You’ve seen the trailers. Robert Redford, with that classic, crinkly-eyed smile, tipping a hat while sliding a note across a bank counter. It looks like a cozy Sunday afternoon flick. But The Old Man and the Gun is actually a weirdly faithful—and occasionally heartbreaking—biopic of Forrest Tucker, a man who treated prison walls like suggestions rather than boundaries.
Honestly, the most shocking thing about the movie isn't the robberies. It’s that Redford, at 82, decided this was the hill to retire on. Or die on. Literally. He passed away in 2025, and looking back at this 2018 performance, you can see he knew it was the final curtain. It wasn't just a movie about a bank robber; it was a love letter to a specific type of American rogue that doesn't exist anymore.
The Real Forrest Tucker: More Than Just a "Gentleman"
The film, directed by David Lowery, stays surprisingly close to the 2003 New Yorker article by David Grann. Tucker was a real guy. A prolific guy.
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We’re talking about a man who escaped from custody 18 times. Some counts say 19. He once escaped from San Quentin in 1979 by building a literal kayak out of scraps and paddling away in plain sight of the guards.
In the movie, he’s part of the "Over-the-Hill Gang." This wasn't some Hollywood screenwriting invention. Tucker actually ran with a crew of elderly stick-up men (played by Danny Glover and Tom Waits in the film) who robbed dozens of banks across the Southwest. They weren't there for the violence. Tucker famously said that "violence is the first sign of an amateur."
What people get wrong is thinking he was some Robin Hood figure. He wasn't.
While the movie paints him as a charming, almost magical grandfather, the real Forrest Tucker left a trail of abandoned families and traumatized bank tellers. He had two children he barely knew. In one of the movie's few gut-punch moments, we see a brief interview with his daughter, Dorothy (played by Elisabeth Moss), who describes a man she doesn't recognize.
Why Robert Redford Chose This as His Swan Song
Redford spent his career playing outlaws. Think Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Think The Sting.
The Old Man and the Gun feels like those movies' spiritual ending. There’s a scene where Forrest is looking at a list of his escapes. It’s basically a montage of Redford’s own career. The director actually used a clip from the 1966 film The Chase to show a young Forrest escaping jail. It’s meta as hell.
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The film operates on "Redford Time." It’s slow. It’s shot on 16mm film to give it that grainy, 1970s texture. It doesn't care about high-speed chases. It cares about the silence between a man and a woman (Sissy Spacek) sitting in a diner eating pie.
"I'm not talking about making a living. I'm talking about living."
That line from the movie basically summarizes the whole thing. Forrest didn't rob banks because he was broke. He robbed them because the chase was the only thing that made him feel alive. When he tries to go straight and live on a farm with Jewel (Spacek), he’s miserable. He’s a shark that dies if it stops swimming.
Fact vs. Fiction: The Big Discrepancies
Movies always tweak the truth. Here is how the film stacks up against history:
- The Meeting with Jewel: In the movie, Forrest helps Jewel with her broken-down car on the side of the highway to evade the cops. In reality, he met his third wife, a woman named Bobbi, at a club. She didn't know he was a bank robber for years.
- The Detective: Casey Affleck plays John Hunt, the detective obsessed with the Over-the-Hill Gang. The real John Hunt existed, and he really was humiliated when Tucker robbed a bank right under his nose.
- The Ending: The movie ends with a bit of a wink—Forrest escaping again. The real story is bleaker. Tucker was caught for the last time at age 79. He died in a federal medical center in 2004 while serving a 13-year sentence. He never got that last "grand finale" escape he wanted.
The Technical Magic of David Lowery
Lowery didn't want a modern-looking movie. He wanted it to feel like a "found" film from 1981.
He used vintage lenses. He kept the color palette muted—lots of browns, tans, and faded blues. Even the music, a jazzy, percussion-heavy score by Daniel Hart, feels like it belongs in an old heist flick from the New Hollywood era.
It’s a masterclass in tone. Most modern crime movies are loud and cynical. This one is quiet and polite. It mirrors Tucker’s own "polite robber" persona. Tellers often told police that the man who robbed them was "a real gentleman" or "seemed happy."
How to Watch and What to Look For
If you’re going to watch The Old Man and the Gun, don't expect Heat or Ocean’s Eleven. It’s a character study.
Pay attention to the eyes. Redford’s performance is almost entirely in his expressions. You can see the flicker of calculation when he enters a bank and the genuine warmth when he's with Jewel. It’s a performance by a man who knows he’s saying goodbye to his audience.
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Actionable Insights for Movie Buffs:
- Read the Original Article: Track down David Grann’s piece in The New Yorker. It’s darker and offers more detail on Tucker’s psychological state.
- Watch the "Redford Trilogy": To see the full arc, watch Butch Cassidy, The Sting, and then The Old Man and the Gun. It’s the perfect evolution of the American outlaw.
- Check the Backgrounds: The movie was filmed in Ohio (Dayton, Hamilton, and Cincinnati). The production team did an incredible job making modern Ohio look like 1980s Texas and Oklahoma.
Forrest Tucker lived a life that was basically a performance. He wanted to be a legend. By the time the credits roll, you realize he wasn't just stealing money—he was stealing a legacy.
Whether you view him as a charming rogue or a selfish criminal, the movie forces you to reckon with the idea of what it means to do what you love, even if what you love is wrong. It’s a quiet, dusty, beautiful end to Robert Redford’s time on screen. No explosions. No big speeches. Just a man, a gun, and a smile.