Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid

It's been almost two months since I've watched and written about one of the movies on my list. An inspection at work, a pretty bad cold, preparing to move, my new phone, the return of Lost, and laziness are all contributions to my break from my project. Luckily, The inspection is over and I got a day off, so I decided to get back to it. I am less than two weeks away from getting out of the Navy, so I will be hitting it hard after that. I chose Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid to restart my project because it had the most appealing DVD cover. It stars Paul Newman and Robert Redford as the title characters and is very similar to The Wild Bunch in spirit. Rather than tell the story of the outlaws rise, It focuses on their final days. They are already famous (infamous) and spend the majority of the film on the run from LeFluer, a villian/hero who is never seen and may not even be the man on their trail. I like that it is never confirmed that this is who is after them. It may just be their paranoia and imagination that he is after them. They are losing it and realizing that robbing banks is the only thing they know how to do and that there is only one way for them to escape the life. Newman and Redford are iconic in these roles and play them as co-dependant, even bickering like a married couple at times. If it weren't for Katherine Ross's character, I would even say that the pairing could have been more than partners and friends. Ross is effective in her role as a woman that they both love, but she chooses to be with Redford's Sundance because he is dangerous and exciting. I got the feeling she would have been better with Newman's Butch because he was safe and more in tune with her feelings. If it weren't for Sundance, I Think she could have tamed Butch and got him to give up the outlaw life. The film doesn't spend too much time on this love triangle because of the action. It shows that they are so busy being on the run, that they don't have time to enjoy the life they think they are stealing for. The triangle is something that will have to be dealt with if they could just keep the heat off of them. It is artfully directed by George Roy Hil, who takes a break from the action to give us one of the most famous scenes in film history, as Newman and Ross ride a bicycle to the tune of B.J. Thomas's "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head" I really liked the way he bookends the film in sepia Photographs to give you a feel for the period. One of the things I am noticing in these films is that the iconography of them make them seem larger than they really are. It's fun to discover these films as just that...films. I like seeing how the famous scenes such as the bicycle film fit into the greater picture. I apologize for the break, but I'm excited to dig into some more great films.