Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)

George Roy Hill made a name for himself directing this essential buddy picture pairing heartthrobs Paul Newman and Robert Redford together for the very first time in this Western (adventure crime comedy; even biography). Hill would direct them again in his Oscar winning Best Picture The Sting (1973) four years later. Newman plays Cassidy the business end of their partnership and Redford (more than 11 years younger than his four time at that time Oscar nominated Best Actor co-star) plays the sharpshooting Kid. The film won three Academy Awards: Cinematography (Conrad Hall’s first of three wins on his fourth of ten nominations) Burt Bacharach’s Score AND Song "Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head" (with Hal David) – #23 on AFI’s 100 Top Movie Songs of All Time and William Goldman’s Story and Screenplay Based on Material Not Previously Published or Produced. It also received Oscar nominations for Best Picture director Hill and its Sound; it’s #50 on AFI’s 100 Greatest Movies list #54 on AFI’s 100 Most Heart-Pounding Movies list and the titled characters are AFI’s #20 heroes. It was added to the National Film Registry in 2003.

Butch and Sundance lead the Hole-in-the-Wall gang who make their living robbing trains until their success leads to the formation of a special posse ("who are those guys?") put together specifically to catch or kill the bandits. Katharine Ross plays Etta Place a girl who has a special place in the hearts of both men (the Academy Award winning song plays while she and Butch ride a bicycle together). Strother Martin Jeff Corey as the Sheriff Cloris Leachman even Sam Elliott and Percy Helton (uncredited) are among the other actors who also appear. The famous scene of both outlaws jumping from a cliff into the raging river below is their desperate attempt to escape said posse and ultimately leads Butch to ponder whether Bolivia would be a more suitable place for their criminal exploits (e.g. more like the uncivilized West they’d once known). So he the Kid and Etta travel there until the film’s climactic finale.

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