It’s hard to imagine anyone else playing the real life bank robber, escaped from prison 16 times, Forrest Tucker other than the great Robert Redford. After all, Redford played a similar role in his youth in The Chase. The Old Man & the Gun is a tip of the hat to the spirit of all those outlaw characters Redford deliciously embodied. From Bubber in The Chase to the Sundance Kid and, who can forget, Johnny Hooker in The Sting? His characters usually ‘got away with it’ because of the easy charm and the twinkle in those striking blue eyes. This movie is no exception.
The amusing fact is this story is, as the film mentions in the beginning, mostly true. It starts with a scene where Forrest stops to assist Jewel (Sissy Spacek) whose car breaks down on the side of a Dallas, Texas highway. This after casually robbing a bank. The two proceed to have a conversation in a diner where he jokes that he’s a bank robber and proceeds to tell her the details of his MO. Like everyone else in the film, Jewel is caught by his charm and prefers to believe that he’s a salesman.
Meanwhile, local cop John Hunt (Casey Affleck) starts an investigation on what he coins as the ‘Over the Hill Gang.’ The cat and mouse chase is more like a confused rabbit looking for the docile turtle. Throughout the whole film, John and the audience are pretty much in awe that a gang of elderly gentleman are driving around the country robbing banks with little more than a pistol, that looks like it was purchased at Toys R’ Us, and an Oldsmobile. But the witnesses describe Forrest as ‘a gentlemen’ and don’t seem that perturbed that he took the money and strolled away.
This film is so thoughtfully put together. The solid cast also includes the rest of the ‘gang,’ Teddy (Danny Glover) and Waller (Tom Waits). The chemistry between all the characters is a real testimony, not only the caliber of the actors, but the magic director David Lowery (Pete’s Dragon, A Ghost Story) extracts for that precise moment that presents the perfect scene. But he makes it effortless and natural much like, say, Robert Altman. Any other director would have made The Old Man & the Gun a spectacular fare full of explosions and car chases that last too long and cast someone from The Expendables franchise. Yes, there are car chases, but they are old school. And this is a character-driven film. If you’ve seen some of Lowery’s other work, it’s ends up being more than just an interesting biopic, not so much about an older dude robbing banks and escaping prisons, but the smaller moments that lead us to the big questions in life.
He does this by crafting scenes that feel like they’re already classics. Like Waller’s story about why he hates Christmas. That’s hands down one of my favorite scenes. And, of course, all the bank-robbing scenes are embedded with humor and charm. There are also some really profound little golden nuggets scattered throughout, like when John interviews the defense attorney, played by Robert Longstreet, from a former case. Longstreet’s character, Stephen Buckley, practically defends Forrest, instead of painting him as a criminal saying sheepishly, ‘well you find something you love.’ And that line is pretty much the heart of the film.
The Old Man & the Gun is near perfect. This is Lowery’s fourth feature film and his work is getting more refined. He has that rare gift for rich storytelling. Much like old school filmmakers that worried more about the craft rather than blowing up the box office. It’s nod to classic storytelling, good solid characters, great music and a nice clean script. And if you’re from Texas, particularly the Dallas area, you’ll get a kick out of the location choices. However, Lowery’s style can be a little slow and it takes patience to appreciate a film like this. But I definitely recommend seeing it in the theater. I think it translates better on the bigger screen. It deserves a good theater run. Plus, this is Redford’s last film as an actor. You don’t want to miss him riding away in the sunset.
