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Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid on DVD (1969)

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Average rating: (78%)
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3.5
 
Starring: Paul Newman | Robert Redford | Katharine Ross | Strother Martin | Cloris Leachman
Director: George Roy Hill
Studio: 20TH CENTURY FOX HOME ENTERTAINMENT
Run time: 106 mins
Certificate: 12
Collections: 100 must-see movies | 100 Wild Westerns
User collections: Perfect Last Lines | just great films | My Favourite Films Ever | 1969: A very fine vintage | Films that Dont require a thousand explosions | My 40 Favourite Movies | Crabsticks | Stef's Top 100 - A Miscellany | My All Time Favourite Films | Favourite Films
Genres: Action/Adventure
Languages: English
Hearing-impaired: English
Released: 27/08/2001
Also Available on: Also Available on: BLU-RAY

Brief synopsis of Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid

This revisionist Western comedy, which served as the prototype of the buddy film for years to come, stars Paul Newman and Robert Redford as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, respectively. At the turn of the 20th century, they've become notorious for the skill with which they and their colleagues, the Hole in the Wall gang, rob banks and trains. But their last few jobs have been botched, and after Butch and Sundance return from a brief vacation, Harvey Logan (Ted Cassidy) challenges Butch's leadership. After comically snuffing the rebellion, Butch agrees with one of the gang on risking the double robbery of a Union Pacific payroll train. Despite blowing up the entire baggage car, they survive the first stage of the robbery and spend some down time with Sundance's girl, schoolteacher Etta Place (Katharine Ross). But after hitting the train on its return trip, Butch and Sundance are relentlessly pursued by a posse of world-class lawmen planted on board by the wily railroad president. Realizing that their days are numbered, the outlaws head for Bolivia. The film, which launched the career of Redford and boosted George Roy Hill's to another level, owes its ineffable charm to the terrific chemistry between the two stars, to William Goldman's warm and witty screenplay, and to a director capable of walking a tightrope between the comic and the elegaic.

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Critics Reviews

Rating of 5 stars out of 5 Radio Times

This freewheeling adventure was made in a vintage year for the western, with The Wild Bunch and True Grit joining it among the releases, and in many ways it's the western's answer to Bonnie and Clyde. George Roy Hill's film was one of the biggest box-office hits in the genre's history. Some of the credit must go to the Oscar-winning trio of William Goldman, Conrad Hall and Burt Bacharach for the witty script, luminous photography and jaunty score respectively. But the true charm of this ever-popular picture lies in the exhilarating performances of Paul Newman and Robert Redford, who turn the ruthless real-life desperados of fact into loveable rogues and, ultimately, tragic heroes.

Rating of 4 stars out of 4 Halliwell's Film Guide

Humorous, cheerful, poetic, cinematic account of two semi-legendary outlaws, winningly acted and directed. One of the decade's great commercial successes, not least because of the song 'Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head'.

Entertainment Weekly

"...The Western comedy that ushered in the Age of the Buddy Movie..." -- Rating: A-

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Members Reviews

Reviews Voted Most Helpful

Rated - 4 starsBonny & Clyde in the West

klauski from west sussex , 24/10/2004

Re-visiting this famous Oscar-winning classic was not only thoroughly enjoyable, but also gave us a chance to see, with the distance of time, it's darker side. The mysterious and menacing "super-posse" which pursues our two heroes (surely two of the most pleasant bank robbers one could ever hope to meet) has a really sinister feel, almost like the horsemen of the apocalypse.

There is a wonderfully conveyed sense of romantic doom attaching to Butch and Sundance, and the ending is perfectly well-judged for the mood of the piece.

It was made in the very late 60s, and already one can detect the beginnings of the sense of alienation many young Americans were feeling from a society which seemed over-conformist, and in which to rebel - with or without a cause - seemed like the only statement worth making.

Marvellous acting and a sure sense of direction, with a great and funny script, means that the film has not dated at all. And anyone who remembers the great TV series "Alias Smith and Jones" need look no further for its inspiration than here.

A very interesting "Making of" feature narrated by director George Roy Hill is well worth catching, too.

  5 out of 5 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 4 starsGreat film

Ian from London , 16/07/2004

A clasic film, funny, moving and well worth watching. The chemistry between Robert Redford and Paul Newman is fascinating. A great story well told.

  2 out of 3 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 4 starsa classic

Joao Correia from London , 16/08/2004

From the opening sequence i could see this is going to be a interresting film.

Despite it's age it's still timeless.Redford and Newman are probably one the best on screening pairings i've ever seen.

I would recommend this.And probably a second viewing too...

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Rated - 4 stars

Allison#1 from LONDON , 06/12/2003

A classic buddy western, with Newman and Redford at their peaks and looking tasty, wearing their roles in an understated fashion that is all too rare in recent mainstream cinema.

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Most Recent Reviews

Rated - 3 starsCruelty behind the scenes

A customer from Edinburgh, Scotland , 18/08/2008

I enjoyed this film very much until I watched bits of the 'making of the film' on the DVD extras, where I learned that the filmmakers tied wires to the legs of the white mule to make him fall over 'convincingly' in one of the S. American scenes. In 1969, this technique was still legal outside the US, but pretty off-putting all the same!

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