5 Essential Robert Redford Movies: How to Stream 'The Way We Were' and More

The Sundance Kid. Bob Woodward. Hubbell Gardiner. These are just some of the roles Robert Redford played in his impressive seven-decade career, and that's only just scratching the surface.

The versatile performer acted, produced, directed and, by cofounding the Sundance Film Festival, helped start an independent film movement that continues to this day.

Redford passed away today at the age of 89, and the best way to honor his legacy is by watching it.

Watch With Us has compiled a list of five essential movies that involved the silver screen legend, who will always be remembered as one of the greatest stars Hollywood has produced.

‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid' (1969)

There are buddy movies, and then there's Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The Oscar-winning comedy was a big hit in 1969 and firmly established Redford as a leading man. It also created a subgenre that influenced movies like Beverly Hills Cop, Lethal Weapon and Rush Hour.

Redford plays the Sundance Kid, an expert gunsman who helps out his friend, Butch Cassidy (Paul Newman), pull off numerous robberies in the Old West. When a train robbery goes awry, they flee to Bolivia, where they both romance the beguiling Etta Place (Katharine Ross) and make plans to abandon their criminal lifestyle and go straight. But is ordinary life in the cards for these two wayward men, who attract trouble wherever they go?

Directed by George Roy Hill, Butch Cassidy works primarily due to the laid-back camaraderie between its two male stars. Both Newman and Redford have never been more fun-loving or charming as the titular outlaws, not even in their follow-up film together, The Sting. Amazingly, Redford never made another movie with Newman after that caper comedy. If he had, there would probably be more Redford-Newman movies on this list.

Rent or purchase Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid on Prime Video.

‘The Candidate' (1972)

Democratic political consultant Marin Lucas (Peter Boyle) needs a warm body to run against the overwhelmingly popular Republican senator, Crocker Jarmon (Dan Porter), in an upcoming California state election, so he chooses the idealistic and vastly inexperienced Bill McKay (Redford) to run. Since he has no chance of winning, McKay can run his campaign the way he wants to - bold, irreverent and purposefully controversial. But to his surprise - and Lucas' dismay - he connects with the public and makes the race competitive. If McKay somehow wins, does he know what it takes to be a politician?

Made right when Watergate was about to hit, The Candidate is a political satire that's still edgy today. As the charismatic McKay, Redford plays up his movie-star looks to create a seemingly ideal politician - handsome, empathetic and seemingly attentive to his voters' needs. The big joke of the movie is that there's nothing really behind McKay's act - he's all show with no tell, a man without any real plan to help anyone. Sounds familiar, doesn't it?

Rent or purchase The Candidate on Prime Video.

‘The Way We Were' (1973)

The Way We Were is Barbra Streisand's movie, but it wouldn't have worked without Redford. Streisand stars as student activist Katie Morosky, who meets aspiring writer Hubbell Gardiner (Redford) at a campus protest in 1937. Complete opposites, they nonetheless fall for each other and continue their romance during and after World War II. But the post-war Red Scare exposes their political and ideological differences, and their love isn't as stable as they both thought.

Sydney Pollack's sweeping period love story is soapy, sure, but it works, and that's due to the always convincing chemistry between its two leads. Streisand's Katie is mouthy, opinionated and messy, but Redford's Hubbell likes that about her. (Can you blame him?) On paper, his character is two-dimensional - an idealized lover whose blond perfection is his one imperfection - but Redford somehow makes him human and grounded. The end, when Katie pushes a lock of Hubbell's hair to the side, is one of the great bittersweet climaxes in movie history.

Rent or purchase The Way We Were on Prime Video.

‘Ordinary People' (1980)

Redford stepped behind the camera for the first time in his career, and his efforts paid off - Ordinary People was a commercial and critical hit, and the actor won the Best Director Oscar in 1981. The movie depicts an eventful fall season for the Jarretts, an upper-class Chicago family who are still recovering from the death of one son and the attempted suicide of another.

Mom Beth (Mary Tyler Moore) has reverted to her chilly, "perfect housewife" persona, while dad Calvin (Donald Sutherland) just wants everyone to be happy again. But things aren't alright with teenage Conrad (Timothy Hutton), who still bears the physical and psychological scars of trying to end his life.

A delicate, slow-moving movie, Ordinary People examines fractures in a family that, from the outside, seems perfect. But as Conrad works through his issues with an understanding psychiatrist (Judd Hirsch), he realizes his family hasn't been happy even before his brother's death. Redford's direction is a lot like his acting - strong, sturdy and unobtrusive. He has an invisible, non-showy touch that's deceptively simple but really complex and hard to pull off. Ordinary People could've been a manipulative tearjerker filled with cheap pathos and convenient answers to complex problems, but it instead became a classic drama that's still devastating to watch today.

Stream Ordinary People on MGM+.

‘Sneakers' (1992)

Sneakers isn't a classic - it's a little too broad and silly for that. But its place in Redford's filmography is still important because it shows the actor doing something he seldom does on screen - acting goofy. Redford plays Martin Bishop, a former 1960s protestor who went into hiding and now works as the head of a high-tech security team in San Francisco. His past catches up with him when a former ally, Cosmo (Ben Kingsley), exposes his true identity to avenge his years-long incarceration, which he blames Martin for. On the run, Martin and a ragtag team of hackers will have to outwit Cosmo and avoid the authorities at the same time.

Redford almost always played the dashing leading man, but in Sneakers, his Martin is a bit of a loser. Constantly on the run, he has to rely on the help of his friends, played by an impressive cast that includes Sidney Poitier and River Phoenix, to help him out. The film shows a lighter side to Redford's persona, letting the usually stoic actor crack a few good jokes here and there. It's a loose, carefree late-career performance, and it reaffirms just why Redford appealed to audiences from the 1960s to the 2010s.

Rent or purchase Sneakers on Prime Video.

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This story was originally published September 16, 2025 at 11:10 AM.