This year is turning out to be a vintage one for the perennially popular Robert Redford. Not only is the long-awaited spygame, in which he and Brad Pitt reunite for the first time since 1992’s A River Runs Through It, to be released, but he stars in The Last Castle as a three-star general who is incarcerated and ends up leading other prisoners in an insurrection.
The 64-year-old actor-director appeared on CNN last night to promote The Last Castle, a film which he describes as “a human story within prison walls.” The movie’s military theme makes it a very prescient release, post-September 11, and Robert, a known political activist, spoke at length about the American people’s new challenges.
“I don’t know how the film might have been viewed before September 11,” said Robert. “The country was in a pretty cynical state before then. People were sometimes casting a squinty eye on words like ‘patriotism’ and the flag and so forth. Well, the truth is, when they faced the reality of September 11, and saw that we were violated in a way that we had never experienced before and the unthinkable happened, the shock of that reality I think has turned people into viewing things in a different light.”
While admitting that there was a great need for military strength, Robert, who is also a well-known environmentalist, was worried that individual freedom would suffer as a result of national security. “I hope people aren’t so following in line on the security issue that we see valuable freedoms thrown out. There should be a defence policy for our environment too because that safeguards our health and well-being.”
And the actor called on the need for freedom of speech. “Also, freedom of the right of dissent,” he went on. “When somebody raises a voice of any kind of dissent right now, they’re being accused of being unpatriotic. That’s dangerous. That’s not healthy. The right to disagree is part of our democratic system – it’s what we fought for. We fought for our freedom. We fought for our independence – our right to vote, our right to disagree. Let’s not forget that.”
The Last Castle, for which Robert earned $11 million, also stars James Gandolfini as the sadistic prison commander, and Robin Wright Penn as Robert’s daughter.
Photo: © Alphapress.com
Photo: © Alphapress.com
Photo: © Alphapress.com
