Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid Information

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 late 1890s Wyoming, Butch Cassidy (Paul Newman) is the affable, clever, talkative leader of the outlaw Hole in the Wall Gang. His closest companion is the laconic dead-shot "Sundance Kid" (Robert Redford). The two return to their hideout at Hole-in-the-Wall to discover that the rest of the gang, irked at Butch's long absences, have selected Harvey Logan (Ted Cassidy) as their new leader. Harvey challenges Butch to a knife fight over the gang's leadership. Butch defeats him using trickery, but embraces his idea to rob the Union Pacific Overland Flyer train on both its eastward and westward runs, agreeing that the second robbery would be unexpected and likely reap even more money than the first.

The first robbery goes well. To celebrate, Butch and Sundance visit a favorite brothel in a nearby town and watch, amused, as the town sheriff (Kenneth Mars) unsuccessfully attempts to organize a posse to track down the gang. They then visit Sundance's lover, schoolteacher Etta Place (Katharine Ross). On the second train robbery, Butch uses too much dynamite to blow open the safe, blowing up the baggage car. As the gang scrambles to gather up the money, a second train arrives carrying a six-man team of lawmen.

The robbers scatter but the posse heads after Butch and Sundance, who unsuccessfully try to hide out in the brothel and to seek amnesty from the friendly Sheriff Bledsoe (Jeff Corey). As the posse remains in pursuit despite all attempts to elude them, Butch and Sundance determine that the group includes renowned Indian tracker "Lord Baltimore" and relentless lawman Joe LeFors, recognizable by his white skimmer. Butch and Sundance finally elude their pursuers by jumping from a cliff into a river far below. They learn from Etta that the posse has been paid by Union Pacific head E. H. Harriman to remain on their trail until Butch and Sundance are both killed.

Butch persuades Sundance and Etta that the three should escape to Bolivia, which Butch envisions as a robber's paradise. On their arrival there, a dismayed Sundance regards the country with contempt while Butch remains optimistic. They soon discover that they know too little Spanish to pull off a bank robbery, so Etta attempts to teach them the language. With her as an accomplice, they become successful bank robbers known as Los Bandidos Yanquis. However, their confidence drops when they see a man wearing a white skimmer and fear that Harriman's posse is still after them.

Butch suggests "going straight", and he and Sundance land their first honest job as payroll guards for a mining company. However, they are ambushed by local bandits on their first run and their boss, Percy Garris (Strother Martin), is killed. Butch and Sundance ambush and kill the bandits, the first time Butch has ever shot someone. Concluding that the straight life isn't for them, they return to robbery, but Etta decides to return to the United States.

Butch and Sundance steal a payroll and the mules carrying it, and arrive in a small town. A boy recognizes the mules' brand and alerts the local police, leading to a gunfight with the outlaws. They take cover in a building, but are both seriously wounded when Butch has to make a run to the mules for more ammunition. As dozens of Bolivian soldiers surround the area, Butch suggests the duo's next destination should be Australia. The film ends with a freeze frame shot on the pair charging out of the building, guns blazing, as the Bolivian forces fire repeatedly on them.

Cast

• Paul Newman as Butch Cassidy
• Robert Redford as The Sundance Kid
• Katharine Ross as Etta Place
• Strother Martin as Percy Garris
• Henry Jones as Bike Salesman
• Jeff Corey as Sheriff Bledsoe
• George Furth as Woodcock
• Cloris Leachman as Agnes
• Ted Cassidy as Harvey Logan
• Kenneth Mars as Marshal
• Donnelly Rhodes as Macon
• Jody Gilbert as Large Woman Train Passenger
• Timothy Scott as News Carver
• Don Keefer as Fireman
• Charles Dierkop as Flat Nose Curry
• Pancho Córdova as Bank Manager
• Nelson Olmsted as Photographer

• Paul Bryar as Card Player No. 1
• Sam Elliott as Card Player No. 2
• Charles Akins as Bank Teller
• Eric Sinclair as Tiffany's Salesman
• Douglas Bank as Citizen
• Larry Barton as Citizen
• Rico Cattani as Bank Guard
• José Chávez as Bolivian Police Commander
• Dave Dunlop as Gunman
• Jill Hall as Minor Role
• Percy Helton as Sweetface
• Buck Holland as Posse Member
• Jack Isbell as Posseman
• Enrique Lucero as Guard in the 1st Bolivian Bank
• Thurl Ravenscroft as (singing voice)
• Jorge Russek as Bolivian Army Officer
• Peter Lawman as Bolivian Army Officer
• José Torvay as Bolivian Bandit

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.

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. 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.. 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. 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.

Reception

Critical response

The response of major American movie reviewers was widely favorable. Rotten Tomatoes, a film review aggregator counted 89% of critical reviews as favorable, giving it a "certified fresh" rating. 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." 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."

The Writers Guild of America ranked the screenplay #11 on its list of 101 Greatest Screenplays ever written.

Box office

The film earned $15 million in rentals in North America during its first year of release.

With US box office of over US$100 million, 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, due in part 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 also nominated for Best Director, Best Picture, and Best Sound (William Edmondson and David Dockendorf).

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 film inspired the television series Alias Smith and Jones, starring Pete Duel and Ben Murphy as outlaws trying to earn an amnesty. It has also been spoofed in films such as Shanghai Noon.

In the 2011 movie Blackthorn, Sam Shepard plays an elderly Butch Cassidy who has survived and eluded capture by living 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.

A parody titled "Botch Casually and the Somedunce Kid" was published in MAD. It was illustrated by Mort Drucker and written by Arnie Kogen in issue No. 136, July 1970.