Movie star, Oscar winning director and godfather of American independent cinema Robert Redford died today. As a bit of coincidence/synchronicity, I finally got around to seeing Redford’s 1972 romantic comedy “The Way We Were,” co-starring Barbara Streisand, this weekend.

It was a very strange film — basically a leftist love story. And Redford’s character is kind of a shallow jerk in it. And they kept playing that damn song over and over and over … opening credits, closing credits, a montage, behind scenes big and small. Couldn’t they get Streisand to record at least one more song for the movie? But Barbara Streisand gave an excellent performance in it, redeeming the movie, even if it never really felt like a love story.

I was also a latecomer to Redford’s 1969 hit “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” which I finally saw last year. That movie was a far more pleasant discovery, it’s incredibly entertaining and Redford is quite good in it.

I’ve seen 13 of Redford’s films and in most of them, he seems to be playing himself — which is perfectly fine, he has a very likable all American persona. Of all of his films, I think “The Candidate” is the best, in my book still the best political movie ever made. Sundance Kid is definitely up there, as is “All the President’s Men.” Some people love “The Natural,” and I was baseball obsessed when it came out, but I’m not a huge fan of it — maybe a little too mythological for my tastes.

Redford was a fine movie director. He has the misfortune of winning Best Director (for the very good “Ordinary People”} in a year when Martin Scorsese also made “Raging Bull,” and cinephiles will forever believe Marty was robbed. But Redford later directed “Quiz Show” and “A River Runs Through It,” both quite good, so his Oscar was no fluke.

His most lasting contribution to American film might be Sundance studios and the Sundance film festival, both of which he founded to help support American independent filmmaking. Several generations of filmmakers owe their careers to Sundance, and Redford was one of the few people with Hollywood gravitas to make it happen. He deserves to be remembered as one of the industry’s great moguls.

Rest in peace, RR, your good taste, professionalism and calm good humor will be missed.