Title: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
Director: George Roy Hill
Cast: Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Katharine Ross, Strother Martin
Have I Seen It Before?: I have a vague memory of catching it on cable at some point in the last twenty years, but it certainly isn’t in my pantheon of re-watched films.
Did I like it: There’s no deny the film’s place among the great Westerns. Every dusty gunfight and wide view of picturesque landscapes make it clear that while there is plenty of the spaghetti westerns in Red Dead Redemption, there is plenty of this film as well.
Redford and Newman were never better or more charming here. Redford especially disposes of his often too-earnest screen persona to be just as funny as Newman. It is slow to start, which his far from any sort of sin, but for someone who hasn’t spent the last 50 years in love with the film, it can be a little hard to get into. How many films can we the same about from the era? Probably a lot.
But here’s the thing. I don’t think it is the fault of any of the filmmakers here, but after Spider-Man 3 (2007) I can’t help but the only reason to include “Raindrops keep Fallin’ on My Head” in a film is because the film has completely run out of ideas. I’m sure when this film was released, the song was a nice little interlude, but it feels so out of place in a western this many years later. Now that I think about it, all of Bacharach’s score feels more out of place than not during the run time. I don’t want to blame that on films like Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999), mainly because such an assessment makes me look like a cinematic rube. But I also can’t help but think I’m not alone in thinking that the iconic qualities in this film have only hurt it over time, as other, lesser films have imitated it to diminished effect.
