The Company You Keep: Robert Redford’s Modern Day Parable Venice Premiere

When superstar Robert Redford, icon in the world of film, founder of Sundance, steps into the arena with a new film we all wait with great anticipation. At 75 Robert Redford does not need to be working this hard so he must have a story he really feels compelled to tell.

Sure enough, The Company You Keep is a subtle story that has a few very poignant and timely messages delivered by a powerful cast; Robert Redford, Shia LaBeouf, Julie Christie, Susan Sarandon, Nick Nolte, Terrence Howard, Stanley Tucci, Sam Elliot and Brit Marling.

Redford has chosen to revisit an event, a revolution that was carried out by young American activists that turned violent thirty years ago. The activist group was called the Weather Underground. Neil Gordon wrote a novel based on the Weather Underground and some of the people involved which documented the personal repercussions of their involvement. Redford says he was attracted to the story because it was a story about truth and how far a father would go to protect his child. He was reminded of Les Miserables where the father must assume a fake identity for many years to protect his daughter. In The Company You Keep many people have had to sacrifice their identities to protect their families. Things come to a head thirty years after the event when one of the members Sharon (Susan Sarandon) decides it is time to give herself up and clear her conscience. This is the catalyst for the ensuing events that bring in the FBI and create a nation wide manhunt for Jim Grant (Robert Redford).

Jim Grant (now a lawyer and single father) has planned for many years for the day he might need to run for his life, but it becomes apparent that he is not trying to disappear but to deliver some other message to the nation and the FBI. Shia LaBeouf (Ben Sheppard) is the ambitious, young journalist who latches onto the case like a pit bull refusing to let it go until he has shown that his reporting skills are so tremendous that he can make national headlines with it.

It is interesting to see a story played out that resonates so immediately with several generations of Americans. Injustices grow to an extreme and eventually people feel forced to take matters into their own hands. This generation of youth is dealing with an economic war; thirty years ago it was the Vietnam War. In both circumstances people feel pushed to the limit, their rights and freedoms assaulted. Many dread the possibility that if necessary, they or those they love will have to resort to violence when passive confrontation is repeatedly unsuccessful. The Occupy movements of today that have become an international reality are evidence of the imbalance and unrest, the social pressures suffered by so many.