Classic 60s Movie: “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”
January is Classic 60s Movie month. Today’s guest post comes from Neil Spagna.
Movie Title: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Year: 1969
Writer: William Goldman (Winner of Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay 1969)
Lead Actors: Paul Newman (Butch Cassidy), Robert Redford (Sundance Kid), Katharine Ross (Etta Place)
Director: George Roy Hill (who, four years later, would direct Newman and Redford again in The Sting)
Plot Summary: Butch Cassidy (real name Henry LeRoy Parker) is the leader of the Hole in the Wall Gang, an infamous group of train and bank robbers in the late 1890s American west. The old, rugged west is closing, becoming more and more populated and civilized. Along with renowned gunfighter the Sundance Kid (real name Harry Longabaugh) they target the Union Pacific railroad for a series of robberies. On the last of these robberies, a special posse of famous lawmen, hired by E.H. Harriman, owner of the Union Pacific railroad, surprises the gang and begin to track down Butch and Sundance. They track them through mountains, towns, rivers, and rocks. The posse is always there, on their tail. Eventually the two make a miraculous getaway. Knowing that the posse will never relent, Butch and Sundance decide to flee to Bolivia. They agree to take Sundance’s girlfriend, Etta Place, along for cover. It is in Bolivia where they will learn just how far the posse will go and what the new century has in store for them.
Why I Think This is a Classic 60s Movie: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is arguably the first modern western. Classic westerns such as The Searchers, Stagecoach, High Noon, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and Shane are about the romantic early west where the delineation between “good guys” and “bad guys” is very clean cut. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid deals with the closing of the wild west and the effects modern civilization has on those not prepared to handle it. It is also the first western where the lines between good and bad become somewhat blurred and we, the audience, find ourselves sympathizing and even rooting for the bad guys. It was not coincidental that a key member of the posse is Lord Baltimore, a native American Indian.
This movie also marks the first pairing of Paul Newman and Robert Redford. Interestingly, in both films they are on the wrong side of the law but we sympathize with them anyway.
From a screenwriting perspective, Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid is particularly interesting as it was the first spec script sale of the modern era. William Goldman started researching the topic in the late 1950s and on and off throughout the early 1960s before finally writing the script in 1966 and 1967.
Initially Goldman got only one offer but the studio asked that he to take out the fact that they flee to South America. Goldman went back and tweaked the script but did not alter the fact that Butch and Sundance flee to South America. When Goldman re-sent it to the studios, a bidding war ensued with 20th Century Fox emerging as the winner at $400,000, twice what their Board of Directors agreed to initially bid for the script. Their bet paid dividends as the movie not only won 4 Academy Awards but was the top box office draw of 1969.
My Favorite Moment In The Movie: Not just a moment, but a series of moments — the famous 27 minute super posse chase sequence that is tied together by one simple line repeated all through the 27 minutes: “Who are those guys?”
Favorite Dialogue: After narrowly escaping the super posse, Butch and Sundance learn from Etta Place that E. H. Harriman, the owner of the Union Pacific railroad, had hired the best lawmen in the country to track them down:
Etta: “He resents the way you’ve been picking on him so he’s outfitted a special train and hired special employees.”
Butch: A set-up like that costs more than we ever took…That crazy Harriman. That’s bad business. How long do you think I’d stay in operation if every time I pulled a job, it cost me money? If he’d just pay me what he’s spending to make me stop robbin’ him, I’d stop robbin’ him. [screaming out the door at E. H. Harriman.] Probably inherited every penny you got! Those inherited guys — what the hell do they know?
Key Things You Should Look For While Watching This Movie: The movie is informally broken into two segments. The first part of the film follows Butch and Sundance’s antics in the United States. The second half of the film deals with their time in South America (Bolivia). Although in the movie, the timeline seems like only a few months, the real story takes place over approximately 10 years or more and the duo became even more famous in South America than they were in the states. This was one of the things that drew Goldman to this story — the idea that with all of their troubles and pressure on them they were able to reinvent themselves and create a second act.
Another thing to watch for is the how the storyline and the main theme (the modernization of society) intersect at points in the movie. An example of this is when a pitchman interrupts a posse (aimed at Butch and Sundance) recruiting speech to introduce and sell bicycles. Butch ends up buying a bicycle. This sequence not only blends the storyline and theme but Butch’s brash purchase also foreshadows the brash getaway from the super posse.
An interesting fact about the making of the movie- Butch Cassidy’s gang was really called “The Wild Bunch.” However, 20th Century Fox found out that Warner Brothers was filming a film titled “The Wild Bunch” at the same time, so Fox decided to change the name of Cassidy’s crew to “The Hole in the Wall Gang” after another famous Wyoming gang that Sundance used to travel with.
Thanks, Neil! To show our gratitude for your guest post, here’s a dash of creative juju for you. Whoosh!
Neil on Twitter: @Brandnewusedcar.
We already have a set of classic 70s movies, 80s Movies and 90s Movies. This month, we’re working on 60s Movies.
We already have 19 volunteers. I have put in bold those who have already sent their guest post to me.
Ipsita Barik — Rosemary’s Baby
Bookman Film — The Sound of Music
Brandnewusedcar — Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Markham Cook — Jules et Jim
Steve Cook — The Blue Max
Felicity Flesher — The Music Man
JasperLamarCrab — 2001: A Space Odyssey
D.L. Gill — Zulu
Jeff Guenther — Cool Hand Luke
Kate Hagen — Repulsion
John Henderson — Night of the Living Dead
hoernsch — The Graduate
Zach Jansen — They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?
Will King — The Pink Panther
Lisaisfunny — Blow Up
Jack McDonald — Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Daryl Powell — The Apartment
jprichard — Persona
Michael Waters — Dr. No
I’m looking for 31 guest posts, one for each day of January. Why not pitch in to help add to this online resource to inspire writers to learn about and — most importantly — watch great movies.
If you have a classic 60s movies on which you’d like to do a writeup, please either post in comments or email me.
Thanks in advance!
For the original post explaining the series, go here.