What about Bob?

THAT AND MY TWO CENTS WILL GET YOU: They love him, they love him not

LINKS: There's a new book about Robert Redford; official Web site for Redford's most recent movie

I have never met Robert Redford. On the other hand, I've lived in the shadow of Mount Timpanogos, which is home to Redford's Sundance Resort, as well as a Redford-owned personal residence, for most of my life. I've heard him casually discussed around town for years and, now that there's a new Redford biography (by Michael Callan) on the market, a few people are talking once again. A couple of years ago, I did a live radio interview with the Park City NPR affiliate during the Sundance Film Festival. One of the first questions put to me, by an out-of-state journalist, was along the lines of, "What do they think of Robert Redford down there in Provo?" Unspoken, but heavily implied, was the following: Don't they think he's liberal celebrity jerkwad? There are absolutely people in Utah Valley (me, for instance) who admire and/or respect Robert Redford. On the other hand, it's not for nothing that even out-of-state types know (or think they know) that famously conservative Utah County looks at its most renowned part-time resident at least somewhat askance.

That would be putting it mildly in the minds of some. There are probably more than a few people in Provo, Orem and surrounding cities who wonder why we couldn't have gotten Bruce Willis (who owns homes and businesses in Idaho) or Harrison Ford (in Wyoming). Willis, is at least right-leaning (he doesn't like being called a Republican, but he's publicly supported Republican candidates and ideals), plus he saved Earth from a rogue asteroid with his bare hands and he can ferret out Eurotrash thieves executing complex robberies without even wearing socks. As for Harrison Ford, who knows what his politics are, but he probably wouldn't bug anyone about the environment and what's cooler than being Han Solo, Indiana Jones, Jack Ryan, the president of the United States, the guy from The Fugitive who didn't kill his wife, and a commie submarine commander with a bad Russian accent? Also, there's that one time that he was a sleazy yuppie lawyer who gets shot in the head and becomes a Good Person.

Most Utahans know that Redford has acted in movies, and maybe even that he's directed some, but who watches any of those anyway? I'm not saying that anyone's done a scientific study to rate Utah residents' opinions of Redford's films, but if they had, it might look like this:

Utah-Approved Robert Redford Movies
1) Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid *
2) The Natural
3) Didn't he do that one where he bags Demi Moore from Woody Harrelson?
4) I guess there's the thing with the British actress from The English Patient where he knows stuff about horses and Scarlett Johansson
5) [He's made other movies? Really?]
 * Although, what the aitch-ee-double-hockey-sticks, Burt Bacharach? Seriously, what. the. aitch-ee-double-hockeysticks?!

If you could have overheard people in line at the Cinemark 16 in Provo when Redford's new historical drama The Conspirator played there in April, the conversation might have gone something like this:

"Say, what have you heard about that new Redford movie?"
"You mean the historical thing about how we should all feel bad for killing the woman who shot Abraham Lincoln?"
"Didn't a man shoot Abraham Lincoln?"
"That's probably what that sissy Lefty Redford thinks, too."

On the other hand, even Utah residents who wish that Robert Redford would just pipe down when there's a debate about widening the highway in Provo Canyon, or preserving wilderness lands in southern Utah, probably think it's pretty cool that he's made Utah famous all over the world with the Sundance Film Festival. Like, almost everyone in the cast of Friends has personally been to Utah because of that. (A for-reals true fact. Everyone except for the guy who plays Joey. What's the holdup, Joey?) And businesses in Utah do get millions of dollars from the festival every year. Shoot, Redford even did that one movie where he plays a mountain man who kills bears and shoots guns. (That would be Jeremiah Johnson.) Back off, Idaho! Robert Redford is our Hollywood celebrity.