‘The Old Man and the Gun’ on HBO: A Fitting Would-Be Farewell for Robert Redford

After over 60 years of acting and directing, Robert Redford announced last year he was retiring, and that The Old Man & the Gun—which is airing on HBO tonight at 8 p.m.—would be his final film. A few weeks later, the 82-year-old actor walked back that statement, and said that The Old Man & the Gun may or may not be his last film—who knows?

Still, if it is his last film, it would be a fitting farewell. Directed by David Lowery, it tells the true story of Forrest Tucker, a criminal known for his elaborate escapes from prison, his first being in 1936. The film, which is loosely based on a 2003 New Yorker profile of Tucker, stars Redford as the aged escape artist, still on the run from police from his most famous breakout in 1979. He meets a charming woman in a diner (Sissy Spacek), to whom he tells the truth about his profession, but of course, she doesn’t believe him.

The lead detective on the hunt for Tucker (Casey Affleck) gets kicked off the case by the FBI, but that doesn’t stop him from pursuing a lead from a woman named Dorothy (Elisabeth Moss), who tells him that she’s Tucker’s daughter. Tucker clearly delights in the thrill of the chase, as will anyone who watches the film. And though it’s clear Tucker doesn’t regret his crimes, you can’t help rooting for him—which, director David Lowery told Decider in a previous interview, is mostly thanks to Redford’s charisma.

“You just know that he will be beloved,” said Lowrey, who’s also known for Pete’s Dragon and Ain’t Them Bodies Saints. “It’s really hard to get those edges any rougher because he just has this innate ability to charm someone.”

In other words, The Old Man & the Gun is 94 min of Redford’s charisma at full blast. What could be a better goodbye to cinema than that?

Where to stream The Old Man & the Gun