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Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) - Trailer and Footage Included
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
My heart is still heavy with the passing of Paul Newman. There aren’t many others of his calibre, clout and compassion still left in Hollywood. By the end of the 60s his greatest performances were already behind him, but there’s something so darn special about Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), and it’s a movie I saw as a young lad (possibly during its re-release) when I really wanted to be a cowboy and I’d wear my papa’s handmade holsters (which never fit, of course) and occasionally got to play with his replica colt .45s (very heavy). My actor father supplied these to theatre and movie productions.
Robert Redford as The Kid and Paul Newman as Butch
Butch Cassidy: "I have vision, and the rest of the world wears bifocals."
Butch and Sundance on their trusty steeds
Sundance Kid: "Think ya used enough dynamite there, Butch?"
The Kid aboard the Grand Pacific Railroad
Butch Cassidy: "If he'd just pay me what he's spending to make me stop robbing him, I'd stop robbing him."
Raindrops keep fallin' on mah head ...
Having fun in New York City
Butch Cassidy: "Kid, there's something I ought to tell you. I never shot anybody before."
Sundance Kid: "One hell of a time to tell me."
Director George Roy Hill, according to Newman in an interview he made in 1994, was a rare and true director whom would never bother actors when they were cooking, but was always there when an actor got into trouble and needed, well, direction. Hill’s total command of all aspects of filmmaking that need marrying together meant that the movie could never really fail. William Goldman’s excellent screenplay was originally much darker, but with Newman and Redford’s natural light-hearted chemistry and powerful charisma on board, Bacharach’s lilting score, Conrad Hall’s amazing cinematography, and Hill’s ability to coax the performances just a little, the result is a magnificent blend of breezy comedy and suede-headed drama, never too much of one or the other. It’s a very difficult combination to get just right (Clint Eastwood tried, but never really got it perfect, and George Clooney’s been trying hard). Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is one of the very few that nails it.
Sundance Kid: "No, I said."
Butch Cassidy: "What's the matter with you?"
Sundance Kid: "I can't swim."
Butch Cassidy: "Are you crazy? The fall will probably kill you."
Of course, it’s the movie’s final ten or so minutes that are probably the most famous and poignant (although it must be said that the entire sequence is historically inaccurate, but hey, it plays out beautifully). It is this under-played, almost melancholic tone which cements the movie in such high regard. The outlaws have been hiding out in Bolivia. Etta has left them, because she can’t bare the idea of watching them die. And suddenly in the middle of a plaza while they sip beer, our anti-heroes are under fire. They take cover in a villa foyer, but not before they’ve each taken a bullet. The final image, a two-shot still that seeps into sepia-tone, then slowly pulls out to reveal the surrounding courtyard while an authoritive voice out of shot repeatedly shouts, “Fuego!” and the sound or hundreds of rifles echo out again and again.
Despite the audience’s understanding that Butch and Sundance were outlaws and had killed men, the ending of the movie is still viewed and accepted as a tragedy. It’s arguably one of the very finest and most moving endings to a Western ever filmed, and certainly ranks as one of the greatest Hollywood Western tableaus ever.
Sundance Kid: "Is that what you call running? If I knew you were going to stroll ..."
Paul Newman, the blue-eyed cowboy with a heart o' gold - R.I.P.
Extra tidbits: Butch Cassidy’s real-life sister visited the set of the movie during the hilarious “fight” between Butch and Harvey Logan (played by Ted Cassidy, famous as Lurch in The Addams Family) and remarked at how accurate the movie was an how spot-on Newman was as Butch.
Steve McQueen was originally cast as Sundance. This was when the movie was originally called The Sundance Kid and Butch Cassidy, but McQueen pulled out, and because Redford wasn’t the superstar that Newman was, the title was changed accordingly.
Twentieth Century-Fox made a prequel in 1979 called Butch and Cassidy: The Early Years, starring Tom Berenger as Butch and William Katt as Sundance. I saw it as a boy at the movies. From memory it’s certainly not in the same class and can’t really be compared, but I’m sure it was unfairly criticized, and could be enjoyed as a Saturday matinee (with raindrops fallin’ outside) if you found yourself with nothing better to do.
Contentious after-thought: Now, dare I even suggest the idea, but while I was watching Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid with my wife (who’d never seen it), and there’s the funny scene where the Kid and Butch are on the whorehouse balcony watching the sheriff rally the locals together to hunt the outlaws down, I suddenly heard Brad Pitt speaking Redford’s lines. As Newman and Redford provided the rapport, it dawned on me that a Hollywood remake is begging to be made with Pitt as Sundance and George Clooney as Butch. I realize I’m playing Devil’s advocate here because there is no way in Hell any remake could ever hope to re-capture the magic of the original, but hey, I’ll eat my Stetson if Pitt and Clooney haven’t already discussed it as a project.
Here's the original trailer:
Here's the irrepressible Butch in one of the movie's many great scenes:
I have a signed Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid photo by Bob and Paul, and it is one bit of memorabilia I hold very dearly.
Here's to Burt, for a brilliant score!
Cheers
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Horrorphile
My folks used to sing Raindrops around the house quite a bit I remember ...
Horrorphile
Then they can remake Bladerunned.
Clooney as Deckard and Pitt as Batey.
Better to leave sleeping classics lie.
Great film.
Rules in a knife fight?
You cannot fault it.
The B&S Early Days was a good film but not a great film. Worth seeing on a Saturday Night as a Prequel to The Good The Bad and the Ugly but never as the main feature.
Potter in a Harry
His book Adventures in the Screen Trade would have to be compulsory reading for anyone wishing to write a screenplay. I might even read it one day myself.
It was pretty hard to write much of a comment. You covered everything that needed to be said.
Horrorphile
yeah, I'm totally with you on that first point, but I couldn't resist mentioning it, simply because it may still happen, whether we like it or not ... Pitt will still be enjoying the residuals of having played Jesse James, and Clooney would be champing at the bit to be able to play the wise-cracking, romantic-at-heart Cassidy. But yeah, I'm with you ...
Lady David, yes, Goldman's book is a great read indeed with muchos insight. His anecdotes in the '94 interview on the DVD are great too. He considers the movie one of the highlights of writing for the screen. Cheers for the props too! Nice change writing about a classic non-horror
Film & TV on DVD
As always stellar work!
You know how much I love this film and your review has done it justice...Damn you i couldn't have done it better myself
Now just ask me to stay, then I can leave peacefully.
Horrorphile
Film & TV on DVD
Potter in a Harry
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