultimately that Nixon resigned.

Redford shows some intensity here, sometimes struggling with the bosses at the Post over his stories and worry that some other news outlet may scoop him and get the information first.  The initial confrontation between Woodward and Bernstein gets better, especially after both of them become certain they are on the right track.

The movie garnered 8 nominations for Oscars (although neither Redford no co-star Hoffman were nominated). It won four, and was probably a close second in 2, for Best Picture and Best Director (both of which were lost to Rocky.)  All the President's Men was not the apotheosis of Redford's career, I don't think, but it is one of the highlights.

Well, that's it for this time.

Quiggy