My Favourite Movies: Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid

I remember vividly seeing this on the movies but find it difficult to believe that I saw it on release back in 1969. But maybe I did (then age 9) which might explain its impact on me and why, 40 years later, I still like this film so much.

If you haven’t seen it (shame on you) this winner of 4 Oscars revolves around the friendship of two notorious outlaws in the West at the point where the old ways where dying and modern times (represented by the bicycle of all things) was starting to make itself felt. After robbing a train twice – both on its inward and outward journey – the railroad owner decides that enough is enough and puts together the best of the best to track them down. Deciding that discretion is the better part of survival they travel to Bolivia where they continue to rob banks and live what passes for the high-life. But things, as they do, catch up with them and it ends rather badly.

On the face of it that doesn’t seem like the plot of a film anyone could fall in love with. What makes it special – for me at least – is the relationship between Butch, played by Paul Newman, and Sundance played by Robert Redford. I don’t know anything about their real relationship off screen but their on screen friendship (indeed love) for each other was clear to anyone with eyes to see it. They truly seemed to have known each other through the good times and the bad and to be determined to see things to the bitter end – together. But it wasn’t just the chemistry between the two main leads that made the plot, however exciting and fun it turned out to be, purely incidental to the enjoyment of this film. Part of the dynamic was the girlfriend of Sundance played by the beautiful Katharine Ross. Having been in similar relationships myself (always as the Newman character) not only did it add an extra dimension but also added a great deal of realism to what is, when all is said and done, a piece of pure escapism.

As with all things Western I can thank my father for the fact that I love this film and the genre in general. There’s definitely something about the wide open spaces, the freedom (both real an apparent) to go anywhere and do (pretty much) anything and its not surprising that the frontier is such an important part of the American psyche – who then of course exported it to the rest of the world. One other thing that might surprise some of my readers – or maybe not – is that I think I fell at least a bit in love with Redford in this film. I probably didn’t realise it at the time but looking back I can see it more clearly. Strange but true but who could blame me……..