Can it really be 50 years?

Rating: 10/10 (14 September 2019)

Yes, 50 years of Butch and Sundance, and having seen it and loved it as a young 20-something when it first came out, my 10/10 is based on that, and all the pleasure it gave me way back then. I watched it again this week for maybe the 10th time, maybe more, when on a long flight on a 3rd world airline, where it was their one 'classic' on a menu which otherwise contained trashy 'action' films and Bollywood.
So I sat back and thought "let's while away the flight time in a bit of pure escapism with Butch and Sundance". And once more I thoroughly enjoyed it. As well as Paul Newman, Robert Redford and Katharine Ross, I have always loved the little cameo role played by Strother Martin, who had teamed up with Newman two years earlier to make 'Cool Hand Luke', one of my great favourite movies. "What we have here is a failure to communicate!"
However, viewed now against 21st century societal values, I have to admit to finding some discomfort in this portrayal of two men who in reality were low-life outlaws, who robbed banks and trains, and never hesitated to shoot at anyone who got in their way. Robbing a bank in the old west probably meant stealing the life savings of all the good honest people of that town, so why should we try and generate any sort of empathy with these two?
I was also uneasy with the role of Etta Place, a woman totally subservient to the wishes of these two men.
But we must in the end judge it by the standards of the era in which it was made, and it is indeed a brilliant and captivating piece of movie-making.