A perfect blending of script with acting of Newman and Redford.

Rating: Null/10 (18 October 2005)

September 2019 edit: I just watched it again, after 14 additional years, and a couple of weeks after watching a Butch and Sundance documentary. It has aged well.
This is the movie that placed Redford on the "A list" of actors. Relatively unknown in 1967, when production began, the bosses wanted a better known actor, perhaps Steve McQueen. But Redford, just 30, turned out just perfect as the Sundance Kid. Newman as Butch Cassidy was in his early 40s and together, as they did in "The Sting", their acting chemistry resulted in this classic. At first it was panned by many critics but the story of friendship struck a chord with movie-goers and the Newman/Redford combination made it a hit.
Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid were real outlaws, operating in the late 1800s and early 1900s. While the script romanticizes them quite a bit, the overall story is mostly accurate. However, there forever remained a question about what really happened to them. This movie depicts one scenario. The real Etta Place was a prostitute but here she is a school teacher, played by the beautiful Katharine Ross.
The movie establishes the characters early with a bank robbery and escape. Then the middle story involves their being hunted by a hired band of 6 in retaliation for several train robberies. Humor is injected in lines such as, "If he would just pay us what it costs to hire them, I wouldn't have to steal his money anymore." They manage to escape in the great scene where they jump off a cliff into a river. Tired of running, Butch and Sundance, with Etta along, travel to New York, then take a ship to South America to start fresh.
The DVD has a nice presentation in Widescreen. The extras are interesting, with modern day interviews with the main actors and others.
While the real outlaws traveled all over S. America, this movie has them just going to Bolivia. There they rob banks and still are chased by the band of 6 from America. But their undoing came in a small village at the hands of the local police, bolstered by dozens of military troops called in with loaded rifles. In the final scene, both wounded, Butch and Sundance run into the little town square, pistols firing, then the picture freezes them.