Apex Mountain on The Rewatchables
63:16 – 69:30… wears his watch on his right hand, but every close-up shows him doing things right-handed. Writing, dialing phones, et cetera. It's good. Redford. Good touch. Apex Mountain. Redford. Oh boy. I'm going to say yes. I'm saying yes for Redford. Coming off that run I listed earlier, then he makes this movie happen. Becomes a huge success. He established himself as a producer. He's an AAA lister. I think you could make the case that this is his last iconic movie. And I know Chris is a huge sneakers guy. No, but like the only other blip up at like of any significance is probably natural and out of Africa. Yeah. And …
The whole segment, as transcribed
Robert Redford is left-handed. Oh yeah. Like almost all lefties wears his watch on his right hand, but every close-up shows him doing things right-handed. Writing, dialing phones, et cetera. It's good. Redford. Good touch. Apex Mountain. Redford. Oh boy. I'm going to say yes. I'm saying yes for Redford. Coming off that run I listed earlier, then he makes this movie happen. Becomes a huge success. He established himself as a producer. He's an AAA lister. I think you could make the case that this is his last iconic movie. And I know Chris is a huge sneakers guy. No, but like the only other blip up at like of any significance is probably natural and out of Africa. Yeah. And I'm not as big into those movies. I think actually in a weird way, like Apex Mountain is a very hotly debated topic here. This actually is maybe the dictionary definition of Apex Mountain. He got this movie made off his name. It's an amazingly successful, adored film. And I don't think he was ever as big as he was when he made this. I think it's epic. I forgot to mention one thing in internet research. Redford and Hoffman settled on a compromise previously used by John Wayne and James Stewart in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Redford got top billing in the ads, trailers, and other marketing. But in the film itself, Hoffman got the top spot. Bad deal for Redford. I'd rather be in the top spot of the movie. I think he owned points on the movie, so I think he did okay. Yeah, he's fine. Apex Mountain, Dustin Hoffman. No way. I think Kramer versus Kramer is him winning the Oscar and making this iconic movie. That's just a few years later, right? It's like three years later. You could say Tootsie, though. I think Tootsie is the other successful. His biggest success is Tootsie. Tootsie is really one of the only times he played Dustin Hoffman, basically. Yeah. Where it was like the likability of whatever likability he had as a person kind of came out in Tootsie the best. Kramer versus Kramer, I mean, that's in my top ten. You know Dustin Hoffman only made four movies in the 80s? Yeah, he did something weird. It was like Dick Tracy. The 80s were weird. Him and Pacino. Neither of them did a lot. Was Hook the 80s or 90s? No. Tootsie, Ishtar, Rain Man, and Family Business. Weird. Oh, Family Business. Remember that? Yeah. Rain Man, though, bought him a lot of steaks. I want to do Kramer versus Kramer rewatchables where it's just me and Jos whose parents have gotten divorced. It's me, you, and Dobbins. Just do the divorced. It's coming up on the 20th anniversary. And Mal. Or 40th anniversary, I think. Yeah. Well, Mal would be a wreck the whole time. Yeah. The COD pod. That would be great. Apex Mountain, Robards, not even a question. Oh, I don't know, man. There's like so many Robards moments. Like, Robards is the king of Iceman Cometh. Like, Robards doing Iceman Cometh on Broadway, he's considered the greatest iteration. I don't know. What are some other amazing Robards moments? Parenthood. Come on. Parenthood. Stop. This is also his, is it his first or his second Oscar? Because he won in this category, I think, two years in a row. He won for Julia the next year. The only guy everyone supporting back. He plays Dashiell Hammett in Julia. Yeah. That's right. The only guy everyone went back to back in the supporting category. Can I share you a little tidbit? Yeah. I think Mahershala Ali is about to challenge this. He wouldn't be back to back. It would be twice in three years. But I think there's a strong chance that that happens again. Yeah. You're recommending the Green Book at 9 to 1. Yeah. I like it. So that's it for Apex Mountain. I don't think anyone, I think this might've been Watergate's Apex Mountain. Alan Pakula? I'll let you take that one. I don't have his IMDb in front of me. I mean, Alan Pakula also with an incredible 1970s. Yeah, let's hear this. Clute. The Parallax View. All the President's Men. Comes a Horseman. Also with Jason Robards. And Starting Over, which you talked about with Wesley a few months ago. And then the 80s is a little up and down. And he has Sophie's Choice, but he also has Dream Lover. So in the 90s, he gets bounced back. And he does Presumed Innocent, Consenting Adults, The Pelican Brief, and The Devil's Own. Ooh. Which is a pretty good run for a guy in his 60s. It's such a thin, the margins there are so thin between Alan Pakula and Scorsese. Those guys who are all in and around that same mix. Philip Kaufman's another one that's really interesting from right around that time doing the right stuff. Yeah. And winds up kind of not ever really capturing that again. These guys just didn't have publicists who were as good. They weren't larger than personalities the way that people like Coppola were. But they made great movies that are totally remembered to this day. But Alan Pakula does not have a big vision. Even though the Russo brothers will say that a Captain America movie is completely influenced by the Parallax movie. Or like watching Homecoming, like Adam Naiman wrote about on the site. You can just see Coppola all over that show now. I think this is his apex. I agree. And you could make the case for Goldman. Butch is obviously the biggest success. And he got paid. And it was a huge, massive hit. But a lot of writers can have the one-hit movie. He ended up having a career. And this is the culmination where he's got this and Marathon, man. He's working with the biggest stars in Hollywood. He's making shitloads of money. He wins an Oscar. I would personally vote for this. I agree with you. Would this movie have been better with Danny Trejo, Steve Buscemi, or Michael K. Williams? Buscemi would be unbelievable. Buscemi could have played Donald Segretti. He could have been Donald Segretti. He's a great Segretti. Yeah. Which made me wonder, was Robert Walden the Steve Buscemi of his time? The Saul Rubinick. You stabbed me in the heart! For overacting. Really, only the FBI agent jumped out at me after the 338th viewing. The guy who Hoffman's trying to get information of. He's a little hot-headed for no reason. And just wasn't impressed by his acting at all. What about... This is not an applicable movie. There's really no overacting going on in this. I think he could make the case that Jack Warden is overcooking it a little bit.
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