Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid - wikipedia Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid Theatrical release poster by Tom Beauvais Directed by George Roy Hill Produced by John Foreman Written by William Goldman Starring Paul Newman Robert Redford Katharine Ross Strother Martin Jeff Corey Henry Jones Music by Burt Bacharach Cinematography Conrad Hall Edited by John C. Howard Richard C. Meyer Production company Campanile Productions Newman - Foreman Company Distributed by 20th Century Fox Release date October 24, 1969 ( 1969 - 10 - 24 ) Running time 110 minutes Country United States Language English Budget $6 million Box office $102.3 million ( North America ) Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is a 1969 American Western film directed by George Roy Hill and written by William Goldman ( who won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for the film ). Based loosely on fact, the film tells the story of Wild West outlaws Robert LeRoy Parker, known as Butch Cassidy ( Paul Newman ), and his partner Harry Longabaugh, the `` Sundance Kid '' ( Robert Redford ), who are on the run from a crack US posse after a string of train robberies. The pair and Sundance 's lover, Etta Place ( Katharine Ross ), flee to Bolivia in search of a more successful criminal career, where they meet their end. In 2003, the film was selected for the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being `` culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant. '' The American Film Institute ranked Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid as the 49th - greatest American film on its `` AFI 's 100 Years... 100 Movies ( 10th Anniversary Edition ) '' list. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid were ranked 20th greatest heroes on `` AFI 's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains ''. Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Production 3.1 Screenplay 3.2 Development 4 Reception 4.1 Premieres 4.2 Critical response 4.3 Box office 4.4 Awards and nominations 5 Legacy 6 See also 7 References 8 Bibliography 9 External links Plot In late 1890s Wyoming, Butch Cassidy is the affable, clever, talkative leader of the outlaw Hole in the Wall Gang. His closest companion is the laconic dead - shot `` Sundance Kid ''. The two return to their hideout at Hole - in - the - Wall ( Wyoming ) to discover that the rest of the gang, irked at Butch 's long absences, have selected Harvey Logan as their new leader. Harvey challenges Butch to a knife fight over the gang 's leadership. Butch defeats him using trickery, but embraces Harvey 's idea to rob the Union Pacific Overland Flyer train on both its eastward and westward runs, agreeing that the second robbery would be unexpected and likely reap even more money than the first. The first robbery goes well. To celebrate, Butch and Sundance visit a favorite brothel in a nearby town and watch, amused, as the town sheriff unsuccessfully attempts to organize a posse to track down the gang. They then visit Sundance 's lover, schoolteacher Etta Place. On the second train robbery, Butch uses too much dynamite to blow open the safe, blowing up the baggage car. As the gang scrambles to gather up the money, a second train arrives carrying a six - man team of lawmen pursuing Butch and Sundance, who unsuccessfully try to hide out in the brothel and to seek amnesty from the friendly Sheriff Bledsoe by enlisting in the army. As the posse remains in pursuit, despite all attempts to elude them, Butch and Sundance determine that the group includes renowned Indian tracker `` Lord Baltimore '' and relentless lawman Joe Lefors, recognizable by his white skimmer. Butch and Sundance finally elude their pursuers by jumping from a cliff into a river far below. They learn from Etta that the posse has been paid by Union Pacific head E.H. Harriman to remain on their trail until Butch and Sundance are both killed. Butch convinces Sundance and Etta that the three should escape to Bolivia, which Butch envisions as a robber 's paradise. On their arrival there, Sundance is dismayed by the living conditions and regards the country with contempt, but Butch remains optimistic. They discover that they know too little Spanish to pull off a bank robbery, so Etta attempts to teach them the language. With her as an accomplice, they become successful bank robbers known as Los Bandidos Yanquis. However, their confidence drops when they see a man wearing a white hat ( the signature of determined lawman Lefors ) and fear that Harriman 's posse is still after them. Butch suggests `` going straight '', and he and Sundance land their first honest job as payroll guards for a mining company. However, they are ambushed by local bandits on their first run and their boss, Percy Garris, is killed. Butch and Sundance ambush and kill the bandits, the first time Butch has ever shot someone. Etta recommends farming or ranching as other lines of work, but they conclude the straight life is n't for them. Sensing they will be killed if they return to robbery, Etta decides to go back to the United States. Butch and Sundance steal a payroll and the mules carrying it, and arrive in a small town. A boy recognizes the mules ' brand and alerts the local police, leading to a gunfight with the outlaws. They take cover in a building but are both seriously wounded, after Butch makes a futile attempt to run to the mules in order to bring more ammunition, while Sundance provides cover fire. As dozens of Bolivian soldiers surround the area, Butch suggests the duo 's next destination should be Australia. The film ends with a freeze frame shot on the pair charging out of the building, guns blazing, before the Bolivian forces open fire. Cast Paul Newman as Butch Cassidy Robert Redford as the Sundance Kid Katharine Ross as Etta Place Strother Martin as Percy Garris Henry Jones as Bike Salesman Jeff Corey as Sheriff Bledsoe George Furth as Woodcock Cloris Leachman as Agnes Ted Cassidy as Harvey Logan Kenneth Mars as Marshal Donnelly Rhodes as Macon Timothy Scott as `` News '' Carver Charles Dierkop as Flat Nose Curry Production Screenplay William Goldman first came across the story of Butch Cassidy in the late 1950s and researched it on and off for eight years before sitting down to write the screenplay. Goldman says he wrote the story as an original screenplay because he did not want to do the research to make it authentic as a novel. Goldman later stated : The whole reason I wrote the... thing, there is that famous line that Scott Fitzgerald wrote, who was one of my heroes, `` There are no second acts in American lives. '' When I read about Cassidy and Longbaugh and the superposse coming after them -- that 's phenomenal material. They ran to South America and lived there for eight years and that was what thrilled me : they had a second act. They were more legendary in South America than they had been in the old West... It 's a great story. Those two guys and that pretty girl going down to South America and all that stuff. It just seems to me it 's a wonderful piece of material. The characters ' flight to South America caused one executive to reject the script, as it was then unusual in Western films for the protagonists to flee. Development According to Goldman, when he first wrote the script and sent it out for consideration, only one studio wanted to buy it -- and that was with the proviso that the two lead characters did not flee to South America. When Goldman protested that that was what had happened, the studio head responded, `` I do n't give a shit. All I know is John Wayne do n't run away. '' Goldman rewrote the script, `` did n't change it more than a few pages, and subsequently found that every studio wanted it. '' The role of Sundance was offered to Jack Lemmon, whose production company, JML, had produced the film Cool Hand Luke ( 1967 ) starring Newman. Lemmon, however, turned down the role ; he did not like riding horses, and he felt he had already played too many aspects of the Sundance Kid 's character before. Other actors considered for the role of Sundance were Steve McQueen and Warren Beatty, who both turned it down, with Beatty claiming that the film was too similar to Bonnie and Clyde. According to Goldman, McQueen and Newman both read the scripts at the same time and agreed to do the film. McQueen eventually backed out of the film due to disagreements with Newman. The two actors would eventually team up in the 1974 disaster film The Towering Inferno. Reception Premieres The world premiere of the movie was in September 1969, at the Roger Sherman Theater, in New Haven, Connecticut. The premiere was attended by Paul Newman, his wife Joanne Woodward, Robert Redford, George Roy Hill, William Goldman, and John Foreman, among others. It premiered in Los Angeles, the next day, and in New York City on October 1. Critical response This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. ( September 2016 ) Early reviews of the film were mediocre, and New York and national reviews were `` mixed to terrible '' though better elsewhere, screenwriter William Goldman recalled in his book Which Lie Did I Tell ? : More Adventures in the Screen Trade. Time magazine said the film 's two male stars are `` afflicted with cinematic schizophrenia. One moment they are sinewy, battered remnants of a discarded tradition. The next they are low comedians whose chaffing relationship -- and dialogue -- could have been lifted from a Batman and Robin episode. '' Time also criticized the film 's score as absurd and anachronistic. Roger Ebert 's review of the movie was a mixed 2.5 out of 4 stars. `` The movie starts promisingly... a scene where Butch puts down a rebellion in his gang ( is ) one of the best things in the movie... And then we meet Sundance 's girlfriend, played by Katharine Ross, and the scenes with the three of them have you thinking you 've wandered into a really first - rate film. '' But after Harriman hires his posse, Ebert thought the movie 's quality declined : `` Hill apparently spent a lot of money to take his company on location for these scenes, and I guess when he got back to Hollywood he could n't bear to edit them out of the final version. So the Super-posse chases our heroes unceasingly, until we 've long since forgotten how well the movie started. '' The dialogue in the final scenes is `` so bad we ca n't believe a word anyone says. And then the violent, bloody ending is also a mistake ; apparently it was a misguided attempt to copy `` Bonnie and Clyde... '' we do n't believe it, and we walk out of the theater wondering what happened to that great movie we were seeing until an hour ago. '' The Writers Guild of America ranked the screenplay # 11 on its list of 101 Greatest Screenplays ever written. Over time, major American movie reviewers have been widely favorable. Rotten Tomatoes, a film review aggregator, give 89 % `` Certified fresh '' favorable score based on 46 reviews with an average score of 8.2 / 10, the site 's critical consensus reads With its iconic pairing of Paul Newman and Robert Redford, jaunty screenplay and Burt Bacharach score, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid has gone down as among the defining moments in late - ' 60s American cinema. Newman and Redford 's chemistry was praised as was the film 's charm and humor. Box Office The film earned $15 million in rentals in North America during its first year of release. With US box office of over US $100 million, it was the top grossing film of the year. Adjusted for inflation, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid ranks as the 34th top - grossing film of all time and the top 10 for its decade, due in part to subsequent re-releases. It was the eighth most popular film of 1970 in France. Awards and Nominations The film won four Academy Awards : Best Cinematography ; Best Original Score for a Motion Picture ( not a Musical ) ; Best Music, Song ( Burt Bacharach and Hal David for `` Raindrops Keep Fallin ' on My Head '' ) ; and Best Writing, Story and Screenplay Based on Material Not Previously Published or Produced. It was also nominated for Best Director, Best Picture, and Best Sound ( William Edmondson and David Dockendorf ). Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid also won numerous British Academy Film Awards, including Best Film, Best Direction, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Actor ( won by Redford though Newman was also nominated ), and Best Actress for Katharine Ross, among others. William Goldman won the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Screenplay. In 2003, the film was selected for the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being `` culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant ''. The Academy Film Archive preserved Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid in 1998. Legacy The film inspired the television series Alias Smith and Jones, starring Pete Duel and Ben Murphy as outlaws trying to earn an amnesty. A parody titled `` Botch Casually and the Somedunce Kid '' was published in MAD. It was illustrated by Mort Drucker and written by Arnie Kogen in issue No. 136, July 1970. See also List of American films of 1969 Antihero ( Cassidy and Sundance are antiheroes ) References Jump up ^ `` BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID ''. British Board of Film Classification. Retrieved December 15, 2014. Jump up ^ `` Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid -- Box Office Data, DVD and Blu - ray Sales, Movie News, Cast and Crew Information ''. The Numbers. Retrieved December 15, 2014. Jump up ^ `` Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid ( 1969 ) ''. Box Office Mojo. Retrieved February 26, 2012. Jump up ^ Goldman, William ( 1982 ). Adventures in the Screen Trade. pp. 191 -- 200. ^ Jump up to : Egan, p. 90 Jump up ^ Nixon, Rob. `` The Big Idea -- Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid ''. Turner Classic Movies, Inc. Retrieved February 26, 2017. ^ Jump up to : Egan, p. 91 Jump up ^ Flynn, Bob ( August 15, 1998 ). `` A slice of Lemmon for extra character ''. The Canberra Time. Panorama. p. 7. Jump up ^ Tiffany Woo ( October 26, 2009 ). `` ' Butch Cassidy ' returns after 40 years ''. Yale Daily News. Archived from the original on October 2, 2012. Retrieved August 26, 2011. Jump up ^ `` Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid ''. AFI website. Retrieved February 15, 2017. Jump up ^ Goldman, William ( 2000 ). Which lie did I tell ?, or, More adventures in the screen trade ( 1st ed. ). New York : Pantheon Books. ISBN 0 - 375 - 40349 - 3. Jump up ^ `` Double Vision ''. Time. September 26, 1969. Retrieved 2009 - 02 - 09. Jump up ^ `` Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid ''. Chicago Sun - Times. October 13, 1969. Jump up ^ Savage, Sophia ( February 27, 2013 ). `` WGA Lists Greatest Screenplays, From ' Casablanca ' and ' Godfather ' to ' Memento ' and ' Notorious ' ''. Archived from the original on August 13, 2006. Retrieved February 28, 2013. Jump up ^ `` Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid ''. Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2012 - 09 - 17. Jump up ^ `` Big Rental Films of 1969 '', Variety, 7 January 1970 p 15 Jump up ^ `` Domestic Grosses Adjusted for Ticket Price Inflation ''. Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2009 - 02 - 09. Jump up ^ `` 1970 Box Office in France ''. Box Office Story. Jump up ^ `` The 42nd Academy Awards ( 1970 ) Nominees and Winners ''. oscars.org. Retrieved 2011 - 08 - 26. Jump up ^ `` Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid : Awards ''. IMDB. Retrieved 26 July 2017. Jump up ^ `` William Goldman -- Awards & Nominations ''. awardsandwinners.com. Jump up ^ `` Preserved Projects ''. Academy Film Archive. Jump up ^ `` Alias Smith and Jones ''. Archived from the original on December 31, 2006. Retrieved 2006 - 12 - 09. Jump up ^ MAD # 136 July 1970 at MAD cover site. Bibliography Egan, Sean ( 2014 ). William Goldman : The Reluctant Storyteller. Bear Manor Media. External links Wikiquote has quotations related to : Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid on IMDb Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid at the TCM Movie Database Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid at Rotten Tomatoes Ten Things You Did n't Know About Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid from the American Movie Classics `` Future of Classic '' blog Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid at Virtual History Films directed by George Roy Hill Period of Adjustment ( 1962 ) Toys in the Attic ( 1963 ) The World of Henry Orient ( 1964 ) Hawaii ( 1966 ) Thoroughly Modern Millie ( 1967 ) Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid ( 1969 ) Slaughterhouse - Five ( 1972 ) The Sting ( 1973 ) The Great Waldo Pepper ( 1975 ) Slap Shot ( 1977 ) A Little Romance ( 1979 ) The World According to Garp ( 1982 ) The Little Drummer Girl ( 1984 ) Funny Farm ( 1988 ) Works by William Goldman Plays Tenderloin ( 1960 ) Blood, Sweat and Stanley Poole ( 1961 ) A Family Affair ( 1962 ) Misery ( 2012 ) Novels The Temple of Gold ( 1957 ) Your Turn to Curtsy, My Turn to Bow ( 1958 ) Soldier in the Rain ( 1960 ) Boys and Girls Together ( 1964 ) No Way to Treat a Lady ( 1964 ) The Thing of It Is... ( 1967 ) Father 's Day ( 1971 ; sequel to The Thing of It Is ) The Princess Bride ( 1973 ) Wigger ( 1974 ) Marathon Man ( 1974 ) Magic ( 1976 ) Tinsel ( 1979 ) Control ( 1982 ) The Silent Gondoliers ( 1983 ) The Color of Light ( 1984 ) Heat ( 1985 ) Brothers ( 1986 ) Films Masquerade ( 1965 ) Harper ( 1966 ) Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid ( 1969 ) The Hot Rock ( 1972 ) The Stepford Wives ( 1975 ) The Great Waldo Pepper ( 1975 ) Marathon Man ( 1976 ) All the President 's Men ( 1976 ) A Bridge Too Far ( 1977 ) Magic ( 1978 ) Mr. Horn ( 1979, TV ) Heat ( 1986 ) The Princess Bride ( 1987 ) Misery ( 1990 ) Memoirs of an Invisible Man ( 1992 ) Year of the Comet ( 1992 ) Chaplin ( 1992 ) Maverick ( 1994 ) The Chamber ( 1996 ) The Ghost and the Darkness ( 1996 ) Absolute Power ( 1997 ) The General 's Daughter ( 1999 ) Hearts in Atlantis ( 2001 ) Dreamcatcher ( 2003 ) Wild Card ( 2015 ) Non-fiction The Season : A Candid Look at Broadway ( 1969 ) The Story of ' A Bridge Too Far ' ( 1977 ) Adventures in the Screen Trade ( 1983 ) Wait Till Next Year ( with Mike Lupica, 1988 ) Hype and Glory ( 1990 ) Which Lie Did I Tell ? ( 2000 ) The Big Picture : Who Killed Hollywood ? and Other Essays ( 2000 ) BAFTA Award for Best Film 1940s The Best Years of Our Lives ( 1947 ) Hamlet ( 1948 ) Bicycle Thieves ( 1949 ) 1950s All About Eve ( 1950 ) La Ronde ( 1951 ) The Sound Barrier ( 1952 ) Forbidden Games ( 1953 ) The Wages of Fear ( 1954 ) Richard III ( 1955 ) Gervaise ( 1956 ) The Bridge on the River Kwai ( 1957 ) Room at the Top ( 1958 ) Ben - Hur ( 1959 ) 1960s The Apartment ( 1960 ) Ballad of a Soldier ( 1961 ) The Hustler ( 1961 ) Lawrence of Arabia ( 1962 ) Tom Jones ( 1963 ) Dr. Strangelove or : How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb ( 1964 ) My Fair Lady ( 1965 ) Who 's Afraid of Virginia Woolf ? ( 1966 ) A Man for All Seasons ( 1967 ) The Graduate ( 1968 ) Midnight Cowboy ( 1969 ) 1970s Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid ( 1970 ) Sunday Bloody Sunday ( 1971 ) Cabaret ( 1972 ) Day for Night ( 1973 ) Lacombe, Lucien ( 1974 ) Alice Does n't Live Here Anymore ( 1975 ) One Flew Over the Cuckoo 's Nest ( 1976 ) Annie Hall ( 1977 ) Julia ( 1978 ) Manhattan ( 1979 ) 1980s The Elephant Man ( 1980 ) Chariots of Fire ( 1981 ) Gandhi ( 1982 ) Educating Rita ( 1983 ) The Killing Fields ( 1984 ) The Purple Rose of Cairo ( 1985 ) A Room with a View ( 1986 ) Jean de Florette ( 1987 ) The Last Emperor ( 1988 ) Dead Poets Society ( 1989 ) 1990s Goodfellas ( 1990 ) The Commitments ( 1991 ) Howards End ( 1992 ) Schindler 's List ( 1993 ) Four Weddings and a Funeral ( 1994 ) Sense and Sensibility ( 1995 ) The English Patient ( 1996 ) The Full Monty ( 1997 ) Shakespeare in Love ( 1998 ) American Beauty ( 1999 ) 2000s Gladiator ( 2000 ) The Lord of the Rings : The Fellowship of the Ring ( 2001 ) The Pianist ( 2002 ) The Lord of the Rings : The Return of the King ( 2003 ) The Aviator ( 2004 ) Brokeback Mountain ( 2005 ) The Queen ( 2006 ) Atonement ( 2007 ) Slumdog Millionaire ( 2008 ) The Hurt Locker ( 2009 ) 2010s The King 's Speech ( 2010 ) The Artist ( 2011 ) Argo ( 2012 ) 12 Years a Slave ( 2013 ) Boyhood ( 2014 ) The Revenant ( 2015 ) La La Land ( 2016 ) Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri ( 2017 ) BNF : cb16458832g ( data ) GND : 7560767 - 0 VIAF : 316753509 Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Butch_Cassidy_and_the_Sundance_Kid&oldid=839751532 '' Categories : 1969 films English - language films 1960s comedy - drama films 1960s Western ( genre ) films 20th Century Fox films American films American buddy films American comedy - drama films American Western ( genre ) films Biographical films about Butch Cassidy 's Wild Bunch Estudios Churubusco films Films about bank robbery Films directed by George Roy Hill Films set in Bolivia Films set in Wyoming Films shot in Colorado Films shot in Mexico Films shot in New Mexico Films shot in Utah Films that won the Best Original Song Academy Award Films that won the Best Original Score Academy Award Films whose cinematographer won the Best Cinematography Academy Award Films whose writer won the Best Original Screenplay Academy Award Screenplays by William Goldman United States National Film Registry films Best Film BAFTA Award winners Films produced by John Foreman ( producer ) Films whose director won the Best Direction BAFTA Award Films whose writer won the Best Screenplay BAFTA Award Cultural depictions of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid Hidden categories : Use mdy dates from September 2014 Pages using div col without cols and colwidth parameters Articles to be expanded from September 2016 All articles to be expanded Articles using small message boxes All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from September 2016 Wikipedia articles with BNF identifiers Wikipedia articles with GND identifiers Wikipedia articles with VIAF identifiers Talk Contents About Wikipedia Wikiquote Afrikaans Български Català Čeština Dansk Deutsch Ελληνικά Español Esperanto Euskara فارسی Français 한국어 Bahasa Indonesia Italiano עברית Кыргызча Lietuvių Magyar Bahasa Melayu Nederlands 日本 語 Norsk Polski Português Русский Simple English Slovenčina Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски Suomi Svenska Türkçe Українська 中文 26 more Edit links This page was last edited on 5 May 2018, at 12 : 14 ( UTC ). 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Question: who directed butch cassidy and the sundance kid
Answer: George Roy Hill