Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) – G. R. Hill

After finishing the movie, I contemplated what it might have been like if shot by Sam Peckinpah rather than George Roy Hill.  After all, The Wild Bunch was released in the same year (and forced screenwriter William Goldman to change the name of Butch’s outfit to The Hole in the Wall Gang when historically it really was The Wild Bunch). I guess it was the ending that made me think about this – a violent ending to our outlaw heroes (an ending that made Amon cry: perhaps PG really did require more guidance on my part -- oops) not unlike what might have been offered by Peckinpah. Hill, in contrast, likes things light-hearted, even when our protagonists are bank robbers; I did find the “Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head” sequence rather unsufferable though. In fact, early on, I was ready to be disappointed by the film (not having seen it in decades) but very gradually, it grew on me, probably when the “super posse” started trailing Cassidy (Paul Newman) and the Sundance Kid (Robert Redford) for an extended amount of time. This gave the actors a chance to develop their characters and camaraderie. When the action switched to Bolivia, even better. What sort of strange Western was this? Another one playing with the form and examining the dying days of the Wild West (similar to what Peckinpah was doing, even more violently and bleakly). To his credit, Hill fills the screen with some beautiful scenic vistas, along with handsome actors, and it’s no surprise that it became a huge hit.