“All I know is John Wayne don’t run away.” This was the response given by a studio head when shown a screenplay draft for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. It didn’t matter that it was a historical fact that those two infamous outlaws, Butch and Sundance, had a full second chapter to their legacy in South America, John Wayne don’t run away. Studios were uninterested in making this picture because, in their eyes, the second chapter made the two leads look cowardly. Only one studio showed any interest with the provision that that chapter be removed or altered. Looking back on the film now it would be a completely generic western without that second act. It’s that second chapter that makes Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid so unique and adds a dose of realism to the proceedings. I would argue that without the stuff in Bolivia this movie would have been a modest hit at best and then gotten lost in a sea of other westerns from the era and it would have never gotten its Best Picture Oscar nomination.
With some minor rewrites the film was finally picked up by 20th Century Fox and filming began in southern Utah where many of the famous scenery is still recognizable today and considered a popular travel destination for movie tourists. It held its premier in the fall of 1969 and, surprisingly, was not well received by the critics. It was considered inauthentic and hollow, slickly made but empty. These reviews did not stop people from flooding the theaters to see it, though, earning it seventeen times its budget back in North America alone. It also secured an Oscar nomination for best picture so someone obviously loved it. 1969 was still well into America’s romance with the Western genre although that was already starting to fade. But it wasn’t dead just yet.
The setting is 1899 Wyoming. Butch Cassidy (Paul Newman) and his companion The Sundance Kid (Robert Redford) return to their hideout at Hole-in-the-Wall in the Big Horn Mountains to discover that the rest of the gang, frustrated by Butch’s extended absence, have selected a new leader, Harvey Logan. Harvey challenges Butch to a knife fight to settle who will lead the gang and Butch wins through trickery. Back in command, he decides that Harvey had a good idea about robbing a train on both its eastward and westward runs assuming that the railway would not be expecting to get robbed twice like that and have more money on it the second time around. The plan goes off perfectly until Cassidy uses too much dynamite on the second robbery and destroys the baggage car, scattering the money everywhere. On top of that a second train arrives carrying a team of lawmen bent on killing the gang.
This posse of lawmen includes two formidable foes, “Lord Baltimore,” a renowned Indian tracker, and Joe Lefores, a lawman recognizable by his white skimmer. Butch and Sundance try to escape but the posse stays with them, never letting up for a moment. Eventually the two outlaws escape by jumping off a cliff into a river far below. Knowing this posse will never let up, the two men decide to flee to Bolivia where Butch insists the banks are plentiful and will be easy targets. They travel east, then south across the border alongside Sundance’s girl, Etta Place (Katherine Ross) who helps them speak a little Spanish to assist in the robberies. This all comes to a halt after seeing a man wearing a white skimmer and determining that the posse must still be looking for them. Their only hope for survival is to lay low and go straight.
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid wouldn’t be the movie it is without the iconic performances of Newman and Redford. These two actors make this movie so it may come as a surprise who was originally sought out for these roles. Jack Lemmon was approached for Sundance as was Warren Beatty. Warren would have been an interesting choice as he had just appeared in Bonnie and Clyde, a movie with the exact same basic plot and finale. He turned it down for that very reason. Steve McQueen accepted the role but had a falling out with Paul Newman and ultimately backed out of it. They would bury the hatchet on the set of The Towering Inferno five years later. Steve could have pulled off Sundance but it would have been a different foil from that of Redford. Steve McQueen doesn’t quite have the easy-going nature that Redford does to play off what Newman is doing. Redford and Newman were so good playing off each other that they would be invited back to do it again a few years later in The Sting. Both times they costarred together netted Best Picture Oscar nominations with The Sting taking home the statue, as did Robert Redford for the Leading Actor. Newman was passed over for any Academy Award nominations for either film, only securing one finally for 1987’s The Color of Money.
George Roy Hill, who helmed both Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting, opens this film with a sepia-toned projection that sets up the time period. This color choice continues on into the opening scene before finally being replaced with standard color photography. It’s an interesting choice that sets the mood for the picture and sets it apart from other westerns from this time period. Hill would use a similar style with The Sting with the ragtime music and hand-drawn title cards dividing the various chapters of the film. It’s a stylistic choice that sets Butch Cassidy apart and adds to the atmosphere. It also bookends the film as the final moments, ending on a freeze-frame that reverts back to that sepia-tone, looking very much like an old photograph.
There is not a whole lot of action for a movie about outlaws and lawmen. What little there is is divided between two major set-pieces: the second train robbery and subsequent escape and the climatic shootout. To some that could translate into a very slow and boring film. Yet it isn’t that. Newman and Redford have enough charisma to carry the film even when guns are not blazing and bodies aren’t falling. The scenery is breathtaking, too, with Zion National Park and Snow Canyon State Park providing some truly awe-inspiring views. This is a gorgeous looking movie at times and really takes advantage of the scenery.
Accompanying all that scenery is a score and soundtrack by Burt Bacharach who also wrote the contentious “Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head” song that many felt had no place in the film. Indeed it is an odd choice to include a contemporary sounding track into an otherwise traditional score. The scene it accompanies also stands out as being a little out of place with Newman showing off a bike he’s just acquired by acting silly and goofing off. As out of place as this scene feels, it is part of the movie’s charm and helps make it unique.
if you know the history of Butch and Sundance than you know exactly how this film is going to end. This isn’t a western fairy tale that will end with the lead characters riding into the sunset. This is real history and Butch and Sundance didn’t enjoy a long happy life. The ending reflects that without showing us the gory details on how it all went down. It does allow us to hear it, though, as we get a freeze frame while the audio plays on. The situation is hopeless and we know it, and even though we don’t see it we still feel it. These characters, outlaws as they are, are still the heroes of their own story and are likable to boot, so we feel for them as they go down in a blaze of glory and a hailstorm of bullets. Butch talks of moving on to Australia where the banks are easy targets and there are thousands of miles of nothing to hide out in but he knows, as does Sundance, that all of that is just a pipe dream.
This is one of only a few westerns decorated by the Academy Awards and deserves its spot amongst the nominees. It didn’t win that year, falling to the highly controversial Midnight Cowboy, the Oscars’ first and only X-Rated Best picture. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid may not have won but it has endured and remains as popular with classic film lovers as it ever was. It is breathtaking to watch, exciting even in the slower moments, and gave us two leads that really should have worked together more often. Newman accredited their lack of co-starring vehicles on a short supply of worthy scripts. Perhaps he was right. A poor film starring the two of them would have lessoned what magic we did get, two great films starring two great actors who had dynamite chemistry and charmisa. For that we should be eternally grateful the productions ended up landing both of them for a pair of films worthy of their screen presence.
Academy Award Nominations:
Best Picture: John Foreman
Best Director: George Roy Hill
Best Story and Screenplay - Based on Material Not Previously Published or Produced: William Goldman (won)
Best Cinematography: Conrad Hall (won)
Best Original Score for a Motion Picture: Burt Bacharach (won)
Best Song - Original for the Picture: “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” - Burt Bacharach and Hal David (won)
Best Sound: Williams Edmondson and David Dockendorf
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Release Date: September 24, 1969
Running Time: 110 Minutes
Rated PG
Starring: Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Katherine Ross, Strother Martin, Jeff Corey and Henry Jones
Directed By: George Roy Hill
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