The Old Man and the Gun [2018]

MPAA (PG-13)  CNS/USCCB ()  RogerEbert.com (3 1/2 Stars)  AVClub (B+)  Fr. Dennis (3 Stars)


IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB () review
Los Angeles Times (K. Turan) review
RogerEbert.com (B. Tallerico) review
AVClub (A.A. Dowd) review

 The Old Man and the Gun [2018] (directed and screenplay by , based on the New Yorker article "The Last Heist" by David Grann) seems like an appropriate swansong for legendary actor Robert Redford who, of course, plays the lead, Forrest Tucker [wikip] [IMDb].  After all, Redford's career was made, early, by his roles playing smiling, good looking / sympathetic outlaws in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid [1969] and The Sting [1973], and ... as apparently a juror said of the ever well dressed, smiling and polite Tucker at his last trial, "You have to hand it to him, the man has style."  Again, it'd be a nice way to "go out" ;-), that's if one really believes that this will be Redford's last film (as he's promised it is). 

The film tells the story of Forrest Tucker who was known for doing two things (1) robbing banks, politely, and (2) escaping prison, repeatedly (apparently 18 times!), throughout the whole of his life!  Yup, there was clearly "a story" indeed "a movie" in that kind of life.

Now from the Catholic Church's perspective, there has always been the concern that film-making (or storytelling in general) _not_ make it seem that "crime does pay."  And so, looking at this film, this was a concern that I did have.  Yes, Tucker was remarkably skilled at those two things that he devoted his life to, but did he not _clearly_ waste his life pursuing "excellence" in, well, evil skills?  Yes, Tucker seemed "nice" about things.  He didn't seem to have ever fired his gun during any of the robberies that he was involved in or the chases that followed, but ... what if he needed to?  Yes, he was known to be "polite," but ... perhaps he was simply "lucky" to never have to be "not polite" in getting out of a jam, a bank robbery that "ran afoul."

So while storytelling is often subversive (that's what often makes it interesting, allowing us the Readers, Viewers or Hearers to imagine being in the shoes of said supremely "competent" outlaw), it's good to remember all the other things that _could have happened_: If there was even a single person who would have been shot or hurt as a result of one of his bank robberies, a single one ... Tucker would have become a much less sympathetic person than he is remembered today.

Let's face it folks, we he was simply ... lucky.

But it still makes for a remarkable (if subversive and not exactly moral) story.


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