Which is true in Robert Redford's film Forrest Tucker.

In what may be his last role before retiring from acting, Robert Redford plays Forrest Tucker, a man who is never interested in retirement. Tucker's job was to steal the banks, get caught from time to time, and then develop elaborate plans to escape. He was arrested for the first time at the age of 15 for stealing a bicycle. He then stole millions of dollars and managed to escape prison 18 times. The film is largely based on the profile of Tucker journalist David Grann, published in the New Yorker under the same title in 2003. A year after the publication of the play, Tucker died of natural causes in a Fort Worth prison.

While the film and profile tell the story of a charming escape artist who, in a single year, has committed at least 60 nonviolent robberies, the film differs from the play and reality in several ways. The main difference between the two representations of Tucker's life is what they focus on. The film is, unsurprisingly, more interested in Tucker's hijackings than in the time spent in jail, even though Tucker has spent most of his life behind bars. But that also changes some key details and invents many others, as even the film admits, claiming in an opening title card that "this story is mostly true".

So, what comes directly from the true story of the burglar, and what is the artistic license? We looked at Grann's reports and others for breakdown below.

Forrest Tucker (Robert Redford)

As in the movie, the real Tucker was a man capable of stealing large sums of money without ever pulling the trigger. He saw his weapon more as an accessory and felt that "violence is the first sign of an amateur". Yet he always carried a firearm during all his operations and threatened him. The film, on the other hand, pushes to the utmost the story of a charming and gentlemanly criminal, and one never sees him carrying a gun. He threatens bank managers and turnkeepers with little more than a ticket and a smile, no one ever remembers seeing a gun, and all leave with a positive impression of the man. Regardless, the film and the profile agree to say how bad he was a criminal. According to the play, "even a juror who helped to sentence him made a remark once:" You must give it to the guy – he has style ". This same line is used in the film.

Tucker's real life was also more physically similar to the film's Redford than what viewers could expect. Grann describes Tucker as "a man of striking appearance, with eyes of an intense blue" and he was really impeccably dressed. The biggest difference could be that the real Tucker opted for less discreet costumes, like a whole white set with an ascot, that he would do to cover his face during a flight. As in the film, he also carried, in his last years, a "hearing aid" which was actually a police scanner.

Detective John Hunt (Casey Affleck)

John Hunt played a more minor role in the play and in Tucker's story. In reality, he was not a Dallas detective but a police sergeant from Austin. The film provides him with a wife and two children and several dramatic scenes that seem to have been invented, such as a chance encounter between Hunt and Tucker in a dining room and another in which Tucker leaves Hunt a provocative note (so characteristic). 100 dollar flight. One of the most memorable quotes from the film comes directly from the New Yorker article, in which Hunt tells Grann: "They had more flying experience than we had to catch them.

Jewel (Sissy Spacek)

Although Sissy Spacek's character is based on Tucker's third wife, Jewell (spelled in real life with two centers), her story and relationship are very different from reality. The real Tucker and the Centers actually met in the early 80s, but this happened in a private club called Whale and Porpoise in Fort Lauderdale. She was not a farmer with a ranch straight out of a western but "a heiress of a modest fortune from moving companies that, in her youth, looked a bit like Marilyn Monroe". to make a living, she finds clues here and there, including finding a gun in her glove box. Real life Jewell knew Tucker as Bob Callahan and thought that he was a stockbroker. She told Grann that when the investigators told her for the first time that "Callahan" was in fact a bank robber, she did not believe them.

Tucker's children

Tucker had two children, a boy and a girl, as shown in the movie. But the real name of his daughter is Gaile Tucker, not Dorothy, the name of the girl played in Elisabeth Moss's film. Children also have different mothers. In Grann's New Yorker article, only the story of the boy, Richard Bellew Jr., is told. His mother, Shirley Storz, is described as a blonde woman who thought she was married to a composer by the name of Richard Bellew. They married in 1951, but she canceled it two years later, shortly after being arrested and sent to Alcatraz. Tucker's children did not know each other until they were much older.

flees

In the film, Tucker gives Jewel a list detailing his prison break, just like the real Tucker to the New York journalist, and the viewer is then confronted with a series of flashbacks. While the list in the movie counts up to 17, the actual list has actually 19 s & # 39; escape. In both cases, the last one is left blank for the grand finale.

As fantastic as the escapes may seem, they are largely faithful to reality. Tucker's first escape, as a teenager, was simple: while his jailer was distracted by removing his chains, the boy ran away. His plans became more elaborate over time, ranging from sawing his cell bars with scissors and files to simulated appendicitis. After that, he arrived at Alcatraz in 1953, at the age of 33. There he met Teddy Green, the man played in the film by Danny Glover. The night before his appearance in court, he was transferred to a county jail where he simulated kidney pains and again managed to escape the hospital.

Then he was placed in San Quentin, from where he mounted his most legendary escape. At Bay Area Prison, Tucker met John Waller, who is featured in Tom Waits's movie. The two men escaped with another inmate, William McGirk, in a boat built by Tucker with pieces of wood and tape. As in the film, he painted with the words Rub-a-Dub-Dub. According to Grann, the boat was then placed in a prison museum.

The Over-the-Hill Gang

The three elderly bank robbers have indeed been nicknamed the Over-the-Hill gang, although it is not certain that Tucker's friends actually belonged to the gang. It is true that he kept in touch with Teddy Green after Alcatraz and, as the movie shows, one day while Tucker was going to visit his friend, the police were waiting for him and he believed his friend had him fired. As for Waller, nothing indicates that the two men were in contact after their escape from San Quentin.

The end

In the film and in reality, the police caught Tucker after ambushing them at Teddy Green's house. In pursuing him, he was shot three times. In real life, as in the film, he remained in place until his release, ten years later, at the age of 73. the film. And just like in the film, he had never gotten used to living a normal, calm and law-abiding life, and it was not long before he returned to his old ways.