For someone who was quintessentially American, as an actor/presence on screen, it’s a little surprising that Robert Redford didn’t star in more Western movies throughout all the decades he spent in front of the camera (and he spent a bit of time behind the camera, too, Clint Eastwood-style, since Redford was also fairly prolific as a director). But for what it’s worth, some of his earliest roles on television, before he was a movie star, came from one-off appearances in Western shows like Maverick, The Deputy, and Tate. And then it’s also been pointed out that his final on-screen appearance was a cameo role in another Western show: Dark Winds. That cameo was alongside George R.R. Martin, both of them playing a game of chess, and the episode in question aired in 2025, about half a year before Redford passed away at the age of 89.
Going back a few decades, though, what follows is a look at all the Western movies Robert Redford starred in. There were four made between 1969 and 1979, when Redford was arguably at his peak as an actor. Quite neatly, the 1980s marked the exact point he started directing as well as continuing to act in some films, since 1980 was when he made his directorial debut: Ordinary People. So, there are four “classic era” Redford Westerns, and then one from the late 1990s that’s less of a traditional Western, but should probably still be counted. It’s a quality over quantity thing, maybe, since Redford didn’t star in a ton of Western movies, but at least a couple are all-timers within the genre (and it should be stressed that Redford thrived in plenty of other genres throughout his time as an actor).
5
‘The Horse Whisperer’ (1998)
Almost missed this one, to be honest. The original approach here was ‘All 4 Robert Redford Westerns, Ranked,’ because Letterboxd cites four movies of his as Westerns, or Westerns alongside other genres, and didn’t include The Horse Whisperer among them. But, no, it should be here. It should be counted as at least a neo-Western. Sorry, Letterboxd, but you’re wrong. And then it was still tempting to just pretend The Horse Whisperer didn’t exist, truth be told, because there isn’t much to say about The Horse Whisperer beyond saying that it’s sort of competent, and Redford directed it on top of starring in it, and it’s also way, way, WAY too long.
It’s a film that feels more old-fashioned than you’d expect a release from 1998 to feel, and there’s a reason why it’s been a little forgotten in time.
The Horse Whisperer comes close to being three hours all up, but doesn’t really justify such a runtime with an epic story or lots of characters or just enough stuff happening generally to warrant such a runtime. It’s a movie about a horse trainer helping a young girl overcome her fears of riding, and also helping out her horse, and then said horse trainer also starts developing feelings for the mother of the young girl, because of course he does. It plods along, and maybe if you’re into how it looks, or if you just like looking at Robert Redford, or both, there’s something here, yet if you don’t fit into such a camp, there’s not that much here. It’s a film that feels more old-fashioned than you’d expect a release from 1998 to feel, and there’s a reason why it’s been a little forgotten (or has become somewhat obscure) a little over a quarter of a century later.
4
‘Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here’ (1969)
The most obscure of the Robert Redford Western movies would have to be Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here, which came out the same year as Robert Redford’s most iconic and well-remembered Western. Further, Katharine Ross had a supporting role in both, and the two movies shared a cinematographer: Conrad Hall. All that’s probably giving away which movie is going to appear in the #1 spot here, but whatever. The rambling also inadvertently shows that it’s hard to know what to say about Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here, to only a slightly lesser extent than it was to know how to talk about The Horse Whisperer. Redford is not the titular character here, that much can be said. He’s kind of the antagonist, but also, this is a revisionist Western, so it’s not really as easy to say one person’s good and the other’s bad.
Robert Blake plays the titular character, and he goes on the run after killing someone in self-defense. Further, that someone was the father of his girlfriend, and so she comes along with him, and Redford plays the Deputy Sheriff in charge of the ensuing manhunt. It’s a movie that explores racial tension and conflict in Old West times in what feels like a balanced fashion for the standards of the 1960s, though much of this doesn’t hold up as well today (that can also be said regarding the film’s somewhat clunky – at least nowadays – pacing). For its time, it was okay, though. Probably. Even then, maybe not perfect. But you have to approach certain older movies a little differently, sometimes. And this one is/was mostly fine.
3
‘The Electric Horseman’ (1979)
Before getting to the two Redford Westerns everyone knows, here’s the somewhat more obscure The Electric Horseman. Or if “obscure” isn’t the right word, then maybe “forgotten” is better? Since The Electric Horseman did perform pretty well financially back in 1979, making almost five times its budget… and that budget, of $12.5 million, might not sound like much today, but adjusted for inflation, that’s about $56 million, which is a lot for what’s ultimately a fairly grounded movie. The first Star Wars had a budget of $11 million, for comparison. Anyway, The Electric Horseman feels like one of the final large-scale New Hollywood movies, and so in that sense, it’s almost like a send-off to this era of Redford’s career; one last chance to play a cowboy, albeit here, a modern-day one.
It might’ve felt like a final opportunity for Redford and Jane Fonda to star in something together, too, as they’d also had lead roles in The Chase and (perhaps more memorably) Barefoot in the Park before The Electric Horseman, though they did star in one final film together decades later: 2017’s Our Souls at Night. As for The Electric Horseman, it’s a modern-day Western and something of a romantic dramedy, too, with a loose plot about Redford’s character going on the run with a horse that, rather humorously, is said to cost about the same as what the movie did: specifically $12 million. It’s an unconventional road movie, and as a result, it certainly dawdles and gets a bit messy in places, but there’s a charm to much of it, and it’s also a unique movie. Furthermore, Redford and Fonda always made for a good on-screen duo, so that helps The Electric Horseman’s watchability quite a bit.
2
‘Jeremiah Johnson’ (1972)
A few years before The Electric Horseman, Sydney Pollack (someone else who sometimes acted on top of directing) also directed Robert Redford in another Western: Jeremiah Johnson. This one’s nice and simple on a narrative front, and it’s also close to a one-man show for Robert Redford. Much of the film’s about him indeed playing the titular character, and said character is a man living on his own in the wilderness. There is conflict in the form of a vendetta that some Native Americans in the area have against him, which ups the stakes, though much of Jeremiah Johnson still feels focused on being a movie about surviving the elements.
And all those elements are captured immensely well, since Jeremiah Johnson is up there as one of the best-looking Westerns ever made. It really makes the most of outdoor/on-location shooting, and Redford, though still handsome and charming, isn’t afraid to make himself look a good deal rougher here, exemplified by the fact that the most famous and meme-worthy moment of Jeremiah Johnson (that damn ubiquitous nodding GIF) doesn’t really look like Robert Redford. Or, at least a while ago, you could surprise people by telling them it was Robert Redford, though it seems pretty well-known where the GIF comes from nowadays, even among people who’ve not actually seen the movie in full.
1
‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’ (1969)
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. There we go. That’s your commentary. That’s your explanation for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid being here. It’s Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. One more time, for the people in the back. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
Wait, what? That’s not good enough? “You’re still about 100 words off the minimum word count an article like this is supposed to have,” the voice in my head I like to call Ed I. Tor tells me? Fine. Let’s commentate. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is one of the very best Westerns of all time, so not just the top of the pile if we’re talking Robert Redford ones. It’s the previously alluded to one that Katharine Ross co-starred in and Conrad Hall shot, though you also can’t talk about Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid without mentioning how great Paul Newman was here, as Butch Cassidy, paired to great effect with Redford, as the Sundance Kid. It’s one of cinema’s greatest duos, and it makes sense that they re-teamed to star in the also successful The Sting, but it makes less sense how that ended up being the final collaboration. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is one of those Westerns that’s exciting enough to recommend to people who might not usually like Westerns, and if you wanted to call it one of the greatest American films of its era, that really wouldn’t sound like too much of a hot take to most. It’s just an all-around great movie, you know?
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