Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
AFI Rank: #50Year Released: 1969
Director: George Roy Hill
Actors: Paul Newman, Robert Redford
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid might not seem like a movie to end up on the AFI top 100, never mind plunk in the middle at #50. Starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford, we skip right over the hey dey of the group and dive right into when they are on the run. Butch and Sundance are rousted during a train robbery and soon a group of lawmen are on their heels. They're both in love with the same woman, Etta Place, so they grab her up and run down to Bolivia.
The scene with them bicycling around to "Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head" is a little hokey, but it helps to get across the idea that these gun slingers can be sweet in their off time and that they really do care about the girl. The "ba ba da" singing during a horse chase scene is a little more silly. I could have done without some of that music.
I love how things begin in "brown and white" - as if we're watching an ancient photograph - and then they slowly ease into a more lush view of the landscapes. This is an old story, but it's a real story, in landscapes we can visit today. Etta Place was a real woman that both men did care for.
Etta makes a sad proclamation before she heads off with the outlaws. "I'm 26, and I'm single, and a school teacher, and that's the bottom of the pit." Even though this is the early 1900s, it's still thought that a woman who turns 26 is beyond hope if she's not married.
Of course, we know things didn't turn out well for this dynamic duo, but it's like watching Romeo and Juliet - the beauty is in watching the relationships unfold, the interplay between the characters, their tragic descent that is completely of their own making.
Well recommended.
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Male vs Female Actors
There's only one real female in this, Etta, but she is on fairly equal footing with the two guys, so that's fairly good.
The Bechdel Test
Since there's only one female that seems to be named in the movie, the movie doesn't pass even the first criteria. I'm not sure the other prostitute is given a name. Even if she has one, she never talks to Etta.
AFI Top 100 Film Listing
Male vs Female Actors in the AFI Top 100
The Bechdel Test in the AFI Top 100