Beauty saloon bandits out for easy laughs

Rating: 7/10 (6 October 2002)

In the old west two train robber fight hard to keep themselves one step head of the law -and each other!
A smart alec comedy with enough white teeth and laughs for the large audience not to care too much about the central crime theme or the innocents on the receiving end.
People seem tickled by the chemistry between stars Paul "I don't like being a famous actor" Newman and Robert "being good looking ruined my life" Redford, but it seems more competition as to who gets the last-laugh or who gets the best of the light. Bland, but good looking, Katherine Ross is thrown in to give the thing a bit of heterosexuality.
What I don't understand is why films that deal frankly with real criminals, and are exclusively for adults (re Martin Scorsese), are attacked while people that deal with real criminals for family audiences are praised. I guess it as all about how the "give me the money or I'll kill you" is put or whether it is put by someone with a healthy dollop of charisma.
To sugar the pill even more we have Raindrops Keeping Falling on your head - which shows that they stopped films to show pop videos even in the late 1960's! Burt Bacharach and Hal David claimed an Oscar for it.
Butch Cassidy was huge box office and why not? Large budget, good script and good looking stars on peak form. But, the word "comedy" is like one of those circus tent dresses that fat women wear - it hides the sins underneath. I guess it proves that if you make a film that is silly (in relationship to the real story is claims to mirror) and unrealistic you cannot be attacked for it.
Maybe I think too much - maybe I should be like this film's lap-it-up audience - just switch of my brain and treat it like simple entertainment. I tell you what, next time I watch it I will...