BEFORE: Another one from the "True Crime" files tonight - it's funny because I was just talking about Robert Redford the other day after watching "The Highwaymen", a film that he and Paul Newman were once scheduled to appear in, before a decade of development limbo made him too old for that role. But here's proof that seniors are living longer, being more active and robbing more banks. Wait, what?
Robert Redford carries over from "Our Souls at Night". There were rumblings about this being Redford's last film, but he's talked about retiring before. You have to wonder if a director casts him at the age of 83 that there's a secret fantasy that the actor will die right after shooting wraps, so they can get some extra publicity by promoting it as Redford's last film, for real. But then he made a cameo appearance in "Avengers: Endgame", so that wasn't an option.
THE PLOT: Based on the true story of Forrest Tucker and his audacious escape from San Quention at the age of 70 with an unprecedented string of heists that confounded authorities and enchanted the public.
AFTER: It's tough to tie this one in with Labor Day (two years ago I got lucky with the film titled "Labor Day", but you just can't count on that sort of thing happening again) but I'll give it a go. Forrest Tucker was a career criminal - that's a career, anyway - but they say that if you love what you do, then you'll never work a day in your life. Well, he clearly loved robbing banks, so there you go. OK, that was lame, but what about all the work done by the police and FBI in order to track this guy down? Let's take a moment to acknowledge that.
Most of this film is set in 1981, when Forrest Tucker and two associates he met in prison had a streak of 80-plus bank robberies, mostly small ones and then one BIG one, most of which went under the radar because of the small amounts, the non-violent, almost friendly tactics employed by the robbers, and the fact that they were spread out over five states, so nobody made the connection between all of the heists. But I've got to call a NITPICK POINT on the locations here, because at one point they say that the heists are all spread out, but when John Hunt, the detective from Dallas, puts a bunch of pushpins on a map to represent the robberies, he sees that they're all arranged in a straight line. So, which is it? Wouldn't you think that a gang of robbers would be incredibly stupid to rob banks in a straight line, making it very easy to determine which town they'd be hitting next?
Tucker later spots Detective Hunt while both are eating in a restaurant in Dallas (Tucker's got a girlfriend outside Dallas, and again, it seems rather stupid that Tucker would be out on the town in a city that's got so many men looking for him) and, instead of hiding or getting his food to go, Tucker approaches Hunt outside the men's room, as a random stranger asking him how the investigation is going. This is either very bold, very stupid, or very arrogant - perhaps Tucker was counting on the strength of that phone mustache he wore during every heist. (Right, like a trained police detective is going to think, "Hmm, this guy is the same age as that bank robber I'm looking for, he's got the same build, same color eyes, same color hair, but no, that guy had a mustache. There's just no way the robber could have shaved off his mustache, or wore a false one! So this can't possibly be him!"). Or maybe he's just fond of playing this elaborate game of "cat and mouse" with the detective. Either way, the detective blows it by calling him out by name. This is NITPICK POINTS number 2 and 3, the third being - why didn't Hunt arrest him, right then and there? This was his goal, to arrest Tucker before the FBI took over the investigation - was this character afraid of success, or was he also enjoying the game too much?
You'd think this would be enough to make Tucker stop robbing banks, and you would be wrong. He kept going, even knowing that the cops and FBI were on his trail. He loved robbing banks, he loved running from the cops, but even more than that, he loved escaping from prison. There's a montage of his 17 or 18 escapes from juvenile hall and then various prisons and work camps over the years - which cleverly uses footage of young Robert Redford from the movie "The Chase". Hey, no age-removing software or facial-replacement effects needed for those shots! (What, no footage from "Brubaker" or "The Last Castle"?).
I loved that montage, and I loved a lot of little quiet sequences here - just take the scene where Tucker is shopping with his girlfriend for a piece of jewelry. With almost no dialogue, they go through so many emotions in a continuous sequence. Astonishment at the beauty of the bracelet, concern that it costs so much, confusion when he starts leading her out of the store, the thrill when she realizes they're stealing a piece of jewelry, guilt and shame when she doesn't feel right about stealing, his confusion over her guilt, his resistance to change who he is as a thief, then acceptance when he quietly agrees to go back and return the bracelet. That's like a master-class in acting and using their mannerisms to tell part of the story without words.
I like a lot of the complex questions raised, too - for a career criminal, when is it enough, is it ever enough? Was robbing banks an acquired habit that Tucker couldn't break, did it form this vicious cycle of stealing, getting caught escaping from prison, and repeating that, once initiated, couldn't be stopped, not even for the love of a good woman? Why couldn't he just settle down with her on her horse farm and learn to be happy with that? Why couldn't he see that his actions affected her also, not to mention the people around him, the people who had money in the bank, or the people whose cars he stole to get away from the cops? (I can't wait for my year-end wrap-up now, since bank robbery is clearly a running theme this year, between "The Highwaymen", "Baby Driver", "Robin Hood", "The Vault", "Destroyer" et al.)
Also starring Casey Affleck (last seen in "The Finest Hours"), Danny Glover (last seen in "20 Feet from Stardom"), Tom Waits (last seen in "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs"), Sissy Spacek (last seen in "The Straight Story"), Tika Sumpter (last seen in "Get on Up"), Elisabeth Moss (last seen in "Chuck"), Isiah Whitlock Jr. (last seen in "Thanks for Sharing"), Keith Carradine (last seen in "Nashville"), John David Washington, Augustine Frizzell (last seen in "Pete's Dragon"), Gene Jones (last seen in "The Hateful Eight"), Ari Elizabeth Johnson, Teagan Johnson, Barlow Jacobs (last seen in "The Master"), Robert Longstreet (last seen in "Aquaman").
RATING: 6 out of 10 police sketches
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