‘You have to thank television for audiences having a short attention span. It's only because of what they are used to: not much subtlety, not much restraint, not much time to let things unfold -- as often happens in life -- and everything accelerated in a stylish way with a lot of zing. ‘Television tells us only the things it wants to, It still feeds us heroes, it still offers villains. And even though we know better than to always watch it we still trust it.' Redford is also no fan of some of the ‘blockbuster' films of today:' The industry has become more costly, more formulaic. You watch certain films and ask:” Why did that get made? How did they spend that kind of money on that film?” ‘And you realise there is an assembly line running through Hollywood . So many personalities and directors making films now bring with them a mentality honed by their work on television. ‘Their style is more overt, like sitcoms or the funny paper pages. “OK, folks, this is how the tale can be told in four panels....” ‘The Horse Whisperer' is more complex than that. It is the story of the youngster played by Scarlett Johansson who is injured with her horse in an accident. Kristin Scott James as her mother brings in Redford 's mystery cowboy -- the ‘Whisperer' -- to help them recover. Romantic entanglements follow but, as with much of Redford 's work, there is secrecy about the production. The only indication is that the ending of the film is different from the conclusion to the bestseller. Because of the book's popularity there is a built-in audience for the movie but Redford is also hoping that old-style narrative will also capture audiences:' I have a tremendous respect for storytelling. When I was growing up we didn't have much money. We'd go to a movie on a Saturday and on Wednesday night my parents would walk us over to the library. It was such a big deal to go in and get my own book. That was the most important thing I ever did for it was full of all those larger-than-life things, windows into other possibilities, other realms.' For all this, Redford is not luvvie precious. He has put his money and movie muscle into environmental projects and also, through his film workshop Sundance Institute and now artistically and commercially ( as a launching pad for independent moviemakers) important Sundance Film Festival, but still knows the importance of the box office, of the blockbuster. He's made plenty of them from ‘Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid' and ‘The Way We Were' to the more recent commercial hits like ‘Indecent Proposal' ( ‘a bit of a joyride that didn't require much time', he says) and ‘Up Close and Personal' with his mirror, that other stunning movie blonde Michelle Pfeiffer. With ‘The Horse Whisperer' he hopes to achieve the gravitas of his 1980 Oscar-winning debut as a director, ‘Ordinary People', as well as the emotional pull of 1992's ‘A River Runs Through It' which was the Redford-picked Brad Pitt's breakthrough movie. And a box office hit for the millennium age. He knows times have changed. The Robert Redford image is God, Truth and The American Way, the Sundance Kid as Superman. He was a movie media darling of the 1970s -- a Senate hopeful in ‘The Candidate', a screenwriter in ‘The Way We Were', ace reporter in ‘All The President's Men' -- and had the essential U.S. TV Trinity: authority, irony and, of course, super-wattage twinkle. There was also the teeth and the cascading hair and the penchant -- when artistically necessary -- of going bare chested. Film audiences believed that from Redford they would get lots of hunk and a fair deal. He made ‘Up Close and Personal' --a movie by committee -- for its popular potential.For the money which is the antithesis of his image.
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