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BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID
[last lines]
Butch Cassidy: Wait a minute - you didn't see Lefors out there did you?
Sundance Kid: Lefors? No, why?
Butch Cassidy: Thank God for that. For a moment there I thought we were in trouble.
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Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid are legends, as sure as any from their time period, but they wouldn’t be what they are now if it wasn’t for the 1969 movie of the same name about them. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is one of the few westerns I have ever had a smile on through the entire running time, a film that balances perfectly the idea that it is a buddy movie at heart, so it stays fun, and that it is a western as well, so it’s not all fun and games.
This was Paul Newman and Robert Redford’s first of two major collaborations (they went on to make The Sting in 1973, which took home the Oscar for Best Picture as well as being the second-highest grossing film of the year), but their chemistry is that of old friends, friends who have a lot of fun but have their lives in each others hands at the same time. They are having the time of their lives robbing banks in both the Western United States and Bolivia, and we have fun watching them do it.
I appreciated this film on two different levels, essentially. On the first, I loved the film for how damn entertaining it is. Butch and Sundance are the archetype heroes; strong, good-looking men who get the girls, the guns, and the cash. They may be the bad guys, but we cheer for them. Second, the film is a masterpiece in terms of its writing. In all the history of westerns, how many times before the release of Butch did the heroes run away? In its simplest form this is what the film is about; Butch and Sundance evading the bounty hunters sent for them after they rub a businessman the wrong way by robbing from his train. “Who are these guys?†Butch and Sundance keep asking, as the trackers monitor their movement across seemingly every state in the west.
We may never again have a movie like this. It is a western (which in itself is a dying breed of film) that is completely original, features two great performances by two great actors in their most entertaining form, and is more intent on pleasing and entertaining its audience then giving some sort of social commentary or deep meaning. While we may never see another Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, I wouldn’t mind seeing one.
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