STACK #179 Sept 2019

EXTRAS FEATURE

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ButchCassidy andthe SundanceKid Directed by George Roy Hill 1969

Paul Newman as Butch, Robert Redford as Sundance, and Katharine Ross as Etta Place. One of stills shot on the Hello, Dolly! set

Century Fox for a record $400,000. Zanuck wanted two superstars for the lead roles and offered the Sundance Kid character to Paul Newman. Both tentatively agreed, and it was this package which was then offered Butch part to Steve McQueen and the

Fact: Film director John Boorman was a stern critic of the film, claiming that its success had begun the decline of the western genre

B utch Cassidy and western but more a modern “buddy film” with a western theme. It has no real discernible plot beyond a series of entertaining serio- comic vignettes basically intended to demonstrate the easy charm of its two wisecracking protagonists The significance of the movie, however, lies primarily in its phenomenal commercial success. It received a slew of mixed reviews following the Sundance Kid is not a conventional

1902, Cassidy’s feared gang stole from banks, railroads and mining companies. Realising that the new 20th century banks and trains were becoming progressively harder to rob, as well as being relentlessly pursued by the Pinkerton Detective Agency, both Butch and Sundance took off for what they thought were easier pickings in Bolivia, South America. According to legend, they swiftly gained a reputation as “Bandidos Yanqui” before fate finally caught up with

to George Roy Hill, a relatively new director best known for his two movies starring Julie Andrews – Hawaii (1966) and Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967). Hill however, had different ideas about the casting – he saw Newman, not McQueen, as Butch. Newman told him he could not play comedy and Hill countered with, “Butch is not a comic part, he’s a straight guy in sometimes comic situations”. Once McQueen learned Newman was considering playing Butch, and that no matter what part he played, Newman would demand top billing, McQueen bowed out of the project. Hill suggested the then practically unknown actor Robert Redford as Sundance, after having seen him handle comedic situations in the Broadway play Sunday in New York. There followed months of haggling with Zanuck over the casting of Sundance until he finally

its initial release, but somehow, its good- humoured cynicism caught the mood of late 1960s America and totally captivated filmgoers – even attracting those who did not like westerns. The film is loosely based on the historical escapades of the Wild Bunch, an outlaw gang led by Butch Cassidy (real name Robert Leroy Parker) and his quick-draw partner the Sundance Kid (real name Harry Longabaugh)

them in 1908, when both were ambushed and shot dead by soldiers of the Bolivian army. The screenplay was the brainchild of writer William Goldman, who became fascinated with the various accounts of the lives and legends of the two leaders of the Wild Bunch. He spent a number of years researching the two bandits and deliberately wrote their story as a parody on the passing of an individualistic way of life. He sold it to Richard Zanuck, the head of 20th

relented, after Newman interjected that he too wanted Redford for the part. Once filming began in Zion National Park, Utah, any reservations Zanuck had about Redford soon evaporated. Hill was right – Redford was a perfect fit for the Sundance Kid. The movie's opening scenes immediately establish the bromance between the witty affable Butch and the serious Sundance. Butch would prefer to rob banks because, unlike trains “they don’t move”. But tougher security in the banks forces him and his gang to hold-up trains. They plan to rob the Union Pacific Flyer twice – once going and again on the return

– the last of the infamous outlaws of the Old West. The gang operated out of the Hole-in-the-Wall, a remote pass in the Big Horn Mountains of Johnson County, Wyoming, which proved an ideal hiding place for men with prices on their heads. Between 1889 and DID YOU KNOW?: The more commonly used name for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’s gang was The Wild Bunch. However, when Sam Peckinpah’s western The Wild Bunch (1969) was released a few months earlier, the name of the gang was changed to The-Hole-in-the-Wall Gang to avoid confusion with the movie.

The original Wild Bunch: Butch Cassidy - Front row right. The Sundance Kid - Front row left.

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