Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

A handsome pair of famous real-life bandits make crime look fun before fleeing for South America

Grade: B+ (86/100)

Director: George Roy Hill
Year Released: 1969

There are things that Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid does right, and there are things that it does wrong. What I can say with full certainty about the film is that what it does wrong it does blatantly wrong, like someone who has a misspelled tattoo on a visible part of his body for the whole world to gawk at.

With a script by William Goldman there was no possibility of the film lacking charm; indeed Paul Newman is so sweet, charismatic, and heroic as the historical bad guy Butch Cassidy and the dialogue is so campy that the movie immediately loses all credibility as a historically relevant film. But that's not really the point of it, obviously. I felt a little uncomfortable allowing myself to accept these infamous villains as they were portrayed by Newman and a stoic Robert Redford; I tend to not trust movies that glamorize bad people for the sake of the cinema. But I definitely fell under the spell of the film, allowing myself to be immersed in the silly and fun parody of the old American west, in which the good guys are the bad guys, and vise versa. From the perspective of the pair of bandits, crime is a game, but they both know that at their core they have hearts of gold; why else would they still be tagging along with each other after so long? There's a real emotional connection between Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid that is supported by the chemistry between Newman and Redford. What's confusing is Katherine Ross's turn as the submissive and kind accomplice Etta Place, the Sundance Kid's real-life girlfriend. What is her motivation to hang around with the criminals? If she is the stereotype of a good girl attracted to bad men it doesn't play out- she seems to have no emotional problem with robbery and other crime, but yet her character is supposed to be the kind of beautiful, just woman that would never condone such actions. It's not exactly Ross's fault that she's stuck playing a character with no emotional backstory or visible motivation- she does what she can- but it's certainly her misfortune.

The film's misspelled tattoo moment comes in the downright bizarre, out of style, anachronistic bicycle montage to "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head", a moment that, while sweet, is unforgivably misplaced. Personally, the montage served as my favorite moment of the film only because of Newman and Ross's sweet chemistry as good friends sharing a tender moment, but the song only serves to make it absurd and diminish its value to the film. It genuinely upsets me. It is enough for the viewer to have to force the barriers of reality to believe in the duo's humanity and comic appeal; the bicycle scene is just ridiculous and did not need to happen.

The film's visibly misspelled tattoo moment

Otherwise I felt the movie went on a little too long, telling a story not really interesting enough. The plot point that Butch and Sundance had never previously killed anyone was just obviously fake and highlighted the film's steep removal from any sort of grounded reality; though sweet, I couldn't shake the feeling that to cast Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid as heroic goofballs isn't outside the realm of casting Abraham Lincoln as a vampire slayer or Romeo and Juliet as two 90s-styled gang teenagers. It might be a fun idea, but it didn't work for me, and I couldn't shake the feeling throughout the moment that it just wasn't appropriate.

However, the film was an overall win, being supported by a script full of charm and wit enough to make anyone smile and admire the work done by Newman and Redford, who just ooze appeal. Because you've heard the true story and seen the warning at the beginning claiming that all the old western bandits are "dead now", you know that something bad is going to happen to these criminals- the shootout at the end is a real bummer after having spent so long cozying up to the two lovable crooks. Goldman really emphasizes the adventurous spirit in Butch Cassidy's character, which paired with the dramatic irony of the end scene, in which only the viewer knows that they are surrounded by the Bolivian army and about to be killed, is genuinely heartbreaking.

I'm not sure if I'd want to watch Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid again, but if I did it would be to try to cut back on the discomfort I felt with the anachronisms so present throughout the film and really try to appreciate it as what I think it is under my discomfort: A sweet, perhaps cheesy but smart film about two outcasts who are, for the purpose of movies, allowed to be the opposite of what they most likely were.

I saw Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid on Netflix. It is also available on Amazon Prime and, I'm sure, at your local video store.