


The world is mourning the passing of Robert Redford, one of the most celebrated actors and filmmakers of all time, who died on Tuesday at the age of 89.
For cinephiles, there is no better way to honor Redford than by revisiting some of the fantastic films that earned him a top spot on the list of Hollywood greats. As an actor, Redford will no doubt be remembered for his celebrated performance in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, a film many consider to be one of the greatest of all time, earning Redford the nickname “the Sundance kid” for the rest of his career, and inspiring the name of the Sundance Film Festival, which Redford founded in 1978.
But while Butch Cassidy is absolutely worth a re-watch today, unfortunately, it is not available to watch for free via a subscription-based streaming service. (That said, you can buy or rent the film on digital. It costs $3.79 to rent, or $14.99 to buy on Amazon Prime.) Luckily, there are plenty of Robert Redford movies on streaming that are available for free, if you have a subscription to that service. You’re already paying so much for streamers per month, so you might as well take advantage of those services. I like to think that Redford, a champion of broke artists, would understand the need to save money in these trying times.
For your convenience, Decider has compiled a list of Robert Redford movies streaming on Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney Plus, and more. (Pro-tip: If you haven’t yet used up your MGM+ free trial, now is the time. Some of Redford’s best films are streaming there!)
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Photo: Courtesy Everett Collection Streaming on: Netflix, or available to buy and rent on digital
Though not his most celebrated work, if you’re looking to honor Redford with your Netflix subscription, you can catch a glimpse of Redford at the height of his movie stardom with the ’70s drama The Great Waldo Pepper. The Sundance kid stars as a veteran WWI pilot dealing with the post-war trauma in the 1920s. Don’t wait to watch this one—it leaves Netflix in two weeks, on September 30.
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Netflix Streaming on: Netflix
In 2017, Robert Redford reunited with his old friend and co-star Jane Fonda in this sweet, understated Netflix original about a late-in-life-romance. Based on the novel by Kent Haruf, Our Souls At Night stars Redford and Fonda as a widower and widow who are neighbors and find they no longer want to spend their nights alone.
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Photo: ©Netflix/Courtesy Everett Collection Streaming on: Netflix
The same year as Our Souls At Night, Redford appeared in another Netflix original, The Discovery, alongside Rooney Mara, Jason Segel, Jesse Plemons, and Riley Keough. In this sci-fi romance, Redford plays a scientist who has found a way to prove the existence of an afterlife, a discovery that leads to a sharp increase in suicide rates. It’s a fascinating Netflix hidden gem.
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Photo: Courtesy Everett Collection Streaming on: Prime Video (subscription), Kanopy, or available to buy or rent on digital
If you have a subscription to Amazon Prime, you can watch Redford’s celebrated WWII film, A Bridge Too Far, on Prime Video for free. Directed by Richard Attenborough, with a screenplay by William Goldman, this epic features Redford as an American major among a sprawling ensemble cast of greats, including Dirk Bogarde, James Caan, Michael Caine, Sean Connery, Edward Fox, Elliott Gould, Gene Hackman, Anthony Hopkins, Hardy Krüger, Laurence Olivier, Ryan O’Neal, Maximilian Schell and Liv Ullmann.
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Photo: Daniel Daza/©Lionsgate/Courtesy Everett Collection Streaming on: Prime Video (subscription), Tubi (free with ads), Pluto TV (free with ads), Kanopy, or available to buy or rent on digital
If you’re watching Redford movies on Prime, you don’t want to miss his late-career triumph, All Is Lost, in which the then-77-year-old actor commanded the screen as this survivalist drama’s sole cast member. Directed by J. C. Chandor, Redford stars as a man lost at sea, battling the elements to survive. The performance won Redford the New York Film Critics Circle award for Best Actor.
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Photo: Claudette Barius/©Roadside Attractions/courtesy Everett Collection Streaming on: Prime Video (subscription), Kanopy, or available to buy or rent on digital
Want to honor Redford’s work behind the camera, not just in front of it? Then check out this historical drama that Redford directed, streaming free on Prime Video. The film stars James McAvoy as Captain Frederick Aiken, a real-life Civil War hero, and Robin Wright as Mary Surratt, the only female conspirator charged in the Abraham Lincoln assassination and the first woman to be executed by the US federal government.
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Photo: Matt Klitscher /© Walt Disney Pictures /Courtesy Everett Collection Streaming on: Disney+, or available to buy or rent on digital
For those who want to show their kids some of Redford’s work today, check out David Lowery’s live-action remake of the Disney animated classic, Pete’s Dragon, which is streaming on Disney+, free to anyone with a subscription. Redford plays Conrad Meacham, the father of Grace Meachem (Bryce Dallas Howard), who tells his daughter the story of an orphaned boy who befriends a dragon.
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Photo: ©Walt Disney Co./Courtesy Everett Collection Streaming on: Disney+, or available to buy and rent on digital
Because there’s a Marvel tie-in for just about everything, comic nerds may want to revisit Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which was the first MCU movie to feature Redford as Alexander Pierce, a high-ranking member of SHIELD. Here’s Redford in his own words, speaking to Entertainment Weekly, as to why he joined the MCU: “One of the reasons that I did it was I wanted to experience this new form of filmmaking that’s taken over where you have kind of cartoon characters brought to life through high technology.”
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Photo: ©MGM/Courtesy Everett Collection Streaming on: Paramount+, or available to buy or rent on digital
This 2007 war drama features Redford both behind the camera, as the film’s director, and in front of it, as an idealistic professor who encourages his equally idealist students (Michael Peña and Derek Luke) to enlist to fight in the war in Afghanistan. Meryl Streep stars in the film as a TV journalist, making it a reunion for Streep and Redford following 1985’s Out of Africa.
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Photo courtesy Everett Collection Streaming on: MGM+, or available to buy or rent on digital
It’s a more niche streaming service, but if you happen to have a subscription to MGM+—which is the streaming service offered by Metro-Goldwyn Mayer that replaced the former streamer and linear premium cable network Epix—then you have access to some of Redford’s classic films for free. (You could also cash in on your 7-day free trial, if you haven’t already!) That includes Sydney Pollack’s Oscar-nominated 1975 spy thriller, which starred Redford as a CIA analyst who finds himself the target of a murder scheme.
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Photo: Paramount Pictures; Courtesy Everett Collection Streaming on: MGM+, or available to buy or rent on digital
If you do have access to MGM+, then you should definitely take advantage of it to stream Ordinary People, aka Redford’s Oscar-winning directorial debut. This Best Picture winner starred Donald Sutherland, Mary Tyler Moore, Judd Hirsch, and Timothy Hutton in a drama about wealthy family mourning the accidental death of their son, and dealing with the repercussions of the attempted suicide of their other son. This film put Redford on the map as a talented film director, in addition to one of Hollywood’s best actors.
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Photo: Everett Collection Streaming on: MGM+, or available to buy or rent on digital
Another example of Redford’s talents as a director, also streaming on MGM+, is A River Runs Through It, an Oscar-nominated period piece that spans from the end of WWI to the early days of the Great Depression. The film stars a young Craig Sheffer and Brad Pitt as brothers coming of age in the 1920s.
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Photo: Warner Bros. Streaming on: Tubi, or available to buy and rent on digital
If you don’t mind a few commercials, then you can find one of Redford’s classic westerns, Jeremiah Johnson, streaming free with ads on Tubi. No subscription or account is needed to watch it! This Sydney Pollack drama stars Redford as a Mexican war veteran who goes off to live in the woods by himself as a trapper. The film gained new life thanks to a clip of Redford nodding, which became a popular reaction GIF.
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Photo: Everett Collection Streaming on: The Criterion Channel, or available to buy or rent on digital
One of Redford’s most famous films—and, indeed, one of Hollywood’s most famous films in general—is available to stream on The Criterion Channel, a subscription-based streaming service that houses some, but not all, of the Criterion Collection films. You can get a 7-day free trial if you haven’t already, or pay $10.99 a month. That price will be worth it to watch Redford and Dustin Hoffman’s acclaimed performance as Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the Washington Post reporters who broke the Watergate scandal.
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Photo: Courtesy Everett Collection Streaming on: Kanopy, or available to buy or rent on digital
If your local library participates in Kanopy, then you can use your library card to stream this 1967 musical starring Redford and Jane Fonda—which launched Redford into stardom—for free. Directed by Gene Saks, with a screenplay by Neil Simon, Barefoot in the Park stars Redford and Fonda as a newly-wed couple who finds the glow of new love quickly wears off in the harsh, chaotic reality of a New York City fifth-floor walk-up.