Official PoCo Muse Film Critic Jeff Schultz revisits Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid for his May 2021 Review.
This marks the sixth edition of Going Back to the Movies and I’ve never properly made the disclaimer (or better yet confession) that despite talking about films shown there, I never stepped into the Premier Theatre. My excuse is a fair one; I was not born yet when the Premier closed in 1982. Subsequently, I have gathered two things of fact about this legendary theater in Valparaiso. One, that people saw “Star Wars” up to 20 times when it played all through the summer of 1977. Two, everybody went to the theater to see “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.” It played there 50 years ago this month, possibly as a back-by-popular-demand kind of thing since it originally was released in 1969 (being a smaller operation, the Premier did not always have first-run movies). Either way, you were lucky if you found a parking space for a showing.
“Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” was the most popular movie at the nation’s box office for 1969 and while it has many attributes, the greatest contributor of its success would have to be the paring of Paul Newman and Robert Redford as the leads, their first film together. You could say that the movie kicked off the “bromance” genre even before the term was coined and it may be the finest buddy film ever made. Compared to Redford, Newman was more established in Hollywood with starring roles as the young pool shark in “The Hustler” opposite Jackie Gleason’s Minnesota Fats, the sleek private eye in “Harper”, and the laid-back but defiant “Cool Hand Luke” where he shook the faith of an entire prison camp by eating 50 hard-boiled eggs in under an hour. Redford’s résumé consisted of a few roles in films with bigger stars such as Marlon Brando and Natalie Wood. His most recent performance was the romantic comedy “Barefoot in the Park” with Jane Fonda. Newman fought for Redford to be his co-star while the studio eyed others like Warren Beatty and Steve McQueen for the role of the Sundance Kid.
Calling “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” a western is valid, but what makes it a classic are its aberrations from the genre. It has more in common with the style of “Bonnie and Clyde” than it does with another popular western released in 1969, “True Grit.” In the heyday of movie westerns in the 1930s and 40s, there were heroes and there were villains. The hero would be played by the likes of John Wayne, Gene Autry or Gary Cooper sticking up for defenseless ranchers against a lawless band of roughnecks trying to muscle their way onto the territory. However, with “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” the heroes are the outlaws. Butch and Sundance are not the menacing type like Henry Fonda’s character in “Once Upon a Time in the West,” also made in the late 60s, but instead are affable, down-to-earth blokes who can laugh at themselves. Sundance is more reserved but Butch is always able to erode his cold exterior and the way the two work opposite of each other makes these characters more believable. The movie has reason for making their characters feel real since they existed in real life. Screenwriter William Goldman wrote the script loosely based on fact after reading about the exploits of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid at the turn of the 20th century with the Hole in the Wall Gang and how the two fled to Bolivia with a woman named Etta Place who was known to be the Sundance Kid’s lover.
Rather than a western, Goldman’s script reads like a rollicking comedy on paper surfeited with one-liners. The dialogue often steals thunder from the visual thrills as we see Butch and Sundance blow up safes on Union Pacific with dynamite. “Well, that oughta do it,” Butch says. Light, hiss, KABOOOOOOM!! Sundance, having his eardrum blown out, says, “You think you used enough dynamite there, Butch?” This attracts a posse hired by the railroad to stop our protagonists. The chase is on through the raw Wyoming landscape until Butch and Sundance are trapped on a rocky cliff and the only way out is a high dive into the river below. Butch says, “We’ll jump.” Sundance avows he can’t swim. “Why, you crazy? The fall will probably kill you.”
Then there is the bicycle scene where Butch rides with Etta, played by Katherine Ross fresh from her career-defining role as Elaine Robinson in “The Graduate,” on the handlebars in the early morning. On the soundtrack is B. J. Thomas singing “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head” while we follow them through Etta’s farm as they share an apple plucked from a tree, dodge cows and Butch entertains Etta with amateur stunts after she climbs into the barn. It’s one of the greatest scenes ever in a movie and even more remarkable that it’s in a western. Director George Roy Hill employs great experimentation with aesthetics throughout the movie that even the greatest directors of westerns like John Ford (“The Searchers”) wouldn’t dare try. Could you imagine seeing John Wayne riding a bicycle to pop music? Ford would also not likely approve of still photographs for the South American Getaway scene or starting the film with made-up silent film footage of the Hole in the Wall Gang, but Hill’s nuances reflect the transition of the new Hollywood filmmakers of the time.
“Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” won four Oscars for its score, original song, Goldman’s screenplay and exquisite cinematography by Conrad Hall. All these elements plus its performances led by Newman and Redford make it a wonderful piece of entertainment.
A favorite of those who saw it at the Premier 50 years ago, it’s also a collective favorite among the staff of the PoCo Muse, which is why I’m giving it my highest rating of 4 out of 4 stars.
We’d see Newman and Redford team up with director Hill again for 1973’s “The Sting” which took the top spot for U.S. box office that year as well and additionally the Oscar for Best Picture. The duo surprisingly never appeared in a third film together, but it’s still enough to make them legends like the ones they played on screen.