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Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid (1969, Paul Newman, Robert Redford)

Published

5 years ago

October 4, 2018

Classic western that, despite lukewarm reviews, took $100m at the box office, astonishing at the time, as well as receiving seven Oscar nominations (winning four) and has become firmly fixed as a favourite film with millions. The film also revived Paul Newman’s career as well as launching Robert Redford’s.

They are, respectively, Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid (real life figures who were, however, possibly not so attractive), who specialise in robbing banks and trains. But as the Wild West gets a little less wild and a little more lawful, they find, after one train robbery too many, that they’re being hunted by a super-posse. Decamping to Bolivia with Etta Place (Katharine Ross), Sundance’s seemingly prim schoolteacher mistress, they resume their robbing, holding up banks with hastily prepared Spanish primers until one day, they chose the wrong bank…

The plot does little justice to the pairing, who have a string of one liners from a script that William Goldman declared the one he was proudest of, ranging from the confrontation between the pair and their mutinous gang members via the conversation with the brave rail clerk protecting his money, the famous pre-cliff escape leap duologue to their final words. Aided by the stunning direction of Hill (the three were to re-unite four years later for the equally successful The Sting ), who segued seemingly contemporary 19th century film into his work and the luminous camerawork of Conrad Hall, the film, while removed from the fashion of Leone’s school of realistic westerns, set a benchmark for buddy movies that has rarely been surpassed.

production details
USA | 111 minutes | 1969

Director: George Roy Hill
Script: William Goldman,

cast
Paul Newman as Butch Cassidy
Robert Redford as Sundance Kid
Katharine Ross as Etta Place
Charles Akins as Bank Teller
Paul Bryar as Card Player #1
Jeff Corey as Sheriff Ray Bledsoe
Kenneth Mars as Marshal
Donnelly Rhodes as Macon
George Furth as Woodcock
Ted Cassidy as Harvey Logan
Cloris Leachman as Agnes
Henry Jones as Bike Salesman
Timothy Scott as News Carver
Strother Martin as Percy Garris
Jody Gilbert as Large Woman
Don Keefer as Fireman
Charles Dierkop as Flat Nose Curry
Pancho Córdova as Bank Manager
Nelson Olmsted as Photographer
Eric Sinclair as Tiffany’s Salesman
Sam Elliott as Card Player #2