Overrated by still interesting

Rating: 7/10 (27 January 2010)

Perhaps I'm too fond of the traditional Hollywood western and the great 'spaghetti' westerns of Sergio Leone, but "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" strikes me as a clumsy attempt to adapt them to the changing sensibilities of the late 1960s.
Gone are some clichés that we actually liked, like the sweeping orchestral score that seemed as majestic as the landscapes on screen, but still present are some of the clichés I could do without, like the invincible "fastest draw in the west" outlaw and the hapless, submissive woman. The movie does, to its credit, replace the traditional one-dimensional gunslinger with characters with at least some emotional depth, and perhaps that is its most enduring update of the western style.
The story is alright, amusing in parts, as the duo's exploits cause them to be pursued by the greatest trackers in the west, forcing them to flee to Bolivia. The movie relies almost entirely on the chemistry between Newman and Redford, as there is just a token effort to build drama and suspense through the traditional tools of the western.
The overall effect seems clumsy, especially with its inexplicably anachronistic soundtrack, but I do respect that this movie was apparently exactly the sort of "western" that audiences wanted in 1969. As a movie in the great pantheon of westerns, I don't think it stacks up to the greats, but it is certainly worth watching for its novel, if goofy, take on the genre.