A Great Reverse Western With Fantastic Stars

Rating: 7/10 (30 June 2015)

I miss the late 1960s. Not that I lived during them, not that I look back at the Vietnam War as if it were a good time in American history, not that I'm one of those young buffoons who blames their friendlessness on their possession of an old soul — I miss the late 1960s because of their filmmaking. There was a feeling that anything was possible, that stars we got to know in the earlier years of the decade were suddenly drifting toward the game- changers rather than the drivel wholesome pieces, that Hollywood was suddenly a hip place instead of a soap scrubbed habitation. How movies finally had something to say, whether it be artistically or socially. It's exciting how we could have waltzed into the theater in 1960 to see a "Pillow Talk" 2.0, only to come back a few years later and find ourselves with "Blowup", "Easy Rider", or "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?". No decade has come close to the reinvention seen in the shape-shifting decade.
"Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" is one of the defining films of the time, among the series that entertained us with an easygoing, lo-fi atmosphere rather than a chintzy, big- budgeted one. It's a reverse Western: everything looks as though it could be a part of a later-in-life John Wayne adventure, but the tone is less rugged, more self-deprecating. It's a hybrid of different styles, some reminiscent of Robert Altman, others Robert Benton and Peter Bogdanovich. Only slightly serious, with more than enough comic relief to call itself a — gulp — comedy, it's difficult to put a finger on what "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" really is. Perhaps that was intentional, going out to be an undefinable western romp and coming back a champion. But I suppose its breeziness is part of its charm. Without a care in the world, the actions of the titular characters are unpredictable and wandering, as though it all were improvised. So thank God Paul Newman and Robert Redford have enough charisma to keep us from snoozing as if we were being faced with a laborious spaghetti western.
Newman is Butch Cassidy, Redford is the Sundance Kid; as the Old West's most formidable train robbers, they are said to be legends — just don't expect them to wear the term like a five-year-old dons a Superman cape. They view their actions as time wasters, as a way to have some fun on a boring Sunday afternoon. They don't like to kill. They like the thrill that comes with running away from the law. The danger is appealing.
But they've been doing the same thing for too long, and they're well aware they aren't going to live to be one-hundred, with so much flak behind their names. They're going to be the victims of a shootout, maybe in a week, a month, a year. So Butch Cassidy, or the Sundance Kid, I don't remember which, proposes they go down to Bolivia — there, they can refresh their thieving ways, and, eventually, live a normal life. In tow is the Sundance Kid's girl, Etta (Katharine Ross), and for the first few months, things are blissful, successful. But when an old enemy makes his way into the area, they realize that escaping from past wrongdoings may only be a temporary solution.
When "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" isn't making us laugh, it moves by slowly; because it doesn't have the same mesmerizing quiet of other crime based dramas, like "Thieves Like Us" and "The Thomas Crown Affair", a moody setback does nothing besides pander by. But when the film is good, it's great. Newman and Redford have better chemistry than some of the most notable screen couples of the time, conversing with such witty ease that we can't help but want to be a part of their crime spree ourselves. One of the best scenes in the film, which finds the duo at the edge of a cliff as the law chases them, is ecstatically funny, an inexperienced Redford complaining that he doesn't know how to swim, worried that he and his crime partner might have to jump. Newman guffaws like an older brother, and, when they do go through with the deed, their rapport, especially as they go downstream, is delivered with effortless comedic energy. Newman and Redford are fantastic together: as the quintessential everymen who happen to be movie stars, they seem destined to headline together. How they only made one other film together ("The Sting") is mind-boggling — they put the B in bromance. You can forget about Starsky and Hutch, Crockett and Tubbs; Newman and Redford are the real deal.
But "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" relies too much on the charisma of its stars. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, considering how excellent it is most of the time, but when it drags, it drags. It's better off as a comedy, and when it decides to go for a serious moment, we're hardly convinced. We want to have fun with our actors, not see them in crisis — the ending, all "Bonnie and Clyde" "tragic", doesn't fit. We want more adventures. If Clint Eastwood were starring, maybe we'd be okay seeing him go. It would be heroic. But Newman and Redford are much too likable to be too-serious-for-their-own-good anti- heroes, and we don't want to see their brotherly love come to an end.