Plot
When the wild west was being tamed by law and order, free enterprise and the railroads two unorthodox outlaws led the Hole in the Wall Gang on raids and robberies until the railroad authorities took exception to the redistribution of wealth. Paul Newman plays the charming, philosophical leader, supported by the loyal, laconic, Robert Redford. Their iconic performances are balanced adequately by Katharine Ross as Etta, friend of Butch and girlfriend of Sundance.
The story line and the ending are predictable, which is part of the point. The quirks, both visual and verbal; humor; irony; and even the music, are what makes this story different. It is clearly the end of an era, which even pertained to the genre, never again seriously filmed. The movie is silly and funny and trite, but also original and well acted. A worthy and nostalgic way to spend an evening.
Commentary by Cicely d’Autremont
Quotes
Butch Cassidy: Boy, I got vision, and the rest of the world wears bifocals.
Butch Cassidy: Kid, the next time I say, “Let’s go someplace like Bolivia,” let’s GO someplace like Bolivia.
Butch has just ridden Etta on his bicycle.
Sundance Kid: Hey, what are you doin’?
Butch Cassidy: Stealin’ your woman?
Sundance Kid: (sigh) Take her.
Butch Cassidy: Well, you’re a romantic bastard, I’ll give you that.
Etta, to Butch: Do you know what you’re doin’?
Butch Cassidy: Theoretically.
Butch Cassidy, running low on ammunition in a shoot-out with Bolivian police: We’re going to run out unless we can get to that mule and get some more.
Sundance Kid: I’ll go.
Butch Cassidy” This is not time for bravery. I’ll let you.
Sundance Kid: You just keep thinkin’, Butch. That’s what you’re good at.
Trivia
Both Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid were real people. Butch, real name Robert Leroy Parker, received his nickname from working in a butcher’s shop. Sundance, Harry Alonzo Longabaugh, was nicknamed after the Wyoming town of Sundance because he was once arrested there in his youth.
The studio asked Bob Dylan to sing Burt Bachrach’s song for the film, but Dylan refused.
Etta Place was a real-life mystery. One theory is that she was an innkeeper from Fort Worth named Eunice Gray, who died in a fire in 1962.
The American Film Institute ranked this the 73rd Greatest Movie of All Time in 2007.
Paul Newman sawed George Roy Hill’s desk in half “because he wouldn’t pay his bill for liquor which he borrowed from my office.”
Robert Redford wanted to do his own stunts, but Paul Newman objected, saying “I don’t want any heroics around here … I don’t want to lose a co-star.”
Sources
Wikipedia
IMDb
TCMDb
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