"Raindrops keep fallin' on my head, An' just like the guy whose feet are too big for his bed, Nothin' seems to fit, Those raindrops are fallin' on my head, They keep fallin'."
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) is a western that I had wanted to watch for a long time, and on the whole, it delivered. I was invested in the irresistible chemistry between Paul Newman and Robert Redford, screenwriter William Goldman's exquisite screenplay and memorable one-liners ("You think you used enough dynamite there, Butch?"), Conrad Hall's breathtaking cinematography and George Roy Hill's playful yet lively direction. It is also a truly immersive viewing experience that begins and ends with sepia-tinted images, which not only adds a sense of historical value to the movie but also plays with the fact that this movie is not entirely a beat-for-beat retelling of historical events. With that anecdote out of the way, on with the review.
The movie follows the famous outlaw duo of Butch Cassidy (Newman) and the Sundance Kid (Redford) as they rob banks, hold up trains, and try to outrun the law that relentlessly pursues them wherever they go.
Redford and Newman's performances here are impeccable, as is their chemistry with each other, which would be equally replicated in The Sting (1973), also directed by Hill. Katharine Ross' turn as a school teacher named Etta Place serves as both an excellent romantic love interest to Sundance and counter to the lead duo's shenanigans with a level of emotional intelligence and wisdom that helps the two stay alive (at least until the end). The rest of the cast delivers, with Kenneth Mars as the amusingly incompetent marshal attempting to rally the town to form a posse and the late Cloris Leachman making a brief cameo appearance as a saloon girl named Agnes.
On the technical side, Hill's directing is lighthearted yet masterful in skills and execution. From his implementation of a silent film interpretation of the Union Pacific Overland Flyer robbery (in the sepia as mentioned earlier) before gradually easing the audience into sound and later color to the use of themes of fate catching up to one's actions and the ending of an era, Hill and the filmmakers expertly bring a bittersweet maturity to ground the film's overall lightness.
There is an excellent use of exterior shots of the expansive, open landscapes that Butch and Sundance traverse, brought beautifully to life by Conrad Hall's cinematography. This movie's playful nature can also be felt through the imagery, for there is an irony in the use of wide shots when the pursuing posse is hardly visible to the audience, rather than close-up shots to amplify the claustrophobic tension that Butch and Sundance are experiencing. The wide-angle shots also foreshadow the impending doom that is closer than the duo thinks.
Musically, Burt Bacharach's ragtime score for this film is a highlight, for it strikes the right balance between capturing the lighthearted nature of Butch and Sundance's characters with the impending tragedy of their deaths at the end. However, it is Bacharach and Hal David's iconic tune "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" sung by the late B.J. Thomas, that is an all-time classic, with lyrics like "But there's one thing I know, The blues they send to meet me, Won't defeat me, it won't be long, Till happiness steps up to greet me," being simultaneously optimistic yet melancholy, that almost wholly sells the movie.
On a side note, the train enthusiast in me is delighted by the movie's use of scenes that were shot on what is now the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad that runs between Durango and Silverton, Colorado. One of which is a scene where one member of Butch and Sundance's Hole-in-the-Wall Gang jumps from a rocky cliff onto the roof of the Union Pacific's Overland Flyer train to rob it, and the other is the famous baggage car sequence, where Butch, Sundance, and their gang hold up the returning Flyer and load the baggage car with more dynamite than usual to blow open the more prominent, more secure safe. The ensuing explosion that destroys the baggage car and scatters the money everywhere remains impressive by today's special effects standards.
However, what keeps this movie from being a masterpiece are some pacing issues during the second act, in which Butch, Sundance, and Etta roam the country while evading the authorities throughout the United States, which is presented to the audience via a montage of sepia-tinted images featuring the trio. Nevertheless, it remains highly engaging from an artistic and creative standpoint.
Minor pacing issues aside, they don't hinder the movie from being a fine example of a classic Hollywood western released during the transition period between the end of Hollywood's Golden Age in the 1960s and the beginning of the New Hollywood era of the 1970s. Of Newman, Redford, and Hill's two collaborations (Butch Cassidy and The Sting), I prefer the latter for its tighter direction, more memorable twists, and more emotionally satisfying ending. In conclusion, I highly recommend Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid to anyone who hasn't seen it yet.
Final Score: 9 out of 10
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