Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid
(1969)
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This revisionist Western comedy, which served as the prototype of the buddy film for years to come, stars Paul Newman and Robert Redford as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, respectively. At the turn of the 20th century, they've become notorious for the skill with which they and their colleagues, the Hole in the Wall gang, rob banks and trains. But their last few jobs have been botched, and after Butch and Sundance return from a brief vacation, Harvey Logan (Ted Cassidy) challenges Butch's leadership. After comically snuffing the rebellion, Butch agrees with one of the gang on risking the double robbery of a Union Pacific payroll train. Despite blowing up the entire baggage car, they survive the first stage of the robbery and spend some down time with Sundance's girl, schoolteacher Etta Place (Katharine Ross). But after hitting the train on its return trip, Butch and Sundance are relentlessly pursued by a posse of world-class lawmen planted on board by the wily railroad president. Realizing that their days are numbered, the outlaws head for Bolivia. The film, which launched the career of Redford and boosted George Roy Hill's to another level, owes its ineffable charm to the terrific chemistry between the two stars, to William Goldman's warm and witty screenplay, and to a director capable of walking a tightrope between the comic and the elegaic. |
This freewheeling adventure was made in a vintage year for the western, with The Wild Bunch and True Grit joining it among the releases, and in many ways it's the western's answer to Bonnie and Clyde. George Roy Hill's film was one of the biggest box-office hits in the genre's history. Some of the credit must go to the Oscar-winning trio of William Goldman, Conrad Hall and Burt Bacharach for the witty script, luminous photography and jaunty score respectively. But the true charm of this ever-popular picture lies in the exhilarating performances of Paul Newman and Robert Redford, who turn the ruthless real-life desperados of fact into loveable rogues and, ultimately, tragic heroes.
Halliwell's Film Guide
Humorous, cheerful, poetic, cinematic account of two semi-legendary outlaws, winningly acted and directed. One of the decade's great commercial successes, not least because of the song 'Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head'.