For years, nobody seemed to do it better onscreen — more effortlessly and seductively — than Robert Redford. Blond, blue-eyed, square-jawed, with an easy smile that hinted at the fun times to come, he was the kind of big-screen ideal whom the old studio moguls prayed for and at times invented. An elevated Everyman, he could slide into any nonsensical film and somehow make it work. He could seduce a woman, ride a horse, steal a fortune, take it on the chin, slip through the shadows. Yet Hollywood fame took an abrupt turn in 1969 when he bought land in Utah’s Wasatch range that he named Sundance.

多年来，若论大银幕上的从容自若、风流倜傥，似乎无人能出罗伯特·雷德福其右。金发碧眼、轮廓分明的下颌线，再加上唇角那抹漫不经心的笑意，仿佛一切欢愉都即将如期而至，他正是往日的电影大亨们梦寐以求甚至刻意打造的那种大银幕理想人物。作为一个臻于完美的普通人，他能游刃有余地融入任何荒诞剧情并赋予其说服力。无论是引诱女人、策马驰骋、巧取豪夺、忍辱负重还是匿影藏形都不在话下。然而，当他于1969年在犹他州瓦萨奇山脉购入一片土地，并将其命名为“圣丹斯”后，他的好莱坞星途骤然转变。

It always seemed perverse that this quintessential leading man, who died Tuesday at 89, entered the movies in the early 1960s, just as the old studio system was wheezing its final breaths. A new Hollywood was already emerging by the time he made his screen breakthrough opposite Jane Fonda in “Barefoot in the Park” (1967), based on the Neil Simon play and directed by Gene Saks. One of those movies whose commercial pandering stinks of desperation, it is a strained comedy about a young couple — he’s buttoned down, Fonda’s the free spirit — but its stars are undeniable, lovely, charming. (Redford originated the role on Broadway.) The whole thing is cringy and painfully stodgy, but when they’re onscreen, you don’t much care.

好莱坞的这位终极男主角于周二逝世，享年89岁。当他在上世纪60年代初入行时，正值旧制片体系奄奄一息之际，这令其从影时机看上去带有了几分悖谬。当他与简·方达搭档出演根据尼尔·西蒙的话剧改编的《裸足佳偶》（Barefoot in the Park，1967年，由吉恩·萨克斯执导）而取得大银幕的突破时，新好莱坞已初现峥嵘。该片讲述了一对年轻夫妻的故事——他的角色循规蹈矩，方达饰演的妻子则自由奔放，虽然这是一部拼命讨好市场、生硬造作的喜剧片，但两位主角的耀眼魅力毋庸置疑。（此前，这部戏的百老汇版本也是由雷德福主演）。尽管整体剧情令人尴尬、沉闷乏味，但只要他们出现在银幕上，这些就都不重要了。

Redford, though, soon became one of New Hollywood’s most totemic stars. He made some good choices, notably as an outlaw in the western “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” (1969). Directed by George Roy Hill, the movie is terribly dated but retains its fizzy charms, notably the undeniable chemistry of its two blue-eyed icons. Redford played the Sundance Kid, the mustachioed complement to Paul Newman’s Butch Cassidy. They’re a couple of train robbers who flee a posse, jump off a cliff together, hang out with a little lady (Katharine Ross) and eventually flee to Bolivia. The most famous moment in it comes at the end, when the film freezes on the two racing side-by-side into a hailstorm of bullets and certain death, a dewily immortalizing image.

雷德福很快成为新好莱坞最具图腾意义的明星之一。他做出了诸多明智选择，尤其是接拍西部片《虎豹小霸王》（Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid，1969年），他在这部电影里饰演一名法外之徒。乔治·罗伊·希尔执导的这部影片如今再看年代感扑面而来，却仍保有它的灵动魅力，尤其是两位蓝眸偶像间迸发的无可否认的化学反应。雷德福饰演的“日舞小子”留着两撇小胡子，与保罗·纽曼饰演的的布奇·卡西迪相得益彰。这两个火车大盗遭捕快围剿，一起跳悬崖，与凯瑟琳·罗斯饰演的姑娘厮混，最后逃到玻利维亚。影片最著名的场景出现在结尾：两人并肩冲入弹雨、走向必死之局，画面定格于露华永驻的刹那。

《虎豹小霸王》的最后一场戏让这两个角色获得了永恒的生命。

In a way, the end of “Butch Cassidy” seems like an emblematic moment in Redford’s career. A few years earlier, the title characters in Arthur Penn’s galvanic “Bonnie and Clyde” had also died in a fusillade that played out to the gory end, leaving two grotesquely bloodied and mutilated corpses. “Butch Cassidy,” by contrast, presents a vision of eternal beauty that Redford himself seemed to incarnate almost mystically, even as the decades passed. The film also suggested that somehow his characters could get out of any situation, even one as obviously dangerous as that in the great “Three Days of the Condor” (1975), a spy thriller co-starring Faye Dunaway and directed with great verve and style by Sydney Pollack. (You should watch it right now.)

在某种意义上，《虎豹小霸王》的结尾也堪称雷德福职业生涯的象征性时刻。几年前，阿瑟·佩恩那部极具冲击力的《雌雄大盗》(Bonnie and Clyde)的双主角同样死于枪林弹雨，影片将血腥的结局展现得淋漓尽致，留下两具血肉模糊的尸体。相比之下，《虎豹小霸王》呈现的却是一种永恒之美，而雷德福本人仿佛也以某种神秘的方式将这种美化为现实，纵使岁月流转亦不褪色。影片同时也暗示了他的角色似乎总能从任何危局中脱身，即便是在像《秃鹰七十二小时》（Three Days of the Condor，1975年）那样危机四伏的困境里——这是一部由费·唐纳薇搭档出演、西德尼·波拉克以磅礴的创作激情与鲜明风格执导的间谍惊悚片（这部佳作值得立即观看）。

As an actor, Redford was often best when appearing to do very little, when he had retreated into himself to watch the world. In “Condor,” he plays Turner, a shaggy-haired, unbuttoned CIA researcher who one afternoon returns from a lunch run only to find that all his co-workers have been murdered. He’s soon on the run and almost as quickly embroiled with Dunaway’s Kathy, a civilian whom he takes hostage because he needs a place to hide. This still being a Hollywood movie, they fall for each other; not everything was new in that era of American film, including the sexual politics. Redford is perfect in the role, and while he gives the character an edge, he remains deeply sympathetic, trustworthy and, yes, unfailingly sexy.

作为演员，雷德福最出色的表演往往在于看似不着痕迹的瞬间——当他沉入自我、只是静观世界时。在《秃鹰七十二小时》中，他饰演的特纳是一个头发蓬乱、不修边幅的中情局研究员。一天午饭归来时，他发现所有同事都被谋杀。很快他开始了逃亡，并几乎立即卷入与费·唐娜薇饰演的凯西的关系中。凯西是个平民女子，他因需要藏身之处而将她劫持作为人质。既然这毕竟是一部好莱坞电影，他们最终自然坠入爱河；在那个年代的美国电影里，未突破的窠臼依然存在，比如性别政治。雷德福的演绎堪称完美，他让人物带着锋芒，却仍然极具同情心、可信任，而且——是的——始终性感。

雷德福与费·唐纳薇在《秃鹰七十二小时》中的表演。

One of Redford’s gifts is that he was equally good at sharing the screen with men and women, which wasn’t always true of other 1970s male stars. He seems entirely comfortable playing against performers as different as Newman and Dustin Hoffman — he and Hoffman starred in another of the period’s exemplary films, Alan J. Pakula’s “All the President’s Men” (1976) — and, at times, Redford seemed wholly at ease deferring to them. This talent or predilection of Redford’s brings to mind the dynamic you see between Brad Pitt, Redford’s most obvious screen heir, and George Clooney, in the “Ocean’s” movies.” Perhaps that sense of comfort comes from the confidence that is specific to beauty: Redford never had to fight for your attention.

雷德福的一大天赋在于，他无论与同性还是异性演员同台都一样出色，而这在上世纪70年代的男星中并非普遍现象。他与纽曼、达斯汀·霍夫曼这样截然不同的表演者合作都显得游刃有余——他和霍夫曼还共同主演了那个时代的经典之作之一——《总统班底》（All the President’s Men，1976年），该片由阿兰·帕库拉执导。有时，雷德福甚至甘当绿叶，把光彩让给对方。他身上的这种天赋或者说本能倾向，令人联想到布拉德·皮特（他是最具雷德福精髓的银幕传人）与乔治·克鲁尼在《十一罗汉》(Ocean’s)系列中的化学反应。也许，这份从容源自一种属于美的自信：雷德福从不需刻意争夺观众视线。

The 1970s are rightly commemorated as a high-water mark in American cinema, but it was also an era that wasn’t especially welcoming for women onscreen and certainly behind the camera. That said, one of the films that I adore without reservation is Pollack’s “The Way We Were” (1973). A period romance that opens in the 1930s, it tracks the stormy, passionate and outwardly impossible love that starts between two college students, Barbra Streisand’s Katie, a fiery Jewish Marxist, and Redford’s Hubbell, an archetypal W.A.S.P. who seems to have everything figured out. An entire dissertation on the female gaze could be written about how Katie-Streisand — yearningly, even hungrily — looks at Hubbell-Redford. Watching her watch him, I feel very seen.

20世纪70年代被公认为美国电影的高峰期，但那同时也是一个对女性并不特别友好的年代——无论是在台前幕后。然而，我无条件热爱的其中一部影片便是波拉克执导的《往日情怀》（The Way We Were，1973年）。这部时代爱情片开篇于20世纪30年代，讲述了芭芭拉·史翠珊饰演的凯蒂（一位炽烈如火的犹太裔马克思主义者）与雷德福饰演的哈布尔（一个看似事事尽在掌握、堪称典型的WASP精英）两个大学生之间暴风骤雨般炽烈却注定无果的恋情。完全可以写一整篇关于“女性凝视”的论文，专门讨论凯蒂-史翠珊如何带着渴望，甚至饥渴般地注视着哈布尔-雷德福。看着她的目光投向他，我却仿佛照见自己。

Despite its glories, “The Way We Were” isn’t the kind of movie that comes immediately to mind when you think of New Hollywood. In truth, though Redford worked with some great directors and made some commensurately good, interesting films, he also made a great many middlebrow and forgettable films, including clunkers like “The Great Gatsby” (1974), a role that he seemed born to play. Yet despite his obvious talent, Redford often seemed most comfortable playing to type and playing it safe, and he couldn’t always rise above bad or indifferent direction. In contrast to some of his high-profile New Hollywood contemporaries, including Jack Nicholson, Redford wasn’t an actor who let his demons out to play.

尽管享有盛名，《往日情怀》并非提及新好莱坞时最先浮现的片型。事实上，虽然雷德福与一些伟大的导演合作并留下相应佳作，但他同样演过许多平庸乃至乏善可陈的作品，包括《了不起的盖茨比》（The Great Gatsby，1974年）这样的失败之作（这简直是非他莫属的角色）。尽管才华毋庸置疑，雷德福往往似乎更愿意打安全牌，求稳求安全，他并不总是能超越平庸导演的局限。在与新好莱坞时代一些声名显赫和的同期演员相比——比如杰克·尼科尔森，雷德福并不是那种会把内心的疯狂宣泄到表演中的演员。

雷德福与芭芭拉·史翠珊在《往日情怀》中。

After the New Hollywood faded, Redford’s roles generally grew less interesting, but his public persona became more intriguing. Amid his political activism, including his stated commitment to the environment, he made his feature directing debut with “Ordinary People” (1980), a melodrama about an uptight family coping in the aftermath of a death. It’s very sincere and features gauzy cinematography and a couple of fine performances, but it’s also overly neat, so of course it won best picture, despite competition from the likes of Martin Scorsese’s “Raging Bull” and David Lynch’s “The Elephant Man.” Redford won best director, too, an award that is easiest to understand now, I think, as a gift from the Hollywood mainstream to one of its own.

新好莱坞时代风潮退去，雷德福的角色总体上渐失光华，但他的公众形象却愈发引人入胜。在投身环保等政治活动的同时，他于1980年执导了首部剧情长片《普通人》（Ordinary People，1980年）。这部情节剧讲述了一个拘谨的家庭如何应对亲人离世带来的后果，影片真挚动人，朦胧的摄影风格和几位演员的精湛表演令人称道，但显得过于工整，正因如此，尽管面临马丁·斯科塞斯的《愤怒的公牛》（Raging Bull）和大卫·林奇的《象人》（The Elephant Man）等强劲对手，它仍摘得奥斯卡最佳影片奖。雷德福本人也斩获最佳导演奖，如今看来，我认为，这个奖项更像是好莱坞主流对自家人的一份礼赠。

“The danger of success is that it forces you into a mold,” Redford once said. “I prefer independence.” That makes his escape into the wilds of Utah all the more gratifying. Although he continued to star in films and also direct (“Quiz Show” from 1994 is a high point), Redford clearly didn’t want to be forced into a mold. So he ran away from Hollywood (well, kind of). He founded the Sundance Institute, made Hollywood come to him and fundamentally changed American cinema, often for better.

“成功的危险在于将人困入定式，”雷德福曾坦言，“我更爱独立。”这种态度让他遁入犹他州荒野的选择更显快意。尽管他仍继续出演电影并坚持导演工作——1994年的《机智问答》(Quiz Show)堪称巅峰之作，但显然不愿被定型。于是他“逃离” 了好莱坞（某种程度上而言），创办了圣丹斯学院，让好莱坞主动向他靠拢，并从根本上推动了美国电影生态的改变——这种改变往往朝着更好的方向。

The history of those changes, and of both the institute and its famous festival, are complicated, yes, and sometimes vexed. Yet one of the things I love best about Redford — who was sometimes jokingly referred to as Ordinary Bob — is that he created a place where artists could cut loose, find community and make movies that he would never have starred in, much less directed himself. Unlike many in Hollywood, Redford sought something greater than himself, and he found it.

这些历史的变迁，以及圣丹斯学院及其举办的著名电影节的历史确实错综复杂，甚至充满争议。但我最欣赏雷德福的一点（人们有时戏称他为“平凡鲍勃”），在于他打造了一个让艺术家得以挣脱束缚、建立社群、制作电影的天地，孕育出那些他本人既不会出演更不会执导的电影。与好莱坞多数人不同，雷德福追求的是超越自我的价值，而他最终做到了。