Buch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Released: September 23, 1969

Studio: Twentieth Century-Fox

Genre: Western

Box Office (numbers in millions):

Domestic: 102.31 Worldwide: ?

Adjusted for Inflation:

Domestic: 692.24 Worldwide: 1219.4

Directing: George Roy Hill

Screenwriting: William Goldman

Starring: Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Katharine Ross, Strother Martin

Review:

“One of the most-popular, appealing, beguilingly star-driven, tragi-comedy Westerns ever made.” ^FS Goldman’s “witty script” ^FS is “loosely based” ^FS on the real-life “charming, turn-of-the-century, train-robbing outlaws” ^FS and “early 1900’s anti-heroes” ^FS “Robert Leroy Parker (Butch Cassidy) and Harry Longbaugh (The Sundance Kid) and the Hole in the Wall gang.” ^FS

“One of the screen’s great buddy teams was born when Paul Newman and Robert Redford saddled up for this rollicking comic western about two legendary outlaws.” ^TV As the “two handsome leads,” ^FS they “redefined the buddy movie” ^A07 with their chemistry. “With a gleam in his baby blues, Newman dazzles as Butch, while Redford became a superstar with his self-deprecating portrayal of the dashing, trigger-happy Sundance.” ^TV

The story follows the “free-wheeling, non-chalant Butch (Newman) and sharpshooting Sundance (Redford)” ^FS from the Old West to “their final confrontation in South America.” ^VD After they “bungle their second attempt on the Union Pacific Express…[they] are relentlessly pursued by authorities in a posse. With Sundance’s beautiful, school-teacher lover Etta Place (Ross), they flee to Bolivia to seek further wealth. In the end, they are outnumbered and die in a blazing, hail of bullets, freeze-frame shootout, reminiscent of Bonnie and Clyde.” ^FS

“The movie’s key song ‘Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head’ is a fun counterpart to the actual plight of our friends.” ^A07 The song is featured during a light-hearted scene where Butch takes Etta on a bicycle ride.