The Cavalier daily :: Friday, October 17, 1969 :: University of Virginia Library

One of the problems that faces
today's film makers is how to treat
stock material such that the
finished product is more than just a
carbon copy of the myriad of
pictures on the same theme that
preceded it. New approaches must
be taken and new techniques must
be tried, especially when dealing
with criminal melodramas and
westerns, if there is to be even a
trace of originality in the film

In recent years, humor has
become a popular means of attaining
this originality. The humor can
be of the blatant variety, which has
been used in films like "Ca
Balloo" to create an outright
spoof. Or it can be of the more
subtle, introspective species, which
Arthur Penn used in "Bonnie and
Clyde" and which George Roy Hill
employs in "Butch Cassidy and the
Sundance Kid."

Like Bonnie and Clyde, Butch
and the Kid are true-to-life characters.
Butch formed a famous band
of bank robbers that terrorized the
west in the beginning of the
century. When the law started to
close in on the pair, they, along
with a schoolteacher named Etta
Place, headed south to Bolivia,
where they re-established their
profitable profession. Nevertheless,
Butch and the Kid were ultimately
killed, leaving behind them a legend
that would someday make a good
movie.

Director Hill and author William
Goldman have not altered history
in any way. The first thing we are
told is that most of the film is
factual. What they have done is
make the characters human and
extremely likeable. Butch and the
Kid are not portrayed as vicious
outlaws, but rather as two men
going about making a living. The
humor comes from the fact that
they aren't prototypes; they are
different from the archetypal movie
bandits of the old west. Something
goes wrong with almost every plan
they conjure up; theirs is hardly a
smooth-running operation. The
lines they say are funny simply
because we don't expect to find
such uninhibited dialogue in a
Western. Neither of the two protagonists
has the nature of a hero or
anti-hero; both are non-heroes. This
is the twist that gives the film its
distinction.

Poignant Scenes

Yet there is more. Strategically
placed throughout the movie are
two or three poignant scenes that
set off the humor perfectly. In one
of these, Butch places Etta on the
handlebars of his bicycle and the
pair pedal through the countryside
as a chorus sings Burt Bacharach's
newest song (a dandy called "Raindrops
Keep Fallin' On My Head")
in the background. It is a beautiful,
even memorable sequence that
creates a mood of peace, serenity,
and love. It ends abruptly and
much too soon with a laugh, but
it's wonderful while it lasts.

Mr. Goldman has written his
screenplay with a considerable
amount of wit. At least seventy per
cent of the gags come off. The
failure of those that don't can most
often be attributed to faulty
delivery. The sudden changes of
mood (from humor to poignancy
and vice-versa) create sort of a
pleasant incongruity that in less
talented hands would be the film's
downfall, but in Mr. Goldman's is
one of its charms.

Little Emotion

I do, however, deeply regret that
he did not pay a bit more attention
to the relationship of the three
primary characters. It seems at
times as if they take one another
for granted. For instance, there is
very little show of emotion when,
near the film's end, Etta announces
that she is going to leave her
cohorts in Bolivia and head back to
the States. It should be a moving
moment because her reason for
leaving is that she senses their
deaths are near and she doesn't
want to see them destroyed. Yet
the scene, haphazardly pieced into
the proceedings, does not convey to
us the significance of her departure
to Butch and the Kid. They
continue, just as before, until they
meet their deaths, another event
that does not have the dramatic
impact that it should.

It is strange that this lack of
emotion exists inasmuch as each of
the principals puts his character
across splendidly. Paul Newman has
never been more personable than he
is as Butch. It is a role which he
obviously enjoyed playing and in
which he excels. He does not take
the character seriously and, therefore,
most everything he says
sounds like a put-on. As a result,
Butch Cassidy comes to life maybe
not as the smartest bank robber of
all-time, but certainly as the most
amiable.

Complimenting him at every
turn, Robert Redford as his sidekick
plays it straight most of the
time, effectively all of the time. He's
the fast gun to Butch's fast brains,
the foll who takes their work more
seriously. During the overlong
"chase" scene in the half of
the movie, it is the verbal rapport
between the two that alone carries
the weakest segment.

As their mutual girl, Katharine
Ross (still better known as The
Graduate's Girlfriend) looks lovelier
than ever. Especially winning in the
bicycle scene, she is a teacher who
seeks more meaning and excitement
out of life than can be found in a
stuffy schoolhouse. How Butch and
the Kid can take her for granted
and then let her go is beyond
reason, in fact it is downright
incredulous!

It's a talented group of people
that have combined to make
"Butch Cassidy and The Sundance
Kid." Their film won't win them
any awards (except hopefully in the
case of Mr. Bacharach, who is long
overdue for a best song Oscar), but
it will please many people. Its
success is not as emphatic as it
might have been, but it is, nevertheless,
distinctive, different, and,
most important, fun.