Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid [Blu-ray]

Director: George Roy Hill, John C. Foreman George Roy Hill

Overview

Opening with a silent "movie" of Butch Cassidy's Hole in the Wall Gang, George Roy Hill's comically elegiac Western chronicles the mostly true tale of the outlaws' last months. Witty pals Butch (Paul Newman) and Sundance (Robert Redford) join the Gang in successfully robbing yet another train with their trademark non-lethal style. After the pair rests at the home of Sundance's schoolmarm girlfriend, Etta (Katharine Ross), the Gang robs the same train, but this time, the railroad boss has hired the best trackers in the business to foil the crime. After being tailed over rocks and a river gorge by guys that they can barely identify save for a white hat, Butch and Sundance decide that maybe it's time to try their luck in Bolivia. Taking Etta with them, they live high on ill-gotten Bolivian gains, but Etta leaves after their white-hatted nemesis portentously arrives. Their luck running out, Butch and Sundance are soon holed up in a barn surrounded by scores of Bolivian soldiers who are waiting for the pair to make one last run for it.

Product Details

Release Date:	05/13/2008
UPC:	0024543468134
Original Release:	1969
Rating:	PG
Source:	20Th Century Fox
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Mono]
Language:	English
Time:	1:50:00

Special Features

Closed Caption; Commentary by Director George Roy Hill, Lyricist Hal David, Documentary Director Robert Crawford Jr., and Cinematographer Conrad Hall; Commentary by Screenwriter William Goldman; All Of What Follows Is True: The Making of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid documentary; The Wild Bunch: The True Tale of Butch & Sundance featurette; Deleted scenes with Optional Director's Commentary; Original Teaser and Trailers

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Paul Newman	Butch Cassidy
Robert Redford	Sundance Kid
Katharine Ross	Etta Place
Strother Martin	Percy Garris
Jeff Corey	szeryf Steve Bledsoe
George Furth	Woodcock
Cloris Leachman	Agnes
Ted Cassidy	Harvey Logan
Kenneth Mars	Marshal
Henry Jones	Bike Salesman
Donnelly Rhodes	Macon
Jody Gilbert	Large Woman,Large Woman
Timothy Scott	News Carver
Don Keefer	Fireman
Charles Dierkop	Flat Nose Curry
Nelson Olmsted	Photographer
Paul Bryar	Card Player
Sam Elliott	Card Player
Charles Akins	Bank Teller
Eric Sinclair	Tiffany's Salesman
Pancho Córdova	Bank Manager
Douglas Bank	Citizen
Larry Barton	Citizen
Rico Cattani	Bank Guard
José Chávez	Bolivian Police Commander
Dave Dunlop	Gunman
Jill Hall	Minor Role
Percy Helton	Sweetface
Buck Holland	Posse Member
Burt Bacharach	Conductor,Composer

Technical Credits

William Goldman

George Roy Hill	Director
William Goldman	Screenwriter
Paul Monash	Executive Producer,Producer
John Foreman	Producer
Art Cruickshank	Special Effects
L.B. Abbott	Special Effects
David Dockendorf	Sound/Sound Designer,Sound Effects
William Edmondson	Sound/Sound Designer,Sound Effects
Richard D. Zanuck	Executive Producer,Producer
M. James Arnett	Stunts
John C. Foreman	Director
John C. Foreman	Producer
Lawrence Schiller	Special Effects
Michael McLean	Casting

Editorial Reviews

Two of the Wild West’s most notorious outlaws were effectively whitewashed in this lighthearted romp, a box-office champion and multiple Oscar winner that marked the first teaming of superstars Paul Newman and Robert Redford. Newman stars as Butch, the quick-witted leader of Old Wyoming’s Hole-in-the-Wall Gang, while Redford portrays the Sundance Kid, a fast-draw artist who serves as Cassidy’s right-hand man but also rivals him for the affections of comely Katharine Ross. Finally driven from Wyoming by indefatigable pursuers, the pair flee to Bolivia in an attempt to begin their crime careers anew. The most successful western ever made at the time of its 1969 theatrical release, this breezy star vehicle either avoided or mocked cowboy-movie clichés; it served up equal portions of romance, comedy, and adventure to savvy Vietnam-era audiences weary of hackneyed horse operas. (Additionally, the film introduced the decidedly nonwestern, Oscar-winning song, "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head.") William Goldman’s clever screenplay teems with snappy dialogue, and the direction by George Roy Hill (who later reunited with the star duo to make The Sting) maintains a lively pace. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid wasn’t the first revisionist western, but it was in the forefront of what became a systematic, irreverent, and highly entertaining deconstruction of cinema’s most venerable genre. The DVD Special Edition features a 45-minute documentary on the film's making, plus commentary by director Hill and cinematographer Conrad Hall, interviews with other members of the cast and production team, and the original theatrical trailer.

Barnes & Noble - Ed Hulse

Released the same year as The Wild Bunch, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid covered similar territory about the end of Western myths, but it expressed its revisionism with tongue firmly in cheek rather than with the brutal violence of Sam Peckinpah's offering. Butch and Sundance never lose their gift for one-liners, even when they have to jump off that gorge; George Roy Hill and screenwriter William Goldman send up the image of outlaws heading south of the border with bank robberies conducted in broken Spanish from crib notes. Still, violence impinges on Butch's and Sundance's world, intimating the fate that modernity held for charming bandits who cannot master a horse-replacing bicycle. The jocularly clear-eyed approach to the pair's exploits, combined with the chemistry between Paul Newman and relative newcomer Robert Redford, vastly appealed to audiences; Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid became the most popular film of 1969 and won several Oscars, including one for Goldman's script. Like Bonnie and Clyde in 1967, glamorous outlaws Butch and Sundance were in tune with the late-'60s counterculture, but the movie's humor -- and its Oscar-winning Burt Bacharach/Hal David song "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head" -- softened the revisionist blows amid impending tragedy.

All Movie Guide - Lucia Bozzola