A classic film

Rating: Null/10 (13 November 2011)

Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid falls uneasily into the gap between the old-style traditional westerns and the more modern ultra-violent deconstructionist westerns. And, in so doing, it more or less creates a sub-genre of which it is the only member.
It purports to tell the story of a couple of relatively small-time crooks whose specialities are small town bank hold-ups and train hijackings. They, and a lady friend, Etta Place (whose relationship with them is somewhat ambiguous) reach the point where dogged Pinkerton agents are set upon them, so they attempt to escape by running to Bolivia, where fate awaits them.
The gaps in the sketchy knowledge of the real-life characters on which this is based are filled in most entertainingly by screenwriter William Goldman, performed with huge and obvious enjoyment by stars Paul Newman and Robert Redford (in Redford's case, this was a star-making performance) and directed with innovatory panache by George Roy Hill, and peppered with unexpected musical cues by Burt Bacharach.
It is a treat. Make sure you see it if you have managed to miss it so far over the last 40-odd years.