Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid

George Roy Hill, USA 1969, 112 minutes

It was a real stroke of genius to put Paul Newman and Robert Redford - perhaps two of the most charismatic screen actors of all time - in the same movie together. Rarely have two co-stars looked more at ease, more effortlessly in control and enjoying themselves, yet all the time radiating that star quality so lacking in many of today's actors. To say they don't make 'em like this anymore has become such a cliche, but it still holds true for a handful of films, including this one.

From the opening exchange between Newman's Butch and the bank clerk ("Why'd they close the old bank? It was so beautiful"/ "People kept robbing it"/ "Small price to pay for beauty") through the long, arduous pursuit to the final shootout between our heroes and the entire Bolivian army, the film resides in that strange limbo between gritty western with real characters with whom we empathise every step of the way, and ironic, knowing pastiche filled with anachronistic references and wisecracking antagonism between the leads. We secretly know that underneath the dusty coats and hats, it's just Paul Newman and Robert Redford kidding around, but somehow that makes their plight all the more agonising for us. If it was just a couple of bank robbers dodging bullets while trapped on a narrow ledge two hundred feet above a raging mountain river, we wouldn't be too concerned, but that's Paul Newman and Robert Redford out there, for God's sake! Someone help them!

Rooted to a certain extent in the late sixties, some parts of the movie now seem dated (such as the vaseline-on-the-lens soft focus bicycle antics to the strains of `Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head'), but the overall light-hearted tone (the bank raid in Bolivia, complete with Spanish phrase book is a particularly classic example) and sheer magnetism of the stars have ensured that Butch remains a classic.

"The archetypal buddy movie, and the biggest Western ever ****" - Empire

Review by Ben Stephens
Taken from EUFS Programme 1996-97