The Big Picture · Hall of Fame
November 28, 2025/ 152 min/ Sean Fennessey · Amanda Dobbins · Tracy Letts
Sean Fennessey, Amanda Dobbins, and playwright Tracy Letts spend two and a half hours walking Robert Redford's whole filmography after his death at 89, grading every part green, yellow, or red down to ten Hall of Fame films. The 1969-to-1976 run from Butch Cassidy to All the President's Men nearly fills the ballot on its own, and Ordinary People gets in on the director's chair. The Natural doesn't make the cut. Each host also keeps a 'blue' pick from outside the ten.
13 films across 1 segment.
AI-generated This episode was transcribed and analyzed with AI models. The matches aren't perfect — expect the occasional misheard title or a link to the wrong film.
The Hall of Famethe ten inducted films, plus each host's blue pick
Automatic green. Sean keeps the two-minute cliff argument on hand for low days and credits Redford's reactivity, a mix of overconfidence and humor he rarely played again. He and Newman play off each other. Redford always thought the Bacharach interlude was wrong for the movie, and it still sits oddly.
Sean's grail, and both hosts jumped it to green. James Salter script, Michael Ritchie shooting real late-'60s downhill races in Europe, which Amanda calls 'F1, but in 1969.' Redford plays an unlikable, ambitious skier who doesn't get the girl and barely enjoys winning. The movie where he carves out the taciturn screen persona.
Sidney Pollack mortgaged his house for it. Redford as a mountain man who becomes a legend, the myth-building Sean values, plus a second life as the nodding meme people mistook for Zach Galifianakis. Started yellow, promoted to green as Tracy's push.
One of Sean's favorites, frequently in his Letterboxd top four. Redford as a long-shot figuring out a Senate run in real time, with Peter Boyle and a Jeremy Larner screenplay that won the Oscar. Prescient and loose, with one of the great closing lines. The last green all three agreed on.
Best Picture, Redford's only Best Actor nomination, his biggest hit outside Marvel. The con that cons the audience too. Sean saw it packed at eight years old in 1973 and never shook the reveal. Both admit the fifth and ninth viewings dim a bit; Chris Ryan rating it over Butch Cassidy gets called 'wilding.'
The signature romance, in over Sean and Amanda's doubts about the cut-up script and the nonexistent period detail. Pollack shoots Redford and Streisand in relentless close-up; the song and the parting land even when the blacklist plotting doesn't. Julia Litman's number-one pick, which settled it.
The best of the Redford-Pollack films, and the room agreed at once. A paranoia thriller with a brutal assassination scene Redford isn't even in, and an ending that flips your sense of who's safe. Pollack always insisted it was just a thriller.
Total green, and Sean argues one of the greatest American movies. Redford chased the material before the book was published and cast himself as Woodward, 'one of the great acts of star producerial work in movie history.' Also, per Amanda, the peak of his on-screen hotness.
His directorial debut and the only director credit in the Hall, Best Picture and Best Director over Raging Bull. A grief drama nothing like his star vehicles, with Mary Tyler Moore cast sharply against type, plus Hutton, Sutherland, and Hirsch. Tracy would take it over Raging Bull; the others green it too, calling it one of Redford's most important films.
The late-period pick, chosen over All Is Lost. David Lowery's film of a bank robber who charms rather than threatens, going deaf and still hustling, as if the guy from The Sting kept going 45 years. Sean's favorite of the final decade, with real chemistry opposite Sissy Spacek.
Sean's blue pick, outside the ten. Peter Yates jewel-heist comedy with George Segal, the kind of Redford a lot of people rediscovered when he died. Sean prizes the wordless victory walk at the end, 'the physicalization of joy and satisfaction.'
Amanda's blue pick, outside the ten, argued as a cultural artifact more than a good movie. Redford offers Demi Moore a million dollars for a night, and the premise entered the culture on arrival. Adrian Lyne directing; Sean spent the second half yelling at Woody Harrelson.
Tracy's blue pick, outside the ten, and one both he and Sean rate among Redford's best-directed films. A detective story about the rigged '50s game shows, scene after strong scene, Best Picture nominee in the Pulp Fiction year. Redford directs but doesn't appear.
Also mentioned raised along the way
His filmography, weighed and left off the ballot Tall StoryWar HuntSituation Hopeless... but Not SeriousInside Daisy CloverThis Property Is CondemnedThe ChaseBarefoot in the ParkTell Them Willie Boy Is HereLittle Fauss and Big HalsyThe Great GatsbyThe Great Waldo PepperA Bridge Too FarThe Electric HorsemanBrubakerThe NaturalOut of AfricaLegal EaglesThe Milagro Beanfield WarHavanaSneakersA River Runs Through ItUp Close and PersonalThe Horse WhispererThe Legend of Bagger VanceThe Last CastleSpy GameThe ClearingAn Unfinished LifeCharlotte's WebLions for LambsThe ConspiratorThe Company You KeepAll Is LostCaptain America: The Winter SoldierA Walk in the WoodsTruthPete's DragonThe DiscoveryOur Souls at NightAvengers: Endgame
In passing Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?The GraduateBonnie and ClydeHudFive Easy PiecesElectra Glide in BlueCockfighterThe Sound of MusicTo Kill a MockingbirdPaths of GlorySingin' in the RainThe FirmField of DreamsRaging BullTop GunTop Gun: MaverickTwinsGhostbustersWorking GirlThe MatrixThe English PatientThe ProgramJFKThe LunchboxPulp FictionForrest GumpThe Shawshank RedemptionSense and SensibilityFried Green TomatoesFour Weddings and a FuneralCool Hand LukeThe Devil's OwnRoundersRunning on EmptyBroadcast NewsMichael ClaytonNo Country for Old MenThere Will Be BloodThe Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert FordAvengers: Infinity WarThe OdysseyAvatar: The Way of WaterF1
Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads
TV In the Presence of Mine EnemiesPlayhouse 90The Case of the Treacherous ToupeePerry MasonThe Iceman ComethNothing in the DarkThe Twilight ZoneRoute 66Sex and the CityAgents of S.H.I.E.L.D.Green AcresThe Beverly HillbilliesAll in the FamilyGood Times
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