Train of Thought Movie Club #1: 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid'
The Train of Thought Movie Club is a series about movies I love or admire: some great, some bad, some so bad they’re great. Each film will somehow be linked to the previous movie, like a cast or crew member in common, a similar theme, or just something that puts the two movies in the same sentence.
“Who are those guys?” // 20TH CENTURY FOX
Released: 1969
Directed by: George Roy Hill, who directed great films but never got the name recognition he deserved.
Written by: the legendary William Goldman, who wrote this movie as a passion project and then had trouble selling the script because it featured the hero outlaws running away. No one apparently cared that it’s what really happened.
Starring: world-class double threats (i.e. actors/hunks) Paul Newman and Robert Redford in the title roles, and the wonderfully quiet Katharine Ross as Sundance’s lady-love, Etta the “schoolteacher.” (In real life she was most likely a prostitute. Ah, the Old West!).
My synopsis
Two bandits, beloved by everyone they meet (including the sheriffs who arrest them), are chased by a posse of lawmen after robbing one too many trains. They use their weapons of humor, optimism, and sharpshooting to evade their pursuers, while coming to terms with their identities and fates.
My Take: A Thoroughly Modern Movie
“Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” is the first buddy comedy and is, as it’s been called, a neo-western, because it subverts the genre’s normal tropes and styles. Despite being released 51 years ago, it feels far removed from the westerns of the ‘60s, with their shadowy camera angles, dramatic pauses, and self-importance. In fact, it paved the way for the pacing and humor-mixed-with-violence of modern action-adventure movies. It’s the epitome of “rooting for the bad guys,” especially because the “bad” guys are actually very nice guys. It’s about friendship, survival, and loyalty, and not at all about good versus bad, taking no stance on either side’s ethos. It also has three-dimensional side characters, and wonderful dialogue. Take Sundance’s first line in the movie, delivered with legendary levels of dry wit:
Macon: [playing poker] Well, it looks like you just about cleaned everybody, fella– you haven't lost a hand since you got the deal. What's the secret of your success?
The Sundance Kid: Prayer.
Or Butch’s amused disdain for Sundance:
The Sundance Kid: [to his girlfriend Etta, about her fleeing to Bolivia with them] What I'm saying is, if you want to go, I won't stop you. But the minute you start to whine or make a nuisance, I don't care where we are, I'm dumping you flat.
Butch Cassidy: Don't sugarcoat it like that, Kid. Tell her straight.
One of my favorite parts of this film’s visual world is that the viewer never gets a closeup of the group that’s after them. They remain a tireless, faceless enemy, acting as a symbol for something more threatening than a hired posse, and more difficult to evade than a Native American tracker: the past. Butch and Sundance’s crimes and disregard for the rules have finally come calling, demanding repayment with their lives. As the sheriff says, “all [they] can do is choose where.”
Why you should watch it
Everyone should see this movie, especially if you think you won’t like it. It’s the western for people who don’t like westerns.
The first act is a particularly stellar master class of in media res exposition, giving you information gradually without you realizing it (i.e. showing, not telling), developing characters’ relationships to each other and their values, and providing lots of great closeups of Paul Newman. Truly a gift.
Why I picked it
This is the first entry in the Train of Thought Movie Club, which means it doesn’t need a reason to be here! Other than having a pretty much perfect screenplay, I picked it because of my personal history with it. It is one of the first “important films” I ever saw, before I was into watching so-called “classic” movies. I watched “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” by myself one evening, the summer before my senior year of college, when I knew and cared nothing about the film industry. (I still know nothing about it, but I care a lot more.)
The movie stuck with me because it was one of the first times I discovered that movies that are critically acclaimed, widely written about, made before I was born, etc., are that famous for a reason: they are good movies. Movies are made as entertainment, so why am I so surprised when a legendary old movie is... entertaining?
20TH CENTURY FOX
Side note: I’ve never learned my lesson, and I continue to have this ageist reaction when “important films” thrill me and keep my attention: “Citizen Kane,” “It’s a Wonderful Life,” “The Philadelphia Story,” “Lawrence of Arabia,” “All The President’s Men,” and “Chinatown” had me rapt and invested, without my having any substantial knowledge of directing, lighting, editing, and cinematography. These movies (and countless others) don’t require anything from you but a love of stories, and that’s the point.
If you haven’t seen all of those, I recommend them all. AFI’s “100 Years… 100 Movies” list is a great place to start if you need ideas! I haven’t seen nearly all of them, and there are a few on the list that I personally found unenjoyable (looking at you, “The Deer Hunter”) but I certainly wouldn’t argue the greatness of their storytelling.
Up Next
I recently listened to a fun episode of The Ringer’s (excellent) “The Rewatchables” podcast, on which Aaron Sorkin guested and chose ‘Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid’ for discussion. On it, he confirmed the rumor that this movie first made him want to be a screenwriter. So the next movie in the series will be one whose screenplay Goldman effectively brought into existence.
Any guesses? Find out when we come back!
Oh and By The Way
If you haven’t read William Goldman’s novel “The Princess Bride,” DO! His insistence on having fun with the rules of writing and fiction is inspiring. He structures the book as if “The Princess Bride” is an old work of historical fantasy written by another writer many years ago, and Goldman is now abridging the ‘original text’ to make it more palatable to younger, more modern audiences. But really, it’s all him, making the whole thing up. It stands apart from the (equally amazing) film, and is so hard to describe because of how wonderful it is. After the movie came out, he wrote extra chapters about making the film ‘on location’ in Florin, which in the universe of Goldman’s “The Princess Bride,” is a real kingdom that the unabridged version is set in. (It will make sense when you read it, I promise.)