All Hail Our Aging Baby Boomer Stars (Long May They Work)

I saw this film, liked it, but...doesn't seem many other folks did.
Oh, well.

In watching it, I found the usual group of "analytical thoughts" passing through my brain, even before I reached the merits(and they are there) of the film as a film.

Some thoughts in no particular order:

ONE: Redford had been looking to do this with Paul Newman for many years. I think Newman died about 6 years ago, so Redford certainly held on to the property. Nick Nolte ends up being so "perfect" for what the role is, that its hard to picture Newman in it. Still, Newman's ghost hangs over it -- particularly when our two aged heroes are confronted with a no-exit cliff edge where the only way out is down to the water below.

In life, Newman was rather competitive with Redford and vice versa and Redford was a tad mean about why Paul and Bob didn't make the film: "Paul just couldn't remember lines anymore."

Ouch.

TWO: I haven't read the book, but my understanding is that the two men were meant to be much younger(40's.) Redford is 79, Nolte is about 74. Nolte LOOKS about 101, however. Oh, well -- I didn't read the book, I was willing to go SOME distance that these characters could hike 2,000 miles. (And maybe they are only supposed to be in their late sixties.)

THREE: "A Walk in the Woods" continues the rather salutary acknowledgement of actors and people not just over 50(that's YOUNG, today) but over 60 and over 70. I think I know why: that's the Baby Boomers and they(we) aren't going away, and there's a lot of us and we've always been a huge demographic audience(like when The Flintstones and The Jetsons were on prime time TV when we were all kids.)

For me -- hah -- there is great pleasure in watching movies starring movie stars considerably older than me. They showed a trailer for a film called "Youth" and Michael Caine, Harvey Keitel and Jane Fonda all looked old but vigorous. Many years ahead -- for all of us. (Of course, being rich and fit movie stars makes a difference.)

A couple of years ago, Michael Douglas, Morgan Freeman, Robert DeNiro and Kevin Kline played old guys in Las Vegas and -- same diff. All older than me. Yay! (Mary Steenburgen appears as a love interest in both films -- typecast?)

FOUR: So the movie itself. I found it interesting that Redford did this film just two years after "All is Lost," where he played an older guy who sails the sea all alone. In this one, he intends to hike a 2,000 mile trail all alone..but his wife(Emma Thompson, OK, I guess, but not my type) demands he find an old buddy to go with him. Funny: after all his old friends say NO, one guy that he did NOT call(Nolte's character) finds out about the calls and "volunteers himself."

And thus, our alliterative stars -- RR and NN - set out on a buddy movie, a "grumpy old men" movie(shall we credit Jack and Walter for starting this trend over 20 year ago) , a hiking the wilderness movie(see "Wild" with Reese Witherspoon just last year) , and even a road movie(sometimes they leave the trail for towns and car lifts, etc.)

It worked for me. It worked because to see Robert Redford and Nick Nolte playing two men who have voluntarily forced themselves to be the most intimate of companions for five months -- walking together, talking together, sleeping tent by tent, pretty much reliant on each other -- became a kind of referendum on their careers and their personas.

While Redford is spectacularly fit for his age, it is still demoralizing to see the face he has now --its rather "fallen" and his great old facial expressions seem to emit from an immobile mask(his choice to dye his hair and eyebrows red is odd, too.) Still, he sounds like the Robert Redford of old, and he still has it.

As for Nolte, as one critic wrote "not all the CGI in the world" can prevent the audience from having to see a face that is simply no longer a movie star's face. Seeing Michael Caine in the "Youth" trailer, I found that Caine still has a handsome and elegant face. But Nolte's face? Its huge, its beefy, its alarmingly red and flushed and he purposely wears a ratty hair style that makes it seem as if Redford's preppy oldster is walking the trail with...a homeless person.

Back in the 70's Nick Nolte came along a few years after Redford and was rather compared to him: blond male stars were rare. Nolte was more rough hewn, but certainly handsome and certainly fit. In "North Dallas Forty"(1979), he's quite great looking.

Well, that was then and this is now and Nolte has that face now, and that gut now and...hey, he's still GREAT.

He's got that great voice. Always a growl. And he was ALWAYS a good actor which means when push comes to shove here, Redford is playing his part(well and low-key) against another actor who ALWAYS had the goods -- Nolte.

And that made this film a pleasure for me to watch. Redford and Nolte interact quite well...you believe them as not-quite-friends then who are going to try to be friends now. They are intimate with each other, and usually friendly. Oh, the script has them argue and accuse each other of a few things a few times but...its boy loses boy, boy gets boy back.

Not to mention: the scenery. Its gorgeous all right. There's one scene where Bob and Nick are arguing fiercely about their wasted lives and each other and they halt to see something ahead we can't see. And then they see it. And WE see it: a gorgeous expansive of tree covered mountains -- the Smokies. And the point is made: the failures and regrets and accuastions of two old men don't amount to a hill of beans versus the grandeur of nature.

----

Its a bit depressing to see Robert Redford's face today, and downright shocking to see Nick Nolte's. But they have a history. I thought of Butch Cassidy and The Way We Were and Three Days of the Condor and The Sting, and Rich Man, Poor Man and North Dallas Forty and(even) The Deep and 48 HRS and...that's what these old guys bring with them to a movie.

Consider that Sean Connery and Gene Hackman -- both still alive today -- both retired over TEN YEARS ago. I miss them on screen! Don't you? Jack Nicholson hasn't worked in 5 years. I see no reason to give Redford and Nolte the bum's rush out the door. We need to get to see these old guys as long as we can. Eastwood and Hoffman and (behind them)DeNiro and Pacino too.

I've seen Robert Redford's last three movies -- including Captain America(he was great in it.) I'll see his next three. So long as he makes them.