I can’t help wondering how unimpressed writer/director David Lowery is with 21st century life. He made a 70s film with 70s style and then dug up two fossils for leads. Robert Redford and Sissy Spacek both completed their best work before the Disco Era was officially over. The film added in relics Tom Waits and Danny Glover for good measure. The picture is set in an era where microfiche was the best research tool available. And for good measure, The Old Man & the Gun exclusively used Hobo font, one you might remember from the opening credits to the “The Dukes of Hazzard.”
What sick, depraved maniac would unearth the Hobo font in 2018? Please tell me because this pathology is beyond my human comprehension.
Forrest Tucker (Redford) is The Old Man. He does indeed have a relationship with his gun, but it seems platonic. He never shoots the thing; he stores it in the glove compartment (with the gloves), and he only takes it out to play when he’s on a job. As bank robbers go, he’s more like a flasher. Early in the film, Tucker takes us through his routine foreplay – a big smile, a charming greeting, and then a humble peek at the weapon as he deftly opens and closes his overcoat. I can’t be that charming when I’m holding flowers; he makes you feel like you’re the luckiest bank in the world when he robs you.
While ducking a police chase, Tucker investigates stranded motorist Jewel (Sissy Spacek). She finds him charming, of course, but she’s too old for these foolish games, right? Well, maybe not right. I wanted to look up their ages because it bugged me that Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (a film where Redford is an adult) came out a full seven years before Carrie (a film where Spacek plays a teen). Indeed, there is an age gap; he’s 81 and she’s 68. Of course, while that might have meant something in 1976, right now it means nothin’.
Jewel has a horse ranch. Forrest says he’s “never ridden a horse.” HAHAHA. Snort. Guffaw. This is the patter of The Old Man & the Gun – if you were alive for cinema of the 1970s, there’s no question you’ll view some of this through pig’s-blood colored glasses or The Sting of wistful reminiscence or whatever other classic you’d like to drop. The thing is, that’s kinda all there is to this film. Casey Affleck shows up a little later to remind us that middle-aged people go to the movies, too. But as the dogged, determined detective hunting the gentlemanly, nomadic criminal, Casey ain’t exactly Tommy Lee Jones, knowwhatI’msayin’?
Three guesses as to who starred opposite Spacek in Coal Miner’s Daughter.
The title The Old Man & the Gun is wrong, of course; it makes us feel as if “the Gun” is Forrest’s partner. While that may indeed be true of many Americans with compensation issues, nobody wants a film about one. Maybe, perhaps, we should imagine that Sissy Spacek is the Gun. Yeah, that’s even worse; forget I said anything. This movie is semi-adorable if a little condescending; Redford fans will certainly get a kick trying to place all of his “mug shot” photos over time. In essence, The Old Man & the Gun feels like it went back to the 1979 Art Carney version of Going in Style and deliberately gave us about 70% of the fun and charm of that picture. I wish that were enough for me. It is not.
♪This Old Man had a gun
Showed it one time just for fun
With a Sundance, side-glance
Give Oscar a home
This Old Man is rollin’ lone
This Old Man, career through
Was a star when I was two
With a Sundance, side-glance
Give Oscar a home
This Old Man is rollin’ lone
This Old Man, all wrinkly
Remains charming company
With a Sundance, side-glance
Give Oscar a home
This Old Man is rollin’ lone♫
Rated PG-13, 93 Minutes
Director: David Lowery
Writer: David Lowery
Genre: Going in Style, like, for real, almost
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Old Men who find themselves charming
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: People with no taste for relics
♪ Parody Inspired by “This Old Man”
