Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid encompasses many movie genres. First and foremost, it is a western, in the vein that they it takes place in the wild west and is about outlaws and thievery and violence of a simpler time. It is a dramatic movie, with love and hate and life and death and hard choices to be made. And also a comedy, in the road trip kind of way, where two best friends run off on what turns out to be an epic journey. Whatever genre it chooses to play to during whatever scene, it definitely is a good movie.

Paul Newman plays Butch and Robert Redford is Sundance in what is probably one of the better actor team-ups in Hollywood history. The film opens in a sepia toned sequence during a card game and to watch Sundance eyes dance across the cards is wonderful to see. The scene serves to set up the roles our two characters fill. Butch is the comfortable thinker, always hatching plans and talking his way around and through everybody. Sundance is quite the opposite; cool, calm, very serious and very dangerous. Later they propose to rob a train, not once, but twice, much to the chagrin of the owner of the railroad who hires a posse of the best lawmen around to catch the crew. Much of the movie is spent with Butch and Sundance using all their wits and cunning to stay one step ahead of the posse while still trying to pull their heists.

Newman and Redford are great in the film and share an amazing on-screen dynamic that few have managed to imitate. Newman is one of the coolest actors in Hollywood, matched with the likes of James Dean and Steve McQueen. Redford has held is own and is just as beloved in Hollywood circles, both as an actor and director. The dialogue is well-suited for the two as they banter back and forth. You can tell that Newman and Redford were just as comfortable with each other off camera as they were on.

The movie is very well done. There seems to be some interesting symbolism I found while watching. The posse bears down on Butch and Sundance, much like the progress of the world is bearing down on the two. These men live by a simple code. There is no right or wrong, only what it takes to get by and get rich quick. They live in the here and now while the rest of the world develops railroads and becomes enamored with the bicycle. And in the end, the pressure of a new more difficult world seems to leave them out-manned and out-gunned. The sad thing about it is they never saw it coming, but we the viewer seemed to understand that Butch and Sundance represented an older mode of thinking. One that ultimately would, and did, fail.

Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid was nominated for the Best Picture Oscar in 1970. It is hailed as classic in many circles and is well worth checking out. Westerns have lost a lot of their attraction with superhero movies, shock horror, and CGI animated kiddie fare dominating the box office. Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid hearkens back to a time when life was simpler and more enjoyable, much like that era's films, especially westerns.

Grade: B+