8 Greatest Robert Duvall Movies To Stream for Free

The world has lost one of the greatest American actors who has ever lived. 95 years of life is a hell of a run, but that doesn't make the world's loss of Robert Duvall any less of a heartbreak. Thankfully, however, the actor left behind an exquisite body of work that fans should check out in its entirety to pay their respects. Duvall starred in just over a hundred feature films throughout his career, and that means that there's a lot to dig through.

Though his oeuvre is scattered across a wide variety of paid streaming services, eight of Duvall's best movies are available to stream for free either on Plex, Kanopy, Hoopla, or Tubi. Spanning from some of Duvall's most iconic works to some of his most underappreciated gems, these excellent movies are very much worth checking out. Watching them will shed light on just how tremendous a talent the world has lost.

'Breakout' (1975)

Where to Stream: Plex

Also starring Charles Bronson and John Huston, Tom Gries' Breakout is a lighthearted action drama about a bush pilot being hired to go to Mexico to free an innocent prisoner, played by Duvall. It may not be one of the best action thrillers ever, but it's a more than solid enough watch for a lazy Saturday night, with Bronson in a lighter role than usual and a top-form Duvall.The film was a box office success thanks to Columbia's clever use of saturation booking, the same release strategy that would turn Jaws into the first-ever true summer blockbuster just a month later. Breakout is exciting, well-paced, and it has some really strong performances. Its screenplay isn't stellar, but when you have all those other elements present, it doesn't really need to be. You can stream it on Plex.

'True Confessions' (1981)

Where to Stream: Kanopy and Hoopla

Reuniting Duvall and Robert De Niro, who starred together in The Godfather Part II (though they never shared the screen), Ulu Grosbard's True Confessions is a criminally underrated crime drama, pun not intended. In it, an ambitious monsignor clashes with his older brother, a cynical LA homicide detective who is investigating the brutal murder of a young prostitute. It's a neo-noirloosely based on the 1947 Black Dahlia murder case, and it's one of the strongest crime flicks of the early '80s.

The film isn't perfect, and it's definitely not an ideal watch for those who prefer their crime films fast-paced, but the acting, character writing, and biting critique of institutions like the police and the church make this a worthy watch. Duvall is phenomenal in it, and that's precisely what makes it one of his best movies of the '80s. It's brilliantly cast, very strongly written, and deeply thought-provoking. You can stream it on Kanopy and Hoopla.

'Tomorrow' (1972)

Where to Stream: Kanopy and Tubi

There are plenty of forgotten '70s movies that deserve to be modern classics. Now, with Duvall's passing, there's never been more of a reason for today's cinephiles to rediscover Joseph Anthony's Tomorrow and turn it into the mainstream classic it was always meant to be. It was one of Duvall's personal favorite movies, where he plays a lonely farmer who takes in a pregnant woman and looks after her.It's a tragedy, but one that's very much worth the effort. It's a beautiful piece of Americana adapted froma 1940 short story by William Faulkner, shining mainly thanks to Duvall's consistently jaw-dropping performance. The pacing is imperfect, and there are definitely some dead spots in the narrative, but as a whole, Tomorrow is such a brutally honest and raw character study that every ounce of patience it demands is worth it. You can stream it on Kanopy and Tubi.

'Rambling Rose' (1991)

Where to Stream: Kanopy

Not only is Martha Coolidge's Rambling Rose one of Robert Duvall's best '90s films, but it's also one of Laura Dern's most essential movies. She plays a young woman living in the Deep South in the 1930s, where a family takes her in to serve as a housemaid so that she can avoid falling into a life of prostitution. The film led to Dern's well-deserved first-ever Academy Award nomination, and Duvall is just as good as the family patriarch, Mr. Hillyer.

The movie's score of 100% on Rotten Tomatoes is well-earned. It's a film with a fair share of bizarre moments and lines of dialogue that seem unintentionally hilarious, but the performances and Coolidge's lack of fear of being provocative make it all worth it. Rambling Rose is challenging, that's for sure, but it rewards viewers with one of the most hypnotic and underrated coming-of-age dramas of the '90s. You can stream it on Kanopy.

'Colors' (1988)

Where to Stream: Kanopy and Hoopla

Directed by actor-filmmaker Dennis Hopper, Colors is a police procedural about a confident young cop played by Sean Penn, who's shown the ropes by a veteran partner (played by Duvall) in the gang-controlled slums of LA. The movie proved that Hopper still had it in him to direct great films 19 years after Easy Rider, as it might just be one of the best hidden gem thrillers of the '80s. Its plot may sound a bit sensationalistic, but that couldn't be further from the truth. In actuality, Colors deals with its subject with nuance and sensitivity, sparking conversation rather than going for cheap shock value.

It can be a brutal, hard-hitting film, but that's only because it takes such a realistic approach to LA police work—something atypical for these kinds of movies, particularly during the '80s. Colors is a fresh, inventive, and absolutely electrifying action flick, with Penn and Duvall shining bright in the usual trope of a veteran cop training a rookie. You can stream it on Kanopy and Hoopla.

'The Eagle Has Landed' (1976)

Where to Stream: Kanopy

John Sturges' final film, The Eagle Has Landed is a war drama starring Duvall, Michael Caine, and Donald Sutherland. It follows a German plot to kidnap Prime Minister Winston Churchill, which unfolds at the height of World War II. The plot is entirely fictional, but it nevertheless makes for one of the most entertaining war movies of the '70s, one of those underrated war films that are almost perfect.

The movie is based on Jack Higgins' 1975 novel of the same name, and though it doesn't offer much in the way of realism, fans of the war movie genre should hardly care. The Eagle Has Landed is a pulpy, adventurous, delightfully high-concept flick with Duvall at the top of his game playing a Nazi intelligence officer. It's a challenging role, but the actor makes the absolute best of it, and he's one of the biggest reasons why the movie's such a blast. You can stream it on Kanopy.

'Bullitt' (1968)

Where to Stream: Hoopla

Directed by Peter Yates and based on the 1963 crime novel Mute Witness by Robert L. Fish, Bullitt is one of the strongest action thrillers of the '60s. Released just six years after Duvall made his feature film debut in To Kill a Mockingbird, Bullitt is by no means a similar movie, but the actor is just as good in it. In the end of the day, though, the film was always designed as a star vehicle for Steve McQueen, who plays a San Francisco cop determined to find the underworld kingpin who killed the witness under his protection.

According to Roger Ebert, it was one of the best action movies of all time, and who can disagree with the greatest film critic who ever lived? Bullitt may not feature Duvall's biggest role, but it's for sure one of his best movies. Thrilling, smart, marvelously written, and featuring one of the greatest car chase sequences in the history of cinema, it's a nearly flawless thriller that set a new gold standard for police procedurals that came after. You can stream it on Hoopla.

'Apocalypse Now Redux' (2001)

Where to Stream: Hoopla

Saying that Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now was one of the most ambitious movies of the 20th century—nay, of all time, would be the understatement of the century. This Vietnam War epic about a U.S. Army officer tasked with assassinating a renegade Special Forces Colonel is thrilling and horrifying in equal measure, a hellish boat trip down the proverbial River Styx that's impossible to look away from and impossible to forget.

Twenty-two years after the movie's original release, Coppola released Apocalypse Now Redux, an extended cut with 49 minutes of additional material that premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, no less. In every sense imaginable, this extended version is its own film altogether—and it's undoubtedly one of Duvall's best. His role in it isn't huge in terms of screentime, but he leaves a mark so strong that you feel his absence as soon as he disappears from the narrative, earning an Oscar nomination for his efforts. Redux is arguably inferior to the theatrical cut of the film, but as far as Robert Duvall movies that are free to stream go, it doesn't get any better than this. You can stream it on Hoopla.