Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Two gorgeous actors, a clever script and beautiful camera work make Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid memorable for its style, spirit and scenery. It’s a great buddy movie about two charming rogues, a wistful valentine to the legendary outlaws of the American West as they vanished at the turn of the 19th century.

As screenwriter William Goldman’s script informs us at the start of the movie, “most of what follows is true.” Butch Cassidy (Paul Newman) and the Sundance Kid (Robert Redford), were based on real-life American outlaws Robert LeRoy Parker and Harry Longabaugh, who robbed banks and trains just as law and order were beginning to descend on the old West. There really was a place called Hole in the Wall, and the two men really did go to Bolivia - but I’ll leave the history lesson to others.

The movie tracks affable, talkative Butch and his fast-as-lightning partner Sundance as they spend their ill-gotten gains, Butch with the ladies of the evening and Sundance at cards. They return to Hole in the Wall, quell an uprising among the lesser-brained gang members, pull a train robbery and start the whole cycle of rob-and-spend all over again.

The local railroad tycoon has had enough, and hires a bunch of rather talented lawmen and a tracker to hunt the boys down. After a grueling cross-country chase in which Butch and Sundance have more than a little trouble losing the relentless posse (“Who are those guys?”), they decide to head for Bolivia, a new frontier. They take Sundance’s schoolmarm-lover (Katharine Ross) along, and after a brief photo-montage stop in fin-de-siecle New York City, head for South America.

But as one of their old friends, now turned sheriff, warned them, “Your times is over, and you‘re gonna die bloody, and all you can do is choose where.” Dodge City or La Paz, Hole in the Wall or the Australian outback, there are no more frontiers, and no place left for Butch and Sundance.

The Cast of ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’

It may be a story about crime and violence, but it’s played for style, wit and easygoing humor. The chemistry between Redford and Newman is instant and irresistible. You’re rooting for the bad boys from the start, and it doesn’t hurt that Goldman gives them great lines in every scene, along with clever plot turns and a showcase for their considerable romantic charms.

At the time, Newman was already a confident, established star. His Butch is so likable that even his most unlucky victim, Woodcock the train guard (character actor George Furth in a terrific bit part), wishes he could just hand the money over.

Redford was a relative newcomer. His Sundance is a slow-spoken cowboy, but his reputation as a quick draw causes adversaries to give up at the mere mention of his name. (Butch: “Why are you so talkative?” Sundance: “Naturally blabby, I guess.”)

There’s more than a hint of a love triangle with schoolmarm Etta Place (Ross). Her first scene with Sundance is scary hot (trust me), and her riding-on-the-handlebars bit with Butch and his new bicycle is a sweet, gauzy fantasy. (This was before the diabolically catchy song from the scene, Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head, became the poster child for Muzak atrocities. Go with it.) Ross is steadfast and sweet, and it breaks your heart when she sees the end coming, and has to leave.

Strother Martin is the other standout, with an indelible turn as the eccentric manager of a Bolivian mine who hires the boys as payroll guards when they try to go straight. He’s so good in his brief part that - SPOILER ALERT - the audience is crushed by his sudden, bloody end.

The whole thing is suffused with a late ’60s counterculture vibe that celebrates outcasts and rebels and somehow condemns the violence at its core. The pursuing lawmen are never seen except from a great distance, and the only time Butch and Sundance actually hurt anybody is when they try to go straight.

The Backstory

Only a combination of luck and good instinct finally brought Newman and Redford together. At one point, Steve McQueen was going to play Butch, and Newman was to play Cassidy. Jack Lemmon turned down the role of Butch (He was filming The Odd Couple, another great buddy film.) Warren Beatty was slated as Sundance at one point, and Marlon Brando was seriously considered for the role.

With Newman finally paired with Redford, it was hard to imagine any other cast as satisfying, and the movie was a smash hit. The duo reunited four years later with director George Roy Hill for another period masterpiece, The Sting, another bit of critically acclaimed buddy-movie magic that blew the doors of off the box-office.

There are several nods to another masterpiece of the genre, Treasure of the Sierra Madre, including the climactic scene (watch for the brand on the gray mule in both movies), and the Bolivian mine is reminiscent of the gold mine in the earlier film.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was nominated for nine Oscars, and won four, including Best Screenplay for Goldman’s brilliant work and Best Cinematography for Conrad Hall. It lost Best Picture to another immortal buddy film, the darkly moving Midnight Cowboy.

The Bottom Line

A funny, touching movie that pays homage to the Old West yet stands square on its own, stylish two feet. A must for fans of Newman, Redford and great dialog, and a candidate for your home library.

If you liked Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid...

You may like other Paul Newman films, classic westerns like The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and offbeat period pieces like Little Big Man.

Just the Facts:

Year: 1969, Color
Director: George Roy Hill
Running Time: 110 minutes
Studio: 20th Century Fox