If sincere storytelling is out of style ...

Rating: Null/10 (19 April 2001)

... then so is this movie. But somehow, Redford gets past my cynical barriers to deliver yet another experience that runs deep. Yes, the plot and direction are predictable. So what? This is a mythical tale.
If this was about golf, I wouldn't be interested. Unlike Redford, who describes himself as an environmentalist, I don't consider golf courses to be very 'natural'. As a kid, I played plenty of golf. But now I see it as the opposite of nature: as a herbicide laden terraformed playground for a privileged few. I prefer real nature, embodied in real wilderness -- what's left of it.
Yet, I love this movie.
Perhaps my judgment is colored by Robert Redford's role in Jeremiah Johnson, which I saw as an impressionable teen. Both Johnson and Junuh grapple with that long shadow of solitude. My life would be very different without Jeremiah Johnson - it had that kind of impact.
If I was to draw any comparison to Redford, it would be a writer: Ernest Hemingway. Both speak very simply; using few words with great impact.