Bullseye

Rating: 10/10 (24 September 2006)

Yes, it's a buddy flick - that was nothing new even back then...remember "Some Like it Hot"? The buddy motif, of course, is the license to have fun: reading lines, improvising lines, squabbling over who's going to do what (and in the making of this, Newman and Redford switched roles right before filming -- imagine that happening in a studio feature today).
But it's so much more. What makes it so timeless is the way the seemingly disparate parts are composed into a greater whole: a framing reference to a silent movie ("Great Train Robbery"), 'silent movies' within the larger movie, stories told with the motion of penny arcade viewing slides, sepia tones to match the changes in the plot's direction...
And cinematically, the centerpiece is the masterful composition of the chase scene, with our heroes occupying the foreground, the posse always in the background, and their bantering comments on what they think they're seeing, which tells the story of what *we're* seeing.
Dead on target, essential viewing.