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THE END OF THE WILD WEST Paul Newman, enamoured of the script, snapped it up
Butch Cassidy and the
Sundance Kid (1969)
Directed by George Roy Hill
Written by William Goldman
Starring Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Katherine Ross, Strother Martin, George Furth and Ted Cassidy
DVD, Rs. 499
When it was released in 1969, the critics panned it, but the audiences loved it. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid grossed over $100 million, making it one of the most successful films of the cowboy genre.
The film was first planned with Dustin Hoffman and Steve McQueen for the lead roles. However, Paul Newman, enamoured of the script, was ready to fork out $200,000 to share half the expenses in getting it. He also was keen on the role of the Sundance Kid and initially the movie was to be titled The Sundance Kid and Butch Cassidy. However things changed considerably and the movie was re-titled Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid with Newman playing the part of Cassidy and Robert Redford cast as the slick gunslinger Sundance Kid.
Butch and Sundance are the lynchpins of the notorious Hole in the Wall Gang. The outlaws begin small with rustling cattle and progress to the more lucrative train robbery.
Butch, the brain of the gang, faces a leadership revolt early in the movie, which he handles adeptly with some quick thinking. Harvey Logan, built like a skyscraper, wants to take over the leadership but Butch sneaks in an early kick to Harvey's manhood and fells him with a sharp blow to the head.
The film, which was based mostly on facts, narrates how the gang of train robbers is pursued relentlessly by a super posse engaged by the owner of the Pacific Railroad, E.H. Harriman, who is understandably peeved over the constant hold-ups to his trains.
The chase scenes run for a lengthy 27 minutes which, considering the total length of the film (110 minutes), is a bit out of proportion. However, with Butch trying every trick in the book to shake off his pursuers, it does not become wearisome to the viewer. Witty asides and repartees also help.
In real life, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid were followed by the super posse led by the reputed sheriff from Wyoming, Joe LeFors (in his trademark white straw hat), assisted by an Indian tracker with the pseudonym Lord Baltimore. The scout manages to keep on the fugitives' trail over hard rock, despite some hard night riding and even when the outlaws sit double on one horse, sending the other on a different trail.
"Who are these guys?" remarks Butch Cassidy in amazement when the trackers remain hot in their pursuit.
George Roy Hill, the director, does well to build up the reputation of the trackers in spite of keeping them faceless throughout the movie. He uses a clever bit of interpolation of sepia tones and colour managing to bring evoke the period setting. (But when the film was first screened, many in the audience groaned in despair thinking the whole film would be in sepia tone.)
One of the film's highpoints is the bicycle scene filmed on Paul Newman and Katherine Ross with B.L Thomas crooning the hit, "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head". Cassidy is clearly enamoured by the advent of the cycle and shows his deft handling of the newfangled machine. However his fascination wears off soon enough andhe dumps it when the trio (Paul Newman, Robert Redford and Katherine Ross) skip the country and hightail it to Bolivia, where the two outlaws meet their end, gunned down by half the Bolivian army.
D. RAVI SHANKAR
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