Writer: William Goldman (Screenplay)
Starring: Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Katharine Ross, Strother Martin, Henry Jones, Jeff Corey, George Furth, Cloris Leachman
Plot: Wyoming, early 1900s. Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid are the leaders of a band of outlaws. After a train robbery goes wrong they find themselves on the run with a posse hard on their heels. Their solution – escape to Bolivia.
Tagline – They’re taking trains… They’re taking banks… And they’re taking one piece of baggage!
Runtime: 1 Hour 50 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Verdict: True Classic
Story: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid starts in the 1900s where Butch Cassidy (Newman) and his outlaws, including his trusted best shot The Sundance Kid (Redford) are looking for their next score, which sees them doing a double on the same train, the second robbery sees them needing to go on the run from ruthless bounty hunters.
Butch and Sundance go to their normal haunts to escape, which this time just don’t work, they look to head to Bolivia for freedom, only to learn that the toughest lawman and the best tracker are hot on their trail.
Thoughts on Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Characters – Butch Cassidy is the leader of the outlaws, he knows how to talk himself out of any situation, keep his gang in order and he won’t kill anybody unless the situation calls for it, he wants to not leave a trail of bodies behind him. The Sundance Kid is the quickest shot in the land, he never misses his target and is loyal to Butch. The pair together are a lethal combination that will get the robberies done is the most efficient manner. Etta the lover of Sundance, a school teacher who is still single at 26, which has already put her in a bad bracket for the society, she doesn’t get involved in the robberies, but does join them when they go on the run.
Performances – Paul Newman and Robert Redford are both fantastic giving career highlights in their roles, they have wonderful chemistry which shines through the film and helps on the adventure the two characters find themselves on. Kathrine Ross completes the main cast which sees her standing toe to toe with the male leads.
Story – The story here follows the notorious outlaws Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid who have been robbing banks for years until their latest job does wrong and sees them needing to go into hiding in Bolivia, with trackers and lawmen after them. This is one of the classic movies of all time, it does show one of the most famous outlaw partnerships in American history and we get to follow them when they are at the peak of their reputation, where they must deal with consequences of the people that want to end their robberies. Like most of the westerns for the time, we get the outlaws that come off charming for the most part, which does seem to be the way, lets make the criminals the popular ones and the lawman the villainous figures, sure the pair didn’t kill people and their reputation is key to how the country thought of them. It is a fun watch with comedy playing into how the story is told, which is fun to see.
Biopic/Crime – The biopic side of the film is how the film is loosely based on the real story behind the two outlaws, it shows us just how the two went on the run after getting caught too deep in the world of the crime that they had become famous for.
Settings – The film uses the settings to show us the world that the two men would be operating in, first the American side as well as the Bolivian side of their adventure.
Scene of the Movie – The last stand.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – We could have learnt more about their robberies before the one that went wrong.
Final Thoughts – This is a fun western that shows us two of the most famous outlaws in the land, it has excellent chemistry between the leads and flows wonderfully.
Overall: Must watch classic.