THE OLD MAN & THE GUN does what innumerable movies have done, fashion enjoyable entertainment out of a true story, taking expected and accepted dramatic license liberties in the telling. In the case of this 2018 caper, well written & expertly directed by David Lowery, the fact’n’fiction framework provides a legendary actor with a fitting career finale, an exit not with a bang as the title might suggest, but with a salute and a smile. *

JEWEL: ” ‘Cause you think about… ten years from now, where will you be, what’ll you be doing? Now, whenever I close the door, I think: “Oh, is this the last time I’ll ever have a chance to do whatever that thing was?”   FORREST: “You know what I do when the door closes?”    JEWEL: “What’s that?”   FORREST: “I jump out the window.”

Texas, 1981. Career crook Forrest Tucker (Robert Redford) and partners John Waller (Tom Waits) and Teddy Green (Danny Glover) rob banks. They do this repeatedly, not just for for money but out of habit, work as hobby. when they’re not serving time for previous crimes. On a spree thru several states, they pull of their heists calmly and without violence, and affable Forrest always manages to leave the surprised tellers and fleeced managers commenting on how ‘nice’ he was. What’s most unusual about this odd triple is that they’re all in their seventies. Dallas detective John Hunt (Casey Affleck) is determined to track down the elusive Tucker, especially after he finds out that Forrest has escaped from no less than eighteen jails and prisons—including San Quentin and Alcatraz. After one of his grab & go’s, Forrest meets Jewel (Sissy Spacek), a widow, and they strike up a relationship that after a bit looks to be turning into a romance. But the law—in the rumpled form of intrigued sleuth Hunt—and the breaking of it—in Forrest’s lifelong compulsion to lose freedom by risking it—seem destined to cross purposes.

Affleck’s most likable role

Stow the morality high ground pose. There is bad crime and awful people doing it. They target the innocent and deserve a cell or the chair for their venality and viciousness. And…there is Robin Hoodish crime, committed against insured monolithic entities, the sort of hope-leeches that rip most of us off in myriad ways and get away scot free—and if someone has the smarts and nards to pull a few stray chestnuts out of their money bonfires and don’t hurt anyone in the process, maybe an ouch! spanking is in order, but not one with a belt and belittlement. The ‘getting away with it’ aspect appealed to Redford, 82 and wanting to retire from acting with a role in a story that would have people leave the theater in a good mood. Cutting to fit, writer-director Lowery (Pete’s Dragon, The Green Knight) strews subtly honorific clue crumbs to the star’s feel-good felons of Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid and The Sting as gentleman bandit Forrest and his amiable cronies ply their skill sets around several states. Meanwhile, in his ‘free’ time, expert flirter Forrest wins over (mostly honestly) the salt-of-the-good-earth and aptly christened gem named Jewel. **

Glover, 72, is always a welcome presence, and Waits, 69, once again shows he can do more with a simple sentence than most ordinary humans could manage in an autobiography. In his third time working for Lowery (after Ain’t Them Bodies Saints and A Ghost Story) Affleck strikes a neat balance as a low-key and conscientious lawman and a dad-as-best-pal to bright kids ‘Abigail’ and ‘Tyler’, played by cute and unaffected siblings Ari Elizabeth Johnson and Teagan Johnson. Spacek, 68, is as straight-shooting honest and casually beguiling as ever. She’s like a female Cary Grant in that the older she gets the more attractive she becomes; her chemistry with Redford is perfect; that they finally got a chance to work together was a craft pleasure for them and a gift to the rest of us. ***

But the central focus is on the enigmatic title figure and the magnetic, multifaceted man playing him. Redford’s final starring lead sees him deliver one of the best performances of the last third of his 58-year career, along with The Last Castle, Truth and the outstanding tour de force All Is Lost. The gait may be slower and the handsome visage experience-weathered and time-worn, but the quick wit, keen intelligence and effortless charm are intact, the eyes have kept their inquiring twinkle and the disarming smiles feel earned and genuine. The director allows him what amounts to a valedictory scene with Tucker on horseback, the aged but still vital actor—a real Movie Star—mounted up for a swan song gallop like a mythical sundancing kidder.

Who wouldn’t want Sissy to look at them like that?

Atmospherically shot in Ohio, Texas and Kentucky, with cameraman Joe Hunter offering a suitably autumnal glow. Sharply edited by Lisa Zeno Churgin (Bob Roberts, Gattaca, The Cider House Rules, House Of Sand And Fog)—catch a quick snip of Bob, 29, from The Chase. Daniel Hart provides a laid back, unobtrusive score. The script was based on an article in The New Yorker written by David Grann. The running time clocks a just-right 93 minutes, and the supporting cast includes Tika Sumpter (warm as Hunt’s supportive wife ‘Maureen’), Elisabeth Moss (pungent cameo as Forrest’s estranged daughter), Isiah Whitlock Jr., Gene Jones, Keith Carradine (billed fourth but his part was cut to just a few seconds and one line) and John David Washington.

Waits waiting, and he’s great even just doing that

Made for a trim $15,800,000, it drew good reviews but since most Redford fans (and those of the other elders) were as old (or getting to be) as the actors and rarely went to movies in theaters, attendance was limited, placing a low card 123rd in ’18, doing just $11,277,000 at home and $6,583,000 abroad. Hopefully, on small screens it’ll enjoy a long life, like its smart and charismatic star. *

1936-2025 Valediction and R.I.P.

* Redford showed up a year later with a cameo spot in Avengers: Endgame, but it was filmed before The Old Man & The Gun. Forrest Silva Tucker died in 2004 at the age of 83. In prison.

** Catch us if you can—-at some point or another, who doesn’t want to get away with it? We vicariously flip for that side of the coin in crime larks like To Catch A Thief, The Lavender Hill Mob, The Ladykillers (definitely only the 1955 version), The League Of Gentlemen, Topkapi, The Thomas Crown Affair (both versions), Kelly’s Heroes, Dog Day Afternoon, Thunderbolt And Lightfoot, Bandits, the Oceans 11 gaggle, especially 8— back thru Errol’s arrows in Sherwood Forest and all the way to B.C. and Jason ripping off a fleece. He who is without a spark of sneak, shut your pious piehole or we’ll purloin your popcorn. Instead of ‘popcorn’ almost wrote ‘girlfriend’, but lines must be drawn somewhere, else all is what Macbeth said it was. Or did the Bard ‘borrow’ a stray metaphor?

*** Smiled upon—a personal aside. Years ago I was on a domestic flight (can’t recall the from or to) and from my aisle seat in the front row of Coach I spied someone familiar sitting up ahead in First class. I thought “Wow, that’s Sissy Spacek! Huh, well, that’s cool.” After we landed, by some swell bit of kismet she and I happened to be the only people walking down a corridor; we were going in opposite directions. I didn’t want to bother her, but as we passed I raised my head in acknowledgment and she gave the sweetest, simple grin back, sort of like “Yep, it’s just me.” So darn adorable it hurt.