Part 10 (1/2)

Moore recalls her firstwith Redford at the Wildwood office newly sited on the Paramount lot as a square dance ”It was all very formal, and I had to pinch myself to re I hadn't expected occurred He said, without apology, that he was concerned that my fame as TV's Mary Richards, whom he enjoyed, would destroy believability for the Beth role” Moore had read Guest's novel the month it appeared and wanted the role because it touched her personal experience The key relationshi+p in her own life was an unresolved one with a reht, Well, okay, we're off to a good start, because he has no trouble about being honest” Robert Redford Then soy, that he was concerned that my fame as TV's Mary Richards, whom he enjoyed, would destroy believability for the Beth role” Moore had read Guest's novel the month it appeared and wanted the role because it touched her personal experience The key relationshi+p in her own life was an unresolved one with a reht, Well, okay, we're off to a good start, because he has no trouble about being honest”

After the first interview, Moore heard nothing for a month Then the unlikeliest opportunity ca Broadway hit Whose Life Is It Anyway? Whose Life Is It Anyway? Gaines suggested Moore for the part, and Manny Azenberg, a good friend of Redford's since his Broadway days, endorsed her Gaines's strategy, says Moore, was brilliant: ”There was no doubt that Bob was interested in me After that first interview he left me in a state of hope But the reality was that he had Eisner to appease, and ould Para takes you, there will be this visible belief in you as a serious actor You will be proving your credentials by taking on the legitie' For ested Moore for the part, and Manny Azenberg, a good friend of Redford's since his Broadway days, endorsed her Gaines's strategy, says Moore, was brilliant: ”There was no doubt that Bob was interested in me After that first interview he left me in a state of hope But the reality was that he had Eisner to appease, and ould Para takes you, there will be this visible belief in you as a serious actor You will be proving your credentials by taking on the legitie' For me, of course, it was a lot of pressure Ordinary People Ordinary People would come just before would come just before Whose Life Is It Anyway? Whose Life Is It Anyway? Was I tenacious enough for all that? Could I deliver for Was I tenacious enough for all that? Could I deliver for Ordinary People Ordinary People in the first place? But I had faith in myself I was deeply inside ht place to be I felt, If Redford can just go that final mile, I can handle it” in the first place? But I had faith in myself I was deeply inside ht place to be I felt, If Redford can just go that final ment impressed Redford Afteras Beth Moore had little ti with her assistant and hairdresser to Chicago, where they moved into a rented property in Lake Forest that would form the hub of production Bit by bit Redford learned about the chaos in Moore's personal life: that her time in Lake Forest represented her first serious split with Tinker and the terun her first affair; and that her mind-set was both euphoric and depressed ”I didn't doubt Mary's strength as a woe because I was atte to project a character that I'd never seen in movies I'd known many women like Beth in real life, people who cannot connect with their eround to cross”

Having studied so many directors up close, Redford knew that his point of entry to directing was to stay close to his actors ”I felt confident a actors I felt I could relate in ter the positivity in the environan, in theater fashi+on, with the actors seated in a circle, with scripts in their laps

Sutherland, whose headlining career had begun with Altman's MASH, MASH, expected the momentary uncertainties of a first-time director but found Redford clearheaded and diametrically unlike Pakula, who had directed him on expected the momentary uncertainties of a first-time director but found Redford clearheaded and diametrically unlike Pakula, who had directed him on Klute: Klute: ”Bob totally handed trust to the actor He'd learned that himself, the need for space for the actor to find the role I knehat I wanted to do with Jarrett, which is not to say he didn't He did But he gave me room” ”Bob totally handed trust to the actor He'd learned that himself, the need for space for the actor to find the role I knehat I wanted to do with Jarrett, which is not to say he didn't He did But he gave me room”

For Moore, the process was like working with a h it with the utate the role, and then to let it fly He restricted nothing The only direction he gaveof the character, was aboutover fro the thigh, the raised hand jabbing in emphasis of a line, the snap-quick turn of the head”

Ti books in the Children in Crisis series and by attending group therapy sessions at a mental institution under an assumed name, believed he benefited best from daily walks with Redford in which the topics varied frole to overco,” said Hutton ”It's hard to explain how secure you feel working with sole and who kno to help” In Moore's view, Hutton's comfort reflected the deeply personal connection Redford felt with the story ”We talked a lot about faradually became open about his relationshi+p with his father and how it ireat difficulty with his father's judgments and attitude to hi acceptance, but, as in ot the impression that there was also a desire to resolve that part of his emotional life once and for all I suspected there was so of his father, in his eyes, in Beth”

In the eyes of Marcella Scott, Redford had ”never divested hiether by destiny” In 1979, Charlie retired froe, ti San Francisoby They wrote and talked often, but Redford ad The Candidate The Candidate [fil Sundance for the longest tied it for him, he complained about the altitude I accepted that ere not of the sa was He was a er, a oodSundance for the longest tied it for him, he complained about the altitude I accepted that ere not of the sa was He was a er, a ood man”

Alan Pakula, the eternal analyst, ada in some subtle personal transference with Ordinary People Ordinary People ”When I read it, I said, Oh, I get it The novel is about parental tyranny The catalyst, the character causing the dysfunction, is thethe novel's dysfunctional fa himself at a critical ti ”It had nothing to do with my father or his or my family These were simply types of people I'd e and oes on beneath that veneer?” ”When I read it, I said, Oh, I get it The novel is about parental tyranny The catalyst, the character causing the dysfunction, is thethe novel's dysfunctional fa himself at a critical ti ”It had nothing to do with my father or his or my family These were simply types of people I'd e and oes on beneath that veneer?”

Redford had ht up in the position of key lights or other technicalstarted, suddenly those technicalities were of para caraduated to cine bewildering questions: ”Do you want a Baby Junior on this, or a seventy-five ?” Redford was frustrated In his head, he already had the ether first on paper, then while he drove around the North Shore looking for landscapes He had instructed Phillip Bennett and Mike Riva, the art directors, about the empty lawns, trimmed topiary and stern houses he wanted The landscape was in his ot frustrated talking with John and the technicians, because I couldn't articulate it Finally, I found ures with light angles Then it became easy, because I could literally 'paint' the movie We went from there to the point that I created the storyboards, and John worked fro that painted fra in front of hi questions: ”Do you want a Baby Junior on this, or a seventy-five ?” Redford was frustrated In his head, he already had the ether first on paper, then while he drove around the North Shore looking for landscapes He had instructed Phillip Bennett and Mike Riva, the art directors, about the empty lawns, trimmed topiary and stern houses he wanted The landscape was in his ot frustrated talking with John and the technicians, because I couldn't articulate it Finally, I found ures with light angles Then it became easy, because I could literally 'paint' the movie We went from there to the point that I created the storyboards, and John worked fro that painted fra control Redford exercised over the production was impressive To Donald Sutherland, such ”mean-ass economy in direction” was extraordinary for a first-ti: ”He didn't say a lot but he was very specific when he did comment, and I discovered that what he said was alested a different way of doing soht” The trick of e liifted to him by Mike Nichols, was passed on to all Mary Tyler Moore found it joyous, but exhausting ”He allowed us to improvise whenever anted to We knehat each scene was His direction was, 'Try what feels good' And if I felt so was only so-so and wanted another shot at it, he'd say, 'Try it whatever way'” Moore averaged, she estimates, three or four takes per scene ”Paradoxically it felt tight, like whittling down a piece of wood to get to the point”

The precision hich Redford ”saw” the Jarretts' world, Moore contends, is revealed in the one instance of multiple varied takes, in a solitary scene where Beth puts a cake in the refrigerator Moore skipped over the scenes in read-throughs, but Redford had other thoughts about it ”It was about behavior,” says Redford ”I wanted to capture this woman in an unobserved mos It was about her fastidious way, her uptightness, her weakness” Moore experienced it as pure hell ”It was the bane of the production, and we tried every few days, every time we had a kitchen scene, to reshoot it The scene had no dialogue It was justa cake with a circle of cherries around the top, looking at it, then adjusting the cherries and slipping the cake into the fridge All I ever heard froain' In the end, we shot it about twenty-five tih to the final cut I felt exhausted, naked, frustrated by that scene I never understood while it was going on exactly what Bob was looking for Later, I did It was manifest in the book and in Alvin's screenplay and in the talks Bob and I had What he was looking for hat the entire quest of theto capture the soul of Beth Jarrett in an unguarded moment I felt he achieved that in the end”

The bleakness of the story was the e for Redford The title, he decided, wasn't ironic There was truth in the irreconcilable conflict of trauer, the psychiatrist, probes Conrad's depression, but the critical resolution, which, in the visual reenactment, confronts Conrad with the flashback of his brother's drowning, fixes nothing in any practical sense; instead, Conrad is obliged to accept a continuum: that what has occurred is irreversible and will rebound onward, affecting not just his life, but the lives of his parents, especially Beth, who abandons her family at the end of the story ”What I wanted was to deal with people who have concerns they cannot handle because they cannot define the to say this is what happened, this is how it is, accept it To achieve that, we tuned in to the finest twitches of the perfor, 'I knohat this is about' is miles away from the look that says, 'I cannot co is in the tiniest inflection That's e sought”

Of enormous importance, says Redford, was the decision to base the production on Chicago's North Shore, away from Hollywood It allowed for intimacy and independence, two critical ele Diller and Pollack, had suggested they visit the location to consult, but he had said no Threewith editor Jeff Kanew at Paramount to view the first assembly, Redford felt i, an early viewer of the finished product, quite liked the anized a private screening, liked it, too, but disliked the depiction of Beth To Redford he said plainly, ”The woht as well have been, ”The movie doesn't work” Pollack believed Moore was ”clumpy and obvious” and unable to rise above her Mary Richards i her I was hurt, but I had belief I knew I had a good cut; it worked beautifully with the Pachelbel I finished the movie and then I headed for the hills”

In January 1979, during the edit, Betty Webb, his grade school sweetheart, now a New Age counselor, visited with Bill Cooed ht-eyed competitor, suave and determined to best any competition He was now soft-spoken, even ”subdued” Redford, in fact, judged it otherwise ”There'd been a long buildup of emotional issues By the time I had locked down Ordinary People, Ordinary People, which carried its own high toll, I was duh toll, I was dumb with tiredness”

”After Ordinary People, Ordinary People, his Hollyorld became more accessible to us kids,” says Shauna, who, at that point, was studying art at the University of Colorado at Boulder ”Previously he had kept us away from it Now the boundary came down It was as if, with the movie, he'd at last expressed his true art and that Hollyas finally a positive thing” But Amy, just ten, still found an obstacle in the relentlessness of her father's fa I was arts oriented, too, and I wanted to work close to hiet enough personal tie Amy would break ranks, shave half her head, stud her ears with rings and flee to England to study acting ”and objectify things for rip on real life and real people” Stan Collins saw Redford struggle to hold his faether ”But it wasn't like it used to be They were a great family He and Lola were terrific, affectionate people They were incapacitated, though, by lack of time” his Hollyorld became more accessible to us kids,” says Shauna, who, at that point, was studying art at the University of Colorado at Boulder ”Previously he had kept us away from it Now the boundary came down It was as if, with the movie, he'd at last expressed his true art and that Hollyas finally a positive thing” But Amy, just ten, still found an obstacle in the relentlessness of her father's fa I was arts oriented, too, and I wanted to work close to hiet enough personal tie Amy would break ranks, shave half her head, stud her ears with rings and flee to England to study acting ”and objectify things for rip on real life and real people” Stan Collins saw Redford struggle to hold his faether ”But it wasn't like it used to be They were a great family He and Lola were terrific, affectionate people They were incapacitated, though, by lack of tiations of work and felt that ”[Lola and I] were fulfilling our goals and, at the sa the distance between us” When Lola enrolled at Goddard College in Ver an independent life-a situation that coincided with Ordinary People Ordinary People-the sense of finality was unavoidable

In the spring, with The Electric Horse to receptive audiences and playing to receptive audiences and Brubaker Brubaker set for a nationwide su a road trip, exactly as he'd often done throughout the fifties and sixties Supping with the kids in Denver, he decided to rent a car to drive solo to New York ”I wanted to recover nor, Redford tried to balance hihout the fifties and sixties Supping with the kids in Denver, he decided to rent a car to drive solo to New York ”I wanted to recover normal huhtthe co the fan, the wouy who knew your cousin, the endless handshakes, like I was one of those guys alked on thethe co the fan, the wouy who knew your cousin, the endless handshakes, like I was one of those guys alked on the h summer Ordinary People Ordinary People opened with a showcase western pre Redford's guests at Sundance for the weekend Moore, battling the ravages of incipient alcoholise under the shadow of the Big House Moore just wanted to sleep but ”could not believe the social schedule Bob set up for us It orse than anyat 11:00 ao I couldn't keep up It orrying I wondered, How the hell does he keep this pace?” opened with a showcase western pre Redford's guests at Sundance for the weekend Moore, battling the ravages of incipient alcoholise under the shadow of the Big House Moore just wanted to sleep but ”could not believe the social schedule Bob set up for us It orse than anyat 11:00 ao I couldn't keep up It orrying I wondered, How the hell does he keep this pace?”

Ordinary People had been enerated receipts of 115success by any criteria Pauline Kael continued to disapprove of Redford's work, chastising the director's emotional absence and the iven the subject enerated receipts of 115success by any criteria Pauline Kael continued to disapprove of Redford's work, chastising the director's emotional absence and the iven the subject matter But Jack Kroll in Neeek Neeek applauded direction that was ”clean and clear in style, drenched with seriousness and sensitivity” And Vincent Canby in applauded direction that was ”clean and clear in style, drenched with seriousness and sensitivity” And Vincent Canby in The New York Tiood, so full of first-rate feeling, that it would be presumptuous for a critic to re-edit it” The awards followed By January 1981 welco, that it would be presumptuous for a critic to re-edit it” The awards followed By January 1981 Ordinary People Ordinary People was the acknowledgedan award fro British Academy of Film and Television Arts nominations and, ulti the Polanski's was the acknowledgedan award fro British Academy of Film and Television Arts nominations and, ulti the Polanski's Tess, Tess, David Lynch's David Lynch's The Elephant Man The Elephant Man and Scorsese's and Scorsese's Raging Bull Raging Bull

”When I saw the awards trail beginning, I caved in,” says Redford ”I just didn't want it What I was doing was about personal art, about exploring myself and my audience I was very proud of the film but I did not desire accolades It sounds churlish, but I was sated on accolades There are only sosince Gone With the Wind Gone With the Wind' or 'You are the best leading ht, Screw this! and disappeared”

After attending a benefit at the Northwestern Hospital Institute of Psychiatry in Chicago, an invitation that arose fro Ordinary People, Ordinary People, Redford joined the Brokaws for a long-scheduled six-day skiing trip across Colorado, Utah and Idaho ”I was in terrible shape, drained and ee The ironies were terrible My family had been there fro forfulfill-scheduled six-day skiing trip across Colorado, Utah and Idaho ”I was in terrible shape, drained and ee The ironies were terrible My family had been there fro forfulfillmentand then this this”

At Sun Valley in Idaho the depression fogged his thinking ”I was skiing harder and faster, and I pitchedall the way, from top to bottom I skied it too fast and crashed, a full three-hundred-and-sixty-degree tumble”

He smashed his nose and collarbone and suffered multiple lacerations and a severe head wound Seo down the an and insisted-”stupidly”-on skiing down Transferred comatose by a wheeled into X-ray, passing out, then waking up to the sight of a pretty nurse gabbling about the announcement on the radio that Ordinary People Ordinary People was a hot favorite for six Academy Awards ”She was excited She wasn't interested inAnd then those questions started: 'What's Mary Tyler Moore really like?'” was a hot favorite for six Academy Awards ”She was excited She wasn't interested inAnd then those questions started: 'What's Mary Tyler Moore really like?'”

As soon as he recovered and could travel, he left for a soul retreat, a Native American festival in New Oraibi, Arizona, to which he had been invited Two nights later he was in a Hopi kiva, bandaged up like a mummy, for the Pointer solstice bean dance Still in pain, he found the environain restorative in the familiar Zen way Without any conscious effort, it see, the talk elevated him to what he calls ”a transcendental state of release that brought me away from the pain and anxieties of the world I lost all the confusion and negativity ofbeyond 'the now' to a higher place Next thing I kneas ht, This is where I need to be, this place of roots I need to work reed to attend the fifty-third Acadee called ”Fil with memories from Gish to Gable and a tribute to Henry Fonda, which was presented by Redford Duly, the awards ca over Judd Hirsch, also noent for best adapted screenplay, to Redford as best director, and for best picture Mary Tyler Moore was noh she lost to Sissy spacek for Coal Miner's Daughter, Coal Miner's Daughter, she felt ”vindicated” Redford took his award from Lillian Gish but found himself ”weirdly unmoved Probably it had to do with the cynicis the Acade fun of the po, So this is it! The big night” The acceptance speech for best picture was unscripted and longer than he intended: ”I just didn't think I was going to see this, but I'rateful I would like to express my debt to the directors I've worked with in the past, for what I've learned froo ratitude, and that keys around the word 'trust' I really arateful for the trust I received from this terrific cast-Mary, Donald, Tim, Judd and Liz I love them, and appreciate their love, too” she felt ”vindicated” Redford took his award from Lillian Gish but found himself ”weirdly unmoved Probably it had to do with the cynicis the Acade fun of the po, So this is it! The big night” The acceptance speech for best picture was unscripted and longer than he intended: ”I just didn't think I was going to see this, but I'rateful I would like to express my debt to the directors I've worked with in the past, for what I've learned froo ratitude, and that keys around the word 'trust' I really arateful for the trust I received from this terrific cast-Mary, Donald, Tim, Judd and Liz I love them, and appreciate their love, too”

Within days he was in therapy, considering his future ”People consult therapists for the inevitable questions,” says Redford, ”and ?' I was no different” Twenty years later he would find a better perspective on the failure of his s of the social philosopher James Hillman In The Soul's Code, The Soul's Code, Hillman implies that the tendency to cherish family and children is a s one's own destiny, which is the key to all balance in existence Citing appalling statistics regarding the abuse of children globally, Hillman talks of ”a fatherless culture with dysfunctional children” In Hills, Redford would find a rationale for what he calls ”the drift” of his life Jamie, in a better position than htenment” in Hillman ”My father, like everyone else, had a capacity for self-absolving denial,” says Ja that, if he did err as a parent, he erred for 'the calling' What he got fro that intellectually endorsed what he was and hoas” Redford insists that the therapy was no palliative: ”I was prepared to take criticish out of it to move forward” Carol Rossen believes the therapy was ”not to recover as lost, but to reconcile himself to the losses incurred and those to come” Hillman implies that the tendency to cherish family and children is a s one's own destiny, which is the key to all balance in existence Citing appalling statistics regarding the abuse of children globally, Hillman talks of ”a fatherless culture with dysfunctional children” In Hills, Redford would find a rationale for what he calls ”the drift” of his life Jamie, in a better position than htenment” in Hillman ”My father, like everyone else, had a capacity for self-absolving denial,” says Ja that, if he did err as a parent, he erred for 'the calling' What he got fro that intellectually endorsed what he was and hoas” Redford insists that the therapy was no palliative: ”I was prepared to take criticish out of it to move forward” Carol Rossen believes the therapy was ”not to recover as lost, but to reconcile himself to the losses incurred and those to come”

What was certain was that he had e frorand new plan in mind

PART FOUR

Canyon Keeper

We shall not cease fro Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time

T S Eliot, Four Quartets Four Quartets

18

Sundance