The Sundance Kid: A Biography of Robert Redford Summary and Reviews

The Sundance Kid: A Biography of Robert Redford
by William Schoell

The Sundance Kid: A Biography of Robert Redford
List Price: $24.95
Category: Book
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Book Summary Information

Author: William Schoell
Edition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2006-07-25
ISBN: 1589792971
Number of pages: 288
Publisher: Taylor Trade Publishing
Product features:

Book Reviews of The Sundance Kid: A Biography of Robert Redford

Book Review: I got my copy from the library..and I STILL want my money back!!
Summary: 1 Stars

As others have said rather consistently, 'disappointing' is the best description because the book was sold on the basis of it being new ('the first in two decades!'), unique ('based on extensive interviews with friends and colleagues!'and 'unauthorized' ('with assistance of Redford himself!'). The authors of this 'extensive' biography do three things very well indeed: They tear their subject largely to pieces, ignore most of the attributes that have made Redford and his films memorable, and finally, not least, suck dry every other well known book and interview that has been previously published. It appears they only really did 'extensive' interviews with unnamed individuals who, for the most part, have nothing decent to say about the man. Of Redford's 40 odd films, I dare say five escape a good beating. So, the reader often asks themselves, why did the authors even bother writing a book about such a talentless also-ran? To be fair, the authors do drop into some praise and half decent handling of the actor (if the piece is honest and includes some less than glowing reviews and stories, then so be it, a puff piece would have been equally wasteful), but these writers find so little to recommend in the man's life or work, that the praise is soon squashed by a careless and shallow approach to everything else. They do defend Redford after he's interviewed by a disappointed journalist who found the man didn't live up to expectation, but then they go back into lengthy explainations of how they find Redford disappointing as man and performer.
According to this book, the relationship between Redford and director Sidney Pollack was based on argument, competition, and jealousy, not to mention it appears their somewhat unique, longstanding record of making successful films was apparently an artistic failure. As it's for sure these two authors never went anywhere near Pollack or Redford, anything of historical value and interest in this book was lifted word for word from James Spada's book, 'The films of Robert Redford', which is still the only interesting biography of this actor, which was written many years ago. As I said, I borrowed my copy from the library, so I couldn't really ask for my money back.
The Films of Robert Redford

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