One of the Top 50 Westerns of All Time!

Rating: 10/10 (11 December 2009)

"Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" ranks as one of the top 50 westerns of all time. This agile, amusing oater about two notorious outlaws who roamed the great Northwest robbing banks and trains is not your ordinary, conventional horse opera. Scenarist William Goldman and director George Roy Hill changed all the rules. For example, unlike most outlaw sagas, the eponymous heroes are never shown dying on screen because there is some dispute about where they died. Instead, the film ends on a freeze-frame of them charging into the open with their revolvers drawn. Mind you, this 1969 Oscar nominee for Best Picture is still a status quo western because our affable heroes are still punished for their misdeeds, but Butch and Sundance were not murderous felons prone to blowing the heads off their adversaries. In fact, Butch does not shoot anybody until the duo wind up in Bolivia. There is neither a bad scene nor a bad performance in this post-modern exercise in frontier banditry. Paul Newman and Robert Redford generated so much chemistry here that the played grifter buddies in another epic "The Sting," and it did will Best Picture. Ace lenser Conrad Hall who photographed "The Professionals" and "Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here" makes the old west look truly nostalgic. The bickering banter between our two heroes is absolutely hilarious in this comedy/adventure epic.
The action opens as Butch (Paul Newman of "The Left-Handed Gun") is scouting a bank to rob and learns that they have installed new, state-of-the-art equipment to protect the bank from outlaws. "That is a small price to pay for beauty," Butch remarks and heads back over to the saloon where his sidekick, Sundance (Robert Redford of "The Way We Were")is playing poker. He wins another hand and the dealer accuses him of cheating. Butch urges Sundance to leave things as they are because he--Sundance--is getting over the hill. Quietly, Sundance refuses, and the dealer challenges him to a shoot-out. The dealer (none other than Sam Elliot) overhears Butch tell his partner, "I cannot help you now, Sundance." The dealer suddenly changes his mind. However, before Sundance is willing to leave, he compels the dealer to ask them to stick around. "Why don't you stick around," the frightened dealer asks. "Nah, we gotta go," Butch replies. Before Sundance exits the saloon, he whirls and blows the gunbelt off the dealer and fires more bullets that send the gun belt skidding across the floor.
Our heroes ride back to their remote hang-out, Hole-in-the-Wall, where they learn the Harvey (Ted Lynch of the original "Adams Family") has decided to take over the gang since Butch is rarely around. Butch defends himself by noting that he has to do research to rob banks and trains. The gang informs him that they intend to hit the train both coming and going, but Harvey challenges Butch for leadership of the gang in a knife fight. "What about the rules, Harvey?" Harvey blinks at Butch, "Rules?! In a knife-fight?" Butch kicks Harvey in the genitals and cold-cocks him with a blow to the head. Actually, Butch likes the plan and they hit the railroad both times. The second time that they strike, they have to festoon the safe with more dynamite that necessary. The explosion destroys the boxcar, shatters the safe, and sends dollar bills floating like confetti. About that time, a second train arrives and a posse of sharpshooting gunmen descend on them. They wipe out the entire gang and chase our heroes to an isolated cliff and Butch and Sundance have to take a high plunge into a river.
After this fiasco, Butch learns from schoolmarm Etta Place (Katherine Ross of "The Graduate") that Mr. E.H. Harriman of the Union Pacific Railroad has launched a manhunt to bring them in dead. Our heroes decide to relocate to South America where the pickings are easier. They have several musical interludes and we hear B.J. Thomas sing the immortal song "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head" while Butch rides a bicycle--the symbol of a new age--and narrowly escapes being gored by a bull. In South America, they prosper until the army comes after them. Eventually, they go straight and work as bodyguards for a mine owner (Strother Martin), but Bolivian bandits rob them and our heroes shoot it out with them.
This is an immensely enjoyable western that even women should love.