A pleasant surprise, given the time period.

Rating: Null/10 (11 May 2017)

Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid is a movie that brings back the Western genre when it was largely left behind from several years prior, but it uses several techniques from New Hollywood to use it in a fresh and still exciting manner. The late 60s and early 70s will rarely give you another movie that makes robbing a train seem like a cool and exciting thing to do.
The movie uses several techniques with cinematography and editing relatively new to the time period that help keep the events fresh and exciting. They especially make very good use of the talents of Paul Newman and Robert Redford; the camera often has close shots to show their facial expressions and responses to the scenarios they're in. The script often switches between serious and funny at the drop of a hat- an early spoiler-free example being the first train heist of the movie, or the knife fight that happens just before said heist. The film's soundtrack is quite effective too, really capturing the mize-en- scene of the movie. That being said, it doesn't have the most optimistic ending, for those who consider that an important factor in their cinema experience.