STACK #179 Sept 2019

trip. They assume the railroad boss would never suspect that the train would be robbed twice, and figure that the train on its return run will be loaded with money. (Both robberies are based on historical fact.) In the second robbery, the gang dynamite the safe that demolishes it and the rail-carriage, which results in thousands of dollar bills fluttering in the wind. As they collect the money, a mysterious express train comes down the track and stops. A heavily armed and mounted super-posse disembarks from one of the carriages. “Whatever they’re selling,” says Butch, “I don’t want it”. After shooting down a number of the gang, the posse concentrate on pursuing Butch and Sundance. The extended chase sequence, which lasts a full half hour, is the best section of the film. It's practically silent, except for the clatter of Butch and Sundance’s horses’ hooves and the ominous thunder of the pursuing posse – continually shot at long distance. Butch’s increasingly exasperated, “Who are those guys?” is one of the many memorable punchy one-liners delivered by Newman throughout the film. They manage to keep one step ahead of their implacable pursuers until trapped on the ledge of a sheer cliff overlooking a raging river. They both jump off the cliff into the river and temporarily lose the posse. But when the law picks up their trail again, the duo and Sundance’s lady friend, Etta Place (played by DID YOU KNOW?: A prequel, Butch and Sundance: The Early Days, was released in 1979.  Alan Burns wrote the screenplay but William Goldman wrote some of the scenes, which he had wanted to include in the first film. William Katt was cast as the Sundance Kid because he resembled “a young Robert Redford” and Tom Berenger played the young Butch.

“Who are those guys?”

Blowing the train safe with too much dynamite.

nefarious activities and Etta decides to return to the US stating, “I won’t watch you die”. Now on their own, Butch and Sundance are eventually taken by surprise in a marketplace by the Bolivian army. Both badly wounded, slumped bleeding in a pueblo, Butch has a new idea: “When we get out of here, we’ll head for Australia – they speak English in Australia.” As they run outside, headlong into a hail of bullets, director Hill spares the audience the final bloodletting with a freeze-frame of our two heroes that's akin to a sepia image in an old history tome. The contemporary musical soundtrack composed by Burt Bacharach – with the

Katharine Ross), travel to New York, en-route to Bolivia where they intend to continue their illegal exploits.  For the New York sequence Hill wanted to shoot it as a live-action scene with dialogue, on the movie set of Hello, Dolly! . The Barbra Streisand musical was in production at the time on the Fox backlot but Richard Zanuck adamantly refused the request. Hill then suggested that he instead use a still camera incorporating his three actors into the Dolly

its good-humoured cynicism caught the mood of late 1960s America and totally captivated filmgoers

sets. This resulted in a stylish montage of still images with a musical accompaniment, which evoked an atmosphere of turn-of-the-century New York. When the trio arrive in Bolivia (actually shot in Mexico), they find a poor barren country and also a language barrier, as neither of them can speak Spanish. The Bolivian authorities soon catch on to their

featured song Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head – sung by B.J. Thomas, fitted perfectly with the quasi-western theme of the movie. Both music and song went on to win Academy Awards, with the film gaining two more for Best Screenplay and Best Cinematography. It gave Robert Redford his first major movie success and strengthened Paul Newman’s already impressive film career. Furthermore, the Newman-Redford team proved so popular with audiences that four years later, director George Roy Hill reprised the duo playing two 1930s Chicago con-men in The Sting (1973), which could easily have had the subtitle: “Butch and Sundance Ride Again”.

Butch and Sundance’s Hole-in-the-Wall Gang

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