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Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid Overview:

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) was a Adventure - Western Film directed by George Roy Hill and produced by John Foreman, Paul Newman and Paul Monash.

SYNOPSIS

A kinder, gentler take on the outlaw myth. Based loosely on real-life Western outlaws Robert Leroy Parker and Harry Longbaugh, better known as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Following a string of bank and train robberies in the early 1900s, the pair find themselves hotly pursued by the authorities. They escape to Bolivia with The Kid's lover, schoolteacher Etta Place, in the hopes of turning their luck around. Wistful and charming. Includes the hit "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head" by Burt Bacharach and Hal David.

(Source: available at Amazon AMC Classic Movie Companion).

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was inducted into the National Film Registry in 2003.

Academy Awards 1969 --- Ceremony Number 42 (source: AMPAS)

AwardRecipientResult
Best CinematographyConrad HallWon
Best DirectorGeorge Roy HillNominated
Best Music - ScoringBurt BacharachWon
Best PictureJohn Foreman, ProducerNominated
Best WritingWilliam GoldmanWon
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Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid BlogHub Articles:

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)

By Beatrice on Mar 21, 2020 From Flickers in Time

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) Directed by George Roy Hill Written by William Goldman 1969/US IMDb link Repeat viewing/Amazon Instant One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die Launching “Flickers in Time: The Lockdown Edition” with this beloved classic.  It’s a ble... Read full article

Bridging Old Hollywood and New: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)

By The Lady Eve on Oct 17, 2019 From Lady Eve's Reel Life

This post is my entry for the Classic Movie Blog Association's Fall 2019 Blogathon. This year we're honoring the CMBA's 10th anniversary with "The Anniversary Blogathon" and participating member bloggers are celebrating all manner of classic film and classic film-related anniversaries. Click here fo... Read full article

Review: Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid (1969)

By 4 Star Film Fan on Oct 3, 2017 From 4 Star Films

Despite my general reluctance to say that the Western in its classical form was on the way out, it’s hard not to make such an assertion looking at the landscape of the late 1960s. The Wild Bunch is a common marker of the seismic shift leading to the complete obliteration of the classic western... Read full article

Review: Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid (1969)

By 4 Star Film Fan on Oct 3, 2017 From 4 Star Films

Despite my general reluctance to say that the Western in its classical form was on the way out, it’s hard not to make such an assertion looking at the landscape of the late 1960s. The Wild Bunch is a common marker of the seismic shift leading to the complete obliteration of the classic western... Read full article

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969, George Roy Hill)

By Andrew Wickliffe on Jun 27, 2016 From The Stop Button

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid opens with a sepia-toned silent film newsreel. It’s exposition, but also contrast. The silent images of a daring train robbery distract from reading the film’s accompanying opening titles. When the film itself starts, it’s just as sepia-toned. Onl... Read full article

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Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid Quotes:

[Butch is robbing Woodcock's train for the second time]
Butch Cassidy: You can't want to get blown up again.
Woodcock: Butch, you know that if it were my money, there is nobody that I would rather have steal it than you. But, you see, I am still in the employment of E. H. Harriman of the Union Pacific Railroad!
[first lines]
Butch Cassidy: What happened to the old bank? It was beautiful.
Guard: People kept robbing it.
Butch Cassidy: Small price to pay for beauty.
Butch Cassidy: [to Sundance] Kid, the next time I say, "Let's go someplace like Bolivia," let's GO someplace like Bolivia.
Bike Salesman: [wheeling bicycle onto stage] Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls... meet... the future!
Butch Cassidy: I swear, if Sweetface told me that I rode out of town ten minutes ago, I'd believe him.
See More Quotes from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid Facts
Paul Newman did his own bicycle stunts, after his stunt man was unable to stay on the bike, except for the scene where Butch crashes backwards into the fence, which was performed by cinematographer Conrad L. Hall.
This movie was filmed roughly the same time as Hello, Dolly!, on the sound stage next door. Director George Roy Hill believed that the studio would allow him to film the New York scenes on "Dolly's" sets, since the two films' daily shooting schedules were totally different. After production started, though, the studio informed him that it wanted to keep the sets for "Dolly" a secret and so refused him permission. To work around this, Hill had Robert Redford, Paul Newman and Katharine Ross simply pose on the sets and took photos of them. He then inserted images of the three stars into a series of 300 actual period photos and spliced the two different sets (real and posed) together to form the New York montage.
The climactic gun battle at the end of the movie was historically inaccurate. There were only a few uniformed police officers/officials present during the shootout (the rural town of San Vicente in southern Bolivia, where Cassidy and Sundance were supposedly killed, was a very small place back in November 1908, and didn't have many police officers). Plus, there were only three Bolivian soldiers who actually took part in the fight alongside the local police, not the hundreds shown in the film. In addition, the casualty count among the Bolivian policemen was nowhere near as enormous as shown (only one soldier and one police official were actually killed, plus another soldier and an unknown number of policemen and some local posse members were wounded), and most of the gun battle took place in the evening and at night, not in broad daylight as shown in the movie. These were the main reasons why the Bolivian government at first banned the film from being shown in that country.
The now-famous leap off the cliff to elude capture was done earlier by Tyrone Power as Jesse James in the 1939 film Jesse James.
The filmmakers tried to get Bob Dylan to sing Burt Bacharach's famous song for the movie. He declined.
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