When He's 64

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Both his new movies were called into question in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, which made Hollywood re-examine its product and marketing strategies. DreamWorks pulled ads for Last Castle that depicted an upside-down flag (though in the film, it's merely a sign of distress). Scott toned down some of the explosions in Spy Game. "Right now the scrambling [in the movie industry] has to do with, Is it gonna sell or not?" says Redford. "Moral concerns are overwhelmed by a larger concern, which is business. If this is a sustained mood in the country, then you'll see a reduction of violence. The business will shift to whatever sells."

The question now is whether Redford still sells. Unlike Michael Douglas, who is 57, Redford hasn't courted a younger audience. He turned down the 1997 President-in-peril action film Air Force One, for example, because "it felt like it was approaching a cartoon." (Harrison Ford took the job, and the picture earned $300 million worldwide.) Redford says that when reading scripts these days, he misses "wit and subtlety. You either bring the audience in or you go out there and hammer them in the face to get their attention. That seems to be the general state of things. That's just not as appealing to me." He can get grouchy when discussing the film business--a "chickens___ industry," he calls it.

He's more at ease when talking about environmental issues or, better yet, the love of his life, Sundance. He warms when he speaks of the "cinema centers" that at this point are still a dream. He calls them "a mammoth undertaking" in which grand old Art Deco movie palaces would be restored and programmed with independent pictures and documentaries and equipped with libraries for film students.

One of the movie houses Redford has been eyeing is the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica. He saw his first film there--a Nazi thriller starring John Garfield called The Fallen Sparrow--when he was six. Recalling the Saturday matinees in which half a dozen cartoons and serials played at a stretch, he says, "Movie theaters were not only for entertainment--they were a gathering place for people." This memory kindles a smile and, for a moment, restores the youth of the Sundance Kid.