BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID (USA, 1969) *****
Distributor: Twentieth Century Fox; Production Company: Campanile Productions / Newman-Foreman Company; Release Date: 23 September 1969 (USA), 5 February 1970 (UK); Filming Dates: 16 September 1968 – 13 March 1969; Running Time: 110m; Colour: DeLuxe; Sound Mix: Mono (Westrex Recording System); Film Format: 35mm; Film Process: Panavision (anamorphic); Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1; BBFC Cert: PG.
Director: George Roy Hill; Writer: William Goldman; Executive Producer: Paul Monash; Producer: John Foreman; Director of Photography: Conrad L. Hall; Music Composer: Burt Bacharach; Film Editor: John C. Howard, Richard C. Meyer; Art Director: Philip M. Jefferies, Jack Martin Smith; Set Decorator: Chester Bayhi, Walter M. Scott; Costumes: Edith Head; Make-up: Daniel C. Striepeke, Edith Lindon; Sound: David Dockendorf, Bill Edmondson; Visual Effects: L.B. Abbott, Art Cruickshank.
Cast: Paul Newman (Butch Cassidy), Robert Redford (The Sundance Kid), Katharine Ross (Etta Place), Strother Martin (Percy Garris), Henry Jones (Bike Salesman), Jeff Corey (Sheriff Bledsoe), George Furth (Woodcock), Cloris Leachman (Agnes), Ted Cassidy (Harvey Logan), Kenneth Mars (Marshal), Donnelly Rhodes (Macon), Jody Gilbert (Large Woman), Timothy Scott (News Carver), Don Keefer (Fireman), Charles Dierkop (Flat Nose Curry), Pancho Córdova (Bank Manager), Nelson Olmsted (Photographer), Paul Bryar (Card Player #1), Sam Elliott (Card Player #2), Charles Akins (Bank Teller), Eric Sinclair (Tiffany’s Salesman).
Synopsis: Two Western bank/train robbers flee to Bolivia when the law gets too close.
Comment: Classic Western came after the end of the golden period for the genre but was massively popular due to the charismatic chemistry between Newman and Redford as Butch and Sundance. The stars make the most of Goldman’s witty screenplay dealing with the outlaws’ final days as they flee a dogged posse to Bolivia. The themes of the passing of the old west and its values into a more modern society is given poignancy through Hill’s direction and his use of visual dynamics emphasised by Hall’s evocative cinematography. One of the great Westerns that bears repeated viewings. Sam Elliott’s feature film debut. Won Oscars for Screenplay, Cinematography, Music and Song for “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head”. Followed by a prequel BUTCH AND SUNDANCE: THE EARLY DAYS (1979). The movie also inspired the TV series Alias Smith and Jones (1970-3).