I share a messaging thread with my grandchildren and sons. We focus on important family news and anything else any of us hear that might be worth sharing. Except for football weekends in the fall, most of our conversations involve someone passing away.
Whoever discovers the passing of someone notable, famous or related will share a simple RIP to everyone else. I send out RIP notices about older, obscure actors, athletes, and other famous people to insure my descendants will be informed, even if they have to look up the person just to know who they were.
When a certain actor passed away after a lengthy and impressively accomplished career and life, I made a mental note to send RIP Roy Hobbs on the thread. Sadly, I got distracted and Chad beat me to it. He referenced that actor’s real name, Robert Redford.
I was immensely impressed with Redford’s ability to convey what was needed, whether acting or directing. My two favorite Redford movies were “Jeremiah Johnson” and “The Natural.” Hands down. I liked “Electric Horseman” a lot but not specifically because of Redford. It was a quirky movie, and I identified more with the horse than the cowboy. “Jeremiah Johnson” was really impressive, and the story touched me in many ways. “The Natural” was a Whole Other Thing.
Anyone who reads these words knows how I feel about baseball. “The Natural” wasn’t necessarily a baseball movie. It bordered on the supernatural. I liked “Bull Durham” and “Long Gone” much better as baseball movies. “The Natural” was simply a masterpiece in storytelling.
Like Friday Night Wrestling, Roy Hobbs’s story was an easily defined tale about Good versus Evil. There were no surprises. We all knew what would eventually happen as the story progressed, but we still got chills as those familiar events unfolded.
The casting was perfect. Wilford Brimley as crotchety manager Pop Fisher, Richard Farnsworth as his assistant Red Blow, and the three women, good and evil, represented by Glenn Close, Barbara Hershey, and Kim Basinger were spot on.
Batboy Bobby Savoy was perfect, as was young, Nebraska farm boy John Rhoades. Robert Duvall was perfect playing crooked sportswriter Max Mercy as was legendary That Guy Robert Prosky as the Judge.
I still weep each time Ray Kinsella and his dad John play catch, and I also think “Bull Durham” and “Long Gone”—a barely remembered HBO baseball movie— were more true to actual baseball.
But the last segments of “The Natural,” from the time Roy Hobbs surprises Pop while discussing farming until Roy “knocks the cover off the ball” and the lights go out, are just magical. And they are magical primarily because of Robert Redford. The character he played, like almost every character he played, was an understated Regular Guy just trying to live right.
His movie roles, Jeremiah Johnson, Bob Woodward, the Sundance Kid, Einar Gilkyson, Sonny Steele, and Roy Hobbs, along with his work directing movies, allowed all of us, in many ways, to see an example of ordinary humans on display during extraordinary times. In this volatile, over hyped modern world, that’s rare. And needed.
His presence will be missed.
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