Fun in the Dark : The Company We Keep

Taking in a film at The Rose in Port Townsend just ruins it for all the other movie houses.  The films are carefully handpicked by Rocky, a real movie connoisseur if there ever was one.  We get all the big blockbusters, of course, but we also get to see a lot of the winners from the film festivals from around the world - movies that we would normally only see in big cities.  And - get this, someone comes down and stands in the front and tells us about the movie we are going to see.

On Saturday afternoon Miss MaggieMay and I set out to spend her gift certificate from The Rose by catching the latest by Robert Redford, The Company We Keep.  This movie is both directed and starred in by him, and includes a five star supporting cast, such as Nick Nolte, Julie Christie, Susan Sarandon, and Chris Cooper. Shia LaBeouf, whom I've never seen before was brilliant as the young newspaper reporter.

The Company We Keep, based on the novel by Neil Gordon, is about a group of radicals (Weather Underground) from the 60s who were against the Viet Nam war.  There was a bank robbery and a bank guard was killed.  The group split up and went separate ways with new identities, always looking over their shoulders.  After 30 years one of the members (Susan Sarandon) decides to turn herself in but is arrested before she can do so.  This sets the rest of the group in motion.

A young newspaper reporter played by Shia LaBeouf sniffs a story and starts digging.  In the process of beating the bushes he uncovers one of the group (Robert Redford) who takes off, leaving his law practice and young daughter - with the FBI hot on his trail.  I'll leave it there because I have a bad habit of giving away punchlines but you can see that things are gonna get intense.

This film deals with questions of loyalty, redemption, guilt, love, family, and principles.  All good questions when we look back at that unsettling time in our nation's history.  I remember it well.

Both MMM and I are big Robert Redford fans and really enjoyed this film.  Robert used to be beautiful back in the day but so were we.  Here is a look back: