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Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

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Not to be confused with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kids.
Butch Cassidy
and the Sundance Kid
film poster by Tom Beauvais
Directed byGeorge Roy Hill
Written byWilliam Goldman
Produced byJohn Foreman
StarringPaul Newman
Robert Redford
Katharine Ross
CinematographyConrad L. Hall
Edited byJohn C. Howard
Richard C. Meyer
Music byBurt Bacharach (music)
Hal David (lyrics)
Distributed by20th Century Fox
Release date
  • September 23, 1969 (1969-09-23)
Running time
112 minutes[1]
CountryTemplate:Film US
LanguageEnglish
Budget$6 million[2]
Box office$102,308,889[3]

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is a 1969 American Western film directed by George Roy Hill and written by William Goldman (who won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for the film). Based loosely on fact, the film tells the story of Wild West outlaws Robert LeRoy Parker, known to history as Butch Cassidy (Paul Newman) and his partner Harry Longabaugh, the "Sundance Kid" (Robert Redford) as they migrate to Bolivia while on the run from the law in search of a more successful criminal career. In 2003, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Plot

In the late 1890s Wyoming, Butch Cassidy, the affable, clever, talkative leader of the Hole in the Wall Gang, and his closest companion, the laconic dead-shot Sundance Kid, return to the gang's hideout in Hole-in-the-Wall to discover that the rest of the gang, irked at Butch's long absences, has selected a new leader, Harvey Logan (Ted Cassidy), who challenges Butch to a knife fight over the gang's leadership. Using trickery, Butch defeats the much larger Logan, but embraces Logan's idea to rob the Union Pacific Flyer coming and going, agreeing that the second robbery would be unexpected and likely to involve even more money than the first. The first robbery goes well. To celebrate, Butch and the Kid visit a favorite brothel in a nearby town and watch amused as the town sheriff (Kenneth Mars) attempts to organize a posse to track down the gang. Sundance then leaves to visit his lover, the schoolteacher Etta Place (Katharine Ross). The next morning, Butch arrives on a bicycle, and takes Etta for a ride.

Later, the second train robbery goes wrong when Butch uses too much dynamite to blow the safe, scattering the money everywhere. As the gang members scramble to gather up the money, a second train arrives carrying a six-man team that has been specially outfitted by Union Pacific head E. H. Harriman to hunt Butch and Sundance. The robbers flee in multiple directions, but the posse only follows Butch and Sundance, who elude their pursuers and return to the brothel to hide out. When the posse appears in town, Butch and Sundance are betrayed but escape on horseback. They then try to arrange an amnesty with the help of the friendly Sheriff Bledsoe (Jeff Corey), but he tells them candidly that it is too late—their criminal lifestyle can only lead them to being hunted down and killed.

Still on the run the next day, they realize the determined posse includes a renowned Indian tracker known as "Lord Baltimore", and a tough, relentless lawman named Joe LeFors whom they recognize at a distance by his white skimmer. After reaching the summit of a mountain, they find themselves trapped on the edge of a cliff. Though Sundance cannot swim and would prefer to fight, they decide to jump into the river far below and escape. Arriving at Etta's house, they learn that the posse has been paid to stay together until they kill both of them. Butch persuades Sundance and Etta that the three should escape to Bolivia, which Butch envisions as a robber's paradise.

After fleeing to New York, the three board a passenger ship, eventually arriving by train in Bolivia, where a dismayed Sundance regards the country with contempt while Butch remains optimistic. Knowing too little Spanish to be successful bank robbers in Bolivia, Etta attempts to teach them the language, though Butch still needs a cribsheet. After more robberies (assisted by Etta), the duo, now known as Los Bandidos Yanquis, are wanted all over Bolivia. Their confidence drops when they see a man wearing a white straw hat. Fearing that Joe LeFors is once again after them, Butch suggests going straight.

They land their first honest job as payroll guards for a mining company, run by a seedy, tobacco-chewing American named Percy Garris (Strother Martin), who needs protection from native bandits who continually rob the payroll. When the pair first accompany Garris carrying the payroll, the trio are ambushed by bandits, who kill Garris and begin dividing the money. Butch and Sundance ambush the bandits, killing them all in a gunfight, the first time Butch has ever shot a man. The two decide that the straight life is not for them, and return to robbery, but Etta, sensing their days are numbered, decides to return to America rather than see them killed.

Following their theft of a payroll and the mules carrying it, they arrive in a small town where a stable boy recognizes the mules' brand and alerts the local police. While Butch and Sundance are at a local eatery, the police arrive and a gun battle ensues.

The two take shelter in a room nearby, but are soon low on ammunition. Butch makes a run to the mules to fetch the rest of the ammunition while Sundance provides cover, but they are both seriously wounded in the ensuing gunfire. While they tend to their wounds in the room, dozens of Bolivian soldiers arrive and surround their hideout.

Unaware of the army's arrival, the pair discuss plans for their next destination: Australia. Butch, suddenly fearing that LeFors may have found them, asks Sundance if he saw the lawman during the fight, but Sundance says no.

Relieved, the two men run out of the house, their guns ablaze. The image freezes on them; a voice is heard shouting "¡Fuego!" (Spanish for "Fire!") followed by several intense barrages of massed gunfire as the image fades from color to sepia tone.

Cast

Production

The film was originally rated M (for mature audiences) by the Motion Picture Association of America. It was re-rated PG when 20th Century Fox re-released the film in 1974.

The world premiere of the movie was in September 1969, at the Roger Sherman Theater, in New Haven, Connecticut. The premiere was attended by Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Robert Redford, George Roy Hill, William Goldman, and John Forman, among others.[4]

According to the supplemental material on the Blu-ray disc release, William Goldman's script, originally called The Sundance Kid and Butch Cassidy, was purchased by Richard Zanuck at 20th Century Fox for $400,000, double the price the studio's board of directors had authorized.[citation needed] The title roles were originally cast with Newman and Steve McQueen, but the latter left after a dispute over billing. The role of Sundance was then offered to Jack Lemmon, whose production company, JML, had produced the 1967 film Cool Hand Luke starring Newman.[citation needed]. Lemmon, however, turned down the role; he did not like riding horses, and he also felt he had already played too many aspects of the Sundance Kid's character before.[5] Warren Beatty was then considered, as was Marlon Brando, but the role of Sundance eventually went to the lesser-known Redford. (Initially Newman was to play Sundance and Redford Cassidy.) Fox did not want Redford, but director George Roy Hill insisted. Redford later said this film catapulted him to stardom and irreversibly changed his career.

Butch Cassidy's outlaw gang was actually called "The Wild Bunch"; this was changed, in the film, to "The Hole-In-The-Wall Gang" to avoid confusion with Sam Peckinpah's recently released film The Wild Bunch.[citation needed]

Reception

Critical response

The response of major American movie reviewers was widely favorable. Rotten Tomatoes, a film review aggregator counted 91% of critical reviews as favorable, giving it a "certified fresh" rating.[6] Newman's and Redford's chemistry was praised as was the film's charm and humor.

Time magazine said the film's two male stars are "afflicted with cinematic schizophrenia. One moment they are sinewy, battered remnants of a discarded tradition. The next they are low comedians whose chaffing relationship—and dialogue—could have been lifted from a Batman and Robin episode."[7] Time also criticized the film's score as absurd and anachronistic.

Roger Ebert did not like it. "The movie starts promisingly... a scene where Butch puts down a rebellion in his gang [is] one of the best things in the movie... And then we meet Sundance's girlfriend, played by Katharine Ross, and the scenes with the three of them have you thinking you've wandered into a really first-rate film." But after Harriman hires his posse, he has nothing good to say about it. "Hill apparently spent a lot of money to take his company on location for these scenes, and I guess when he got back to Hollywood he couldn't bear to edit them out of the final version. So the Super-posse chases our heroes unceasingly, until we've long since forgotten how well the movie started." The dialogue in the final scenes is "so bad we can't believe a word anyone says. And then the violent, bloody ending is also a mistake; apparently it was a misguided attempt to copy "Bonnie and Clyde...." we don't believe it, and we walk out of the theater wondering what happened to that great movie we were seeing until an hour ago."[8]

Box office

With US box office of over US$100 million,[9] it was the top grossing film of the year. Adjusted for inflation, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid ranks among the 100 top-grossing movies of all time and the top 10 for its decade, partly due to subsequent re-releases.

Awards and nominations

The film won four Academy Awards: Best Cinematography; Best Original Score for a Motion Picture (not a Musical); Best Music, Song (Burt Bacharach and Hal David for "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head"); and Best Writing, Story and Screenplay Based on Material Not Previously Published or Produced. It was nominated for Best Director, Best Picture, and Best Sound (William Edmondson and David Dockendorf).[10]

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid also won numerous British Academy Film Awards, including Best Film, Best Direction, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Actor (won by Redford though Newman was also nominated), and Best Actress for Katharine Ross, among others.

William Goldman won the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Screenplay.

In 2003, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Legacy

The Sundance Film Festival, begun by Robert Redford, is named for his role in this film, as is his Utah ski resort, Sundance. The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp for seriously ill children that the late Paul Newman organized and operated for most of his remaining years drew its name from the gang in this movie.

Two made-for-TV sequels premiered in 1974 and 1976, titled, respectively, Mrs. Sundance, with Elizabeth Montgomery in the starring role, and Wanted: The Sundance Woman, starring Katharine Ross as Etta Place working with Pancho Villa. In addition a TV movie called The Legend of Butch & Sundance premiered in 2006, with David Clayton Rogers as Butch, Ryan Browning as Sundance, and Rachelle Lefevre as Etta Place. A prequel to the film, Butch and Sundance: The Early Days, starring Tom Berenger and William Katt as the respective title characters, was released in 1979.[11]

To cash in on this film's vast popularity, an unrelated 1969 Italian Spaghetti Western about two buddies (Vivi...o Preferibilmente Morti) was retitled Sundance and the Kid for its US release.

The film also inspired the television series Alias Smith and Jones, starring Pete Duel and Ben Murphy as outlaws trying to earn an amnesty.[12] It has also been spoofed in films such as Shanghai Noon[13] and Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves, and TV shows such as The Simpsons (in the episode "Duffless"), Futurama, The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, The Venture Bros., and Full Metal Panic. [citation needed]

The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! has an episode titled Butch Mario and the Luigi Kid, an obvious nod to that film's title.

In the movie Shanghai Noon, Jackie Chan is given the name "The Shanghai Kid" which is parody of "The Sundance Kid". Near the end of the film, Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson charge out of the church in a similar manner as Butch and Sundance.

In the 2008 TV miniseries adaptation of Terry Pratchett's The Colour of Magic, the characters of Rincewind and Twoflower parody the final scene of the movie when they are pinned down by a squad of enemy wizards, including the line, "For a moment there, I thought we were in trouble", before they jump out and face an onslaught of magic spells.

In the 2009 game "Uncharted 2: Among Thieves", when protagonist Nathan Drake and his partner Victor Sullivan find themselves cornered at the edge of a cliff by their pursuers, Drake suggests that they jump into the rapids below. Sullivan, distraught, calls Drake "Sundance", followed by Drake calling Sullivan "Butch". As they jump, Nathan Drake screams, "Holy Crap!" as they jump into the river, similar to Longabough's exclamation, "Holy Sh-!" during the jump. This is an obvious reference to the river jump scene in the film.

In the 2011 movie Blackthorn, Sam Shepard plays an elderly Butch Cassidy who has survived the Sundance Kid and eluded capture by living out his years under the name James Blackthorn in a secluded Bolivian village. Tired of his long exile from the US and hoping to see his family again before he dies, Cassidy sets out on the long journey home. [14]

A parody of the film titled Botch Casually and the Somedunce Kid was published in Mad Magazine. It was illustrated by Mort Drucker and written by Arnie Kogen in regular issue #136, July 1970.[15]

References

  1. ^ Canby, Vincent (September 25, 1969). "NYT Critics' Pick Review of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-02-09.
  2. ^ "Box Office Information for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid". The Numbers. Retrieved December 28, 2011.
  3. ^ "Box Office Information for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved February 26, 2012.
  4. ^ Tiffany Woo (26 October 2009). "'Butch Cassidy' returns after 40 years". Yale Daily News. Retrieved 26 August 2011.
  5. ^ A slice of Lemmon for extra character, Bob Flynn, Panorama, p. 7, Canberra Times, 15 August 1998
  6. ^ http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1003318-butch_cassidy_and_the_sundance_kid/
  7. ^ "Double Vision". Time. Friday, Sep. 26, 1969. Retrieved 2009-02-09. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  8. ^ "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid". October 13, 1969.
  9. ^ "Domestic Grosses Adjusted for Ticket Price Inflation". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2009-02-09.
  10. ^ "The 42nd Academy Awards (1970) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved 2011-08-26.
  11. ^ "IMDB:'Butch and Sundance: The Early Years'". Retrieved 2007-11-20.
  12. ^ "Television Heaven: 'Alias Smith and Jones'". Retrieved 2006-12-09.
  13. ^ "Shanghai Noon". Retrieved 2006-12-09.
  14. ^ Mark Holcomb (Wednesday, Oct 5 2011). "Butch Cassidy is Alive and Well and Living in Blackthorn". Village Voice. Retrieved October 19, 2011. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  15. ^ MAD Cover Site, MAD #136 July 1970.
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