Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid A Classic Movie Revisited
This is a retrospective review, published to coincide with the 55th anniversary of the movie’s 1969 premiere.
You can also read how the Vagabond Adventure tracked down the real Butch Cassidy ranch in Cholila Argentina.
The Academy Award-Winning movie that launched Robert Redford’s career and told the story of three lovable, very successful outlaws. From the original movie poster. Photo from IMDB.
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid Revisited
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was a breakout hit when it was released in 1969. Over a half century later, it remains an enduring, beloved revisionist western.
There are a long list of reasons underlying its success, starting with the all-star teaming of Paul Newman and newcomer Robert Redford whose career was about to skyrocket. And let’s not forget the casting of Katherine Ross who had appeared as Dustin Hoffman’s love interest in The Graduate (1967). The Oscar-winning screenplay was written by William Goldman, who collected his second Oscar a few years later for All the President’s Men (1976). It was directed by George Roy Hill, Oscar winning director of The Sting (1973). Conrad Hall won an Oscar for his work on Burch Cassidy.
Suffice it to say that there was a ton of talent in front of the lens and behind it.
But that doesn’t guarantee a successful movie or a movie that will stand the test of time.
As with all the great Hollywood films, there is some degree of movie magic that enters in.
It was a movie of the times. It was part of a curious chapter of Hollywood history in which protagonists often died at the end of the movie, as they famously did in Easy Rider, They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? or The Wild Bunch, all released in 1969.
You could argue that Hollywood reflected the pessimism surrounding the Vietnam War in the late Sixties.
An interesting distinction regarding Butch Cassidy is that the audience was spared witnessing the brutality of the hero’s demise thanks to the brilliant decision to freeze frame Butch and Sundance as they run out into the courtyard, guns blazing, just before time stops and we hear the sound of the dozens of rifles that gruesomely gun them down.
It was a far cry from the slow motion “Ballet of Death” blood bath that Sam Peckinpah served up at the end of The Wild Bunch.
Paul Newman and Katherine Ross. From IMDB
Aside from the famous ending, Butch Cassidy had much to offer. It was essentially a comedy, a buddy flick about two likeable bank robbers, intent on robbing banks and trains and not killing anyone.
They were good guys who were admittedly bad guys, but entirely forgivable due to their chemistry, charm and abundant good looks. The pairing of Newman and Redford was a stroke of pure genius that perhaps remains unequaled to this day. It was perfection.
Butch Cassidy certainly took some risks. It was based on a true story that had a tragic ending. You knew it wouldn’t end well. And yet, much of it was played for lightheartedness and laughs.
I’m thinking of the famous bicycle scene played to the tune of Burt Bacharach’s “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on my Head” (sung by B.J. Thomas). It’s a quirky sequence that feels like it doesn’t belong in the movie, yet it works despite the strong resistance from studio management at the time.
It won an Oscar for Best Original Song and the movie won another Oscar for Best Music, making a total of four Academy Awards for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
The song forever evokes the sequence of Paul Newman riding Katherine Ross on the handlebars of a vintage bicycle on a sunlit morning—a romantic little romp that ends with the bicycle crashing through a fence and unexpectedly landing in a pen of a snorting bull. It’s the mix of romance and comedy that defines Butch Cassidy.
One of the biggest comedic scenes in the movie comes when Butch and Sundance are chased to the edge of a cliff and realize that they will have to jump to save their lives. When Sundance hesitates, Butch discovers that Sundance can’t swim, prompting the now famous line, “Are you crazy? The fall will probably kill ya!”
The scene of the legendary jump is one of Hollywood’s greatest stunt sequences in which two stunt men jump from an elevated tower into a tank of water. The scene is made to appear real with the use of a “glass shot” in which the cliff was painted on a pane of glass placed in front of the camera, obscuring the tower and tank of water, making it appear that Butch and Sundance were jumping off a cliff and into the river below.
Robert Redford and Paul Newman. Photo by 20th Century Fox
The dramatic element of Butch Cassidy is the relentless pursuit of the unstoppable posse intent to bringing our heroes to justice. They are the dark force always looming in the distance, despite the frolicking and fun. That sense of inescapable gloom and doom might have been another reason that Butch Cassidy resonated with Vietnam era audiences.
Eventually, Butch and Sundance concoct a plan to escape to freedom by fleeing to Bolivia.
It is where they meet their fate, depicted in the famous standoff and shootout in the final reel of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
It’s one of the truly great movie endings. One that you never, ever forget.
In reality, there is still much debate as to whether Butch and Sundance really bit the bullet as the film suggests or whether one or both of them managed to escape. The truth may forever remain a mystery.
In the meantime, the movie version and the Hollywood ending will continue to entertain audiences with its own charming telling of the tale.
55 years later, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid still entertains audiences -- a Vietnam-era revisionist western for the ages, starring perhaps the best talent paring of all time.
Drew Moniot is a nationally recognized movie critic who writes occasionally for The Vagabond Adventure. You can read Drew’s regular reviews on his website at www.drewsreviews.net.