To think, Steve McQueen was nearly cast as the Sundance Kid. It might have shaken George Roy Hill’s wonderful western, but it could also have stopped Robert Redford ever gaining the money and power to make movies like this. Quiz Show was terrific yes, but following The Horse Whisperer and The Legend Of Bagger Vance, the message is clear: REDFORD MUST BE STOPPED. Here the leather-faced pseudo-indie icon casts himself as a ’Nam vet professor who’s lecturing an apathetic student, while elsewhere Meryl Streep’s uptight reporter trades barbs with Senator Tom Cruise. Meanwhile, in Afghanistan – aka the Fox backlot – two heroic American Soldiers are heroically heroic. So, stagey, self-righteous, a little bit pointless…
DVD Extras:
...much like the featurettes, accompanied by an articulate but blinkered chat-track where Redford suggests the role was a “reach” for Cruise – which is both patronising and idiotic. Much like the movie.
