Robert Redford starred in some incredible movies over his career, but he also has several great movies that remain underappreciated and overlooked. Redford died on September 16, 2025, at the age of 89. He left behind him an incredible legacy, including great movie roles, directed films, and the creation of the Sundance Film Festival.

As someone who held up independent cinema as a massive backer of up-and-coming filmmakers, it is no surprise that Robert Redford’s film career is so diverse. On top of masterpieces like All the President’s Men and The Sting, Redford also starred in some smaller films that deserve love as people pay respect to his career.

Downhill Racer (1969)

When people look at Robert Redford’s sports movies, the one that always rises to the top is The Natural. While that story of Roy Hobbs’ baseball career was incredible, the actor starred in a very different sports drama 15 years earlier called Downhill Racer.

In Downhill Racer, Redford stars as American downhill skier David Chappellet, and unlike Hobbs’ inspirational story, he starts as a self-centered man whose only goal is to become a champion, with no concern for his team. It shows a very different character than the one in his later movie, and it remains an underappreciated role.

While Downhill Racer received positive critical reviews, with an 85% on Rotten Tomatoes, audiences were less appreciative, with a 58% rating. When breaking down the film, it is hard to get behind Redford’s character because of his arrogance, but it is very similar to Tom Cruise’s performance as Maverick in Top Gun.

Pete’s Dragon (2016)

The 2016 remake of Pete’s Dragon was a magnificent family fantasy movie that people don’t seem to talk about anymore. This version remakes the 1977 Disney film, but it chooses not to take the form of a musical, as the original film did. Instead, this is more of a fun, adventure movie.

Oakes Fegley stars as the young orphan Pete, who lives with his dragon Elliot in the forest. However, when a forest ranger named Grace (Bryce Dallas Howard) finds him and takes the boy in. Robert Redford stars as Conrad, Grace’s father, who had met Elliot years earlier and trusts Elliot.

This was a nice later career role for Redford, who plays the older man who supports the child and his dragon, contrasting the people who only want to hurt the pair. Redford’s charm and charisma carry him in this performance, and it is one of his best pure family movies.

The Old Man & The Gun (2018)

In 2018, Robert Redford’s final film role was in the crime film The Old Man & the Gun. Directed by David Lowery, who also directed Redford in Pete’s Dragon, the movie stars Redford as Forrest Tucker, a career criminal and prison escape artist. Redford was 82 when he took on this final role of his career.

At the age of 74. Tucker had been a wanted man since he escaped from San Quentin State Prison. He robs another bank, but then meets a woman named Jewel (Sissy Spacek) and falls for the woman. However, this is a story about a man who can’t live a normal life, and his entire life’s trajectory is to be an outlaw.

The film received positive reviews from critics, and as Redford’s last performance, it deserves to be praised for how great he was as an actor, all the way to the end.

A Bridge Too Far (1977)

Released in 1977, A Bridge Too Far is a Richard Attenborough-directed film that critics never really appreciated, awarding it a low 59% Rotten Tomatoes score. However, when looking at the audience score of 85%, it is clear that they saw something the critics missed in this World War II film.

What makes this movie interesting is that it depicts a failed Allied operation in Nazi-occupied Netherlands, and is not a movie about a triumphant wartime moment. A Bridge Too Far is carried by an all-star cast, and Robert Redford wasn’t even at the top of the credits.

However, Redford’s performance as the commanding officer, Major Julian Cook, was excellent in one of his few war movie roles. With names like Sean Connery, Michael Caine, Laurence Olivier, and more, Redford more than held his own and proved to be as big a star as anyone else in the movie.

Spy Game (2001)

In the early 2000s, Robert Redford was adding more big-budget blockbusters to his name, but few matched the brilliance of his early career roles. One that did do well and was an entertaining action thriller was Spy Game. In this film, Redford teamed with Brad Pitt for a movie about CIA operatives involved in a rescue mission.

Critics praised Redford and Pitt’s performances, but were not as impressed with the complex plot. However, this was also a Tony Scott movie, so it had his visual flair, and it was no surprise to know that it looked great, with the fantastic acting just adding to the final result.

Spy Game was more of a blockbuster thriller movie than Redford was usually involved in before this. However, it was a smart story with some nice twists, and Redford was perfect in his role as a grizzled CIA veteran who wanted to fix a prior wrong.

One of Robert Redford’s early underappreciated movies is a movie based on the stage play by Neil Simon, with the movie script also penned by Simon. This was only Redford’s seventh movie role and the film he starred in right before his breakout in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

Barefoot In The Park is a romantic comedy starring Robert Redford and Jane Fonda as a young newlywed couple. The dynamic here was great, with Fonda playing a free-spirited woman and Redford playing an uptight conservative attorney.

Seeing Redford’s Paul coming around in the end and breaking out of his stuffy uptight personality was a treat, and this was proof that Redford could do comedy as well as he could the dramatic roles he became better known for.

Brubaker (1980)

In 1980, Robert Redford starred in the prison drama Brubaker. He played Henry Brubaker, a warden who showed up on his first day disguised as a prisoner so he could witness the abuse and corruption involved in the Arkansas prison. He then set out to reform the prison.

The film is a fictionalized version of a true story surrounding the 1967 prison scandal in Arkansas, where the government used forced inmate labor to produce profits for the state. Redford’s Brubaker sets out in the movie to reform the prison and seek rehabilitation of prisoners and human rights.

Brubaker received mixed to positive reviews, with a 75% Rotten Tomatoes score. The movie tells a great story, with Redford delivering a great performance as someone trying to do good in a system that rewards corruption.

Sneakers (1992)

Sneakers might be one of the best, yet underrated caper films of the 1990s. The cast was fantastic, with Robert Redford leading a team that included Dan Aykroyd, Sidney Poitier, David Strathairn, and River Phoenix. The plot sees the team hired to steal a black box security system.

Released in 1992, the movie was groundbreaking at the time for a similar reason as WarGames the decade before. The entire heist was surrounding the hacking community and the national defense. On top of that, what really made the film shine was the quippy dialogue from a cast of incredible actors.

River Phoenix was incredible as he continued to show why he could have become one of the world’s biggest stars if not for his untimely death. Acting alongside a respected veteran like Redford helped both men elevate their performances, and this is a movie every caper thriller fan should seek out.

Quiz Show (1994)

What keeps Quiz Show from being as respected and remembered is the year it was released. The movie was nominated for Best Picture, but this was the same year that Forrest Gump won, while Shawshank Redemption and Pulp Fiction were also released. Fans bring up the latter two movies, but mostly ignore Quiz Show.

This is not a movie with Robert Redford in the cast, but it is instead one of the films he directed and produced. Quiz Show tells the story of the quiz show scandals of the 1950s, where it was discovered that many televised quiz shows fixed the winners, which led to the government amending the laws prohibiting this act.

While Quiz Show is mostly underappreciated, at the time, Redford received a nomination for Best Director while Paul Scofield was nominated for Best Supporting Actor and Paul Attanasio for his screenplay. There were better movies that year, but Quiz Show deserves a second chance.

All Is Lost (2013)

Possibly the most underappreciated movie of Robert Redford’s career was his 2013 survival drama, All Is Lost. J.C. Chandor’s (A Most Violent Year) second directorial effort, All Is Lost is a movie that stars Robert Redford as a man lost at sea, and he is the only main actor in the entire film.

It is hard to make a movie with only one actor, but as Tom Hanks showed in Castaway, it is easy when the actor is a master at his craft. Redford did even more in All Is Lost than Hanks in Castaway, since there were no flashbacks here in this film.

Critics praised the film, with a 95% Rotten Tomatoes score, but when it comes to the films that fans talk about since Robert Redford’s passing, it barely gets a mention. That is disappointing because it is a showcase of his acting skills and ranks among the best performances of his legendary career.