Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid: How Can Anyone Resist Redford AND Newman?

The Coen brother's movie Fargo begins with the statement that it is based on a true story, but it was not. This movie begins with the promise that "Most of what follows is true." It delivers on that statement. The sepia tone film clips that begin the movie showing old Hollywood scenes about the lives of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid only give a flavor of what is to follow. The legend of these two bank robbers is bigger than life.

As the film begins in earnest, first Paul Newman and then Robert Redford make their appearances in shadowy sepia tones - Newman in a bank, and Redford at a card table. The movie begins, therefore, with a deceptively sombre feeling. That feeling, however, quickly fades into one of the most intelligently funny movies to ever come out of Hollywood. Redford plays the Sundance Kid - a talented gunslinger capable of shooting the holsters off a man's belt before the man can draw. Newman plays Butch Cassidy, the leader of the Hole in the Wall Gang.

The first real color in the movie appears as the two are out on horseback. The sky lightens from orange, into a soft blue. There is a realization of what was missing before. Sepia tone is always a bit deceptive. It doesn't feel like black and white, and yet it's obvious that something is missing. It's only when the color appears you know what it is. The two men ride beneath the technicolor Wyoming sky into the Hole In the Wall. When they get back to their hideout there, however, Butch faces a challenge for the gang's leadership from one of its heavies.

After their gang's second train robbery (they hit the same train on its inbound and outbound routes) they find themselves on the run. The rest of the gang fall away That situation continues for the rest of the movie.

This movie introduced us to the marvelous chemistry of Redford and Newman. They are at once intelligent, funny, and self-deprecating.

The music in the movie varies from a subtle underscore to the entirely out of place sounding B.J. Thomas's Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head.

The movie follows the two outlaws as they head east from Wyoming, and jump a ship to South America. There, they live on their money until that gets scarce and then return to their outlaw ways. Unfortunately, in Bolivia, they make the mistake of robbing a bank too close to where there are lawmen. In the movie, they are gunned down and killed there. In real life....well, that's part of the mystery. Some people believe they made it out alive and returned to the U.S. Some people believe that they died that day at their own hands rather than be taken in.

This movie is wonderfully funny and charming. It's clear why after this movie Hollywood made more buddy films. From beginning to end, this movie is top-notch.