Good fun. Not great.

Rating: 7/10 (11 July 2010)

www.ourfilmreviews.com "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" is an okay, fun movie but not nearly the masterpiece of cinema that the majority of critics seem to believe it is. I first saw it when I was a kid and had fond memories of it, but watching it again the other night I was met with a certain degree of disappointment. The acting is good (Paul Newman is always great. Redford does a fine job but it is really Newman's movie) and the one-liners are memorable, but the story is so disjointed and one-dimensional that the film doesn't reach any level beyond that of a lighthearted adventure flick.
The critic James Berardinelli praises the movie for taking the Western genre into more lighthearted territory. He writes, "The movie is jovial without being silly; it retains the sense of adventure that characterizes the Western, but replaces the often somber mood with one that is airy and, at times, almost comedic. As directors like Sam Peckinpah and Sergio Leone took the Western in one direction, George Roy Hill and William Goldman threw audiences a curve ball by opting for the road less traveled – and were rewarded with a success." I don't mind that the movie gives the Western genre a lighthearted and jovial spin. The problem is the film fails to connect the jovial events in the movie to a deeper understanding of its characters and thus fails to move beyond the lightheartedness. Lightheartedness and jocularity are good and fun, but they just aren't sufficient on their own to make for great cinema. They make for lighthearted and jocular cinema, not greatness. Since Berardinelli mentions Sergio Leone, let's for a moment compare the movie to Leone's masterpiece "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly." Leone's film treads into jovial territory as well, but the jocularity does not consume the film. The film also contains a gritty seriousness, a look into the greedy, dark heart of man, and a suspenseful climax. As a result, the film is a much more satisfying western and a more satisfying cinematic experience than the rather one-dimensional "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid." The film follows a very simple cause-and-effect narrative that plays out like this: Butch and Sundance rob trains. Butch and Sundance are chased by the authorities. Butch and Sundance flee to Bolivia with Sundance's girlfriend. Butch and Sundance rob banks in Bolivia. Butch and Sundance are chased by the Bolivian authorities. The End. All the while the two leads are given pithy witticisms for every occasion. For the most part, these escapades are great fun. The film is very funny at points, as when Butch uses too much dynamite on a train's bank safe. When it explodes, the entire car is blown to smithereens and the money floats down all around the rubble. My favorite scene of the movie is when Butch and Sundance attempt to rob a Bolivian bank, only to get frustrated by the language barrier and walk out. The middle part of the movie, however, suffers from poor editing and a lagging narrative. When the authorities (an apparent ensemble of the best law enforcers and headhunters in the west) are chasing the duo, the chase consists of nothing more than long, sweeping shots of Butch and Sundance on horseback, riding at full speed through the landscape. This is the point in the movie when you should use the restroom or make yourself a snack. You will miss nothing in terms of narrative or character development and the shots of the landscape are too dull to deserve our interest.
The film also features the pop hit "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head," a song written by Burt Bacharach for the film. The song is featured in a random montage of Newman riding a bike with Katharine Ross' character. There is very little development of the Ross character and no development of her relationship to Butch prior to the montage. As a result, the whole sequence seems out of place. While it is a catchy little tune, its use in the movie is indicative of the film's shortcoming as whole. The filmmakers had a catchy song on their hands so they made a random montage to set the song to. The montage was inserted into the film so that the movie could boast featuring what they knew would be a radio hit, even though the montage is basically useless to the film as a whole. In the same way, it seems like the film was primarily used as a chance to use Paul Newman in a big production western. The producers were able to sign a big star, so they made a movie for him.
In conclusion, "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" is a fun movie worth seeing. Paul Newman is his typical great self, Redford makes a lasting impression (the film launched him into stardom), and there are some very good comical sequences, but the film fails at being anything more than good Hollywood fluff. Good for sure, but far from great.