Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid [Blu-ray]

Looks and sounds so good on this Blu Ray release, highly recommend if you’re a fan.

My mom took me to see this at the movie theater and I've seen it at least 5 to 6 times since. I had to buy it digitally and also own Jeremiah Johnson. Great western for all ages!

Fun start to finish

Nothing

Directed by George Roy HillStarring Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Katharine Ross110 minutesVideo:Video codec: MPEG-2Video resolution: 1080pOriginal aspect ratio: 2.35:1Audio:English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1English: Dolby Digital MonoFrench: Dolby Digital MonoSpanish: Dolby Digital MonoSubtitles: English, English SDH, Spanish, Cantonese, Korean***Spoilers within***I don't like westerns, but this isn't a traditional western.The film has a stylized look featuring photographs and a sepia tinge in many of the scenes to remind us that we are looking at an old story. I didn't care for it, but I understand why the choice was made.I remember seeing the film in the early 70s on TV. Our newspaper's film critic had a ratings system consisting of excellent, very good, good, average and poor. He invented a new rating just for this movie: marvelous. I have no idea why I remember that.The movie won four Oscars:Cinematography - Conrad L. Hall (Cool Hand Luke, American Beauty, Road to Perdition, Marathon Man)This was deserved. Some of the chase scenes were spectacular.Original Song - Burt Bacharach/Hal DavidRaindrops is certainly memorable, but I don't think it fit the feel of the movie and shouldn't have been included.Score - Burt BacharachGood overall, but could have done without raindrops and some of the music used during the montage scenes.Screenplay - William Goldman (Heat, Princess Bride, Marathon Man, Absolute Power, Misery)Thoroughly deserved. The dialogue carried the movie and Goldman knew when to shut up.I loved the movie as a child. I'm not quite sure why. I remember that my grandparents loved it too. Newman and Redford work well together and there's a lot of clever humor.Watching it as an adult who has only started to analyze films in the past three years, I noticed a few more things:It avoids most of the cliches that westerns rely on. For instance, Sundance was accused of cheating while playing cards. In every other western, there would have been a shootout with the accuser dying. In this, it's used as a plot point to show us how good Sundance is and there isn't a need for anyone to be shot.The chase scene is my favorite part of the movie. In particular, I like how sparse the dialogue is during this extended sequence. We see everything unfold and hear the horses galloping, but dialogue is only present when it has to be. It reminds me of No Country For Old Men somewhat. The sounds are a part of the story and it works well. The cinematography during this sequence is exceptional.It's surprising how little we see of the Hole in the Wall gang. We meet them and see two robberies, but that's all. It shows that Butch survived more on his wits than any ability to fight. When he's challenged, he cheats.The scene with the dynamite leads to probably the funniest line in the film.The story relies on the chemistry between Newman and Redford. We like them and root for them even though they are technically the villains. Redford in particular says a huge amount without actually opening his mouth. His expressions clearly convey what he's thinking. The friendship between the two is obvious in everything they do and say while facing their trackers. Katharine Ross also has an important role. When she's flirting with Butch, we learn more about the depth of his friendship with Sundance.The whole tracking scene is a great idea with an collection of the best lawmen available at the time. They clearly demonstrate their expertise by killing members of the Hole in the Wall gang without missing their intended target. The movie then avoids the cliche of them later missing when facing Butch and Sundance. We don't see a shootout with our heroes winning. They are up against superior odds and are lucky to get away. That was a good choice.The trip to Bolivia was quite well done too and their subsequent crime spree. I like the attention to detail. The language was a barrier and was dealt with properly. In the final scene, we are shown a real problem when Butch and Sundance run out of ammunition. Again they face overwhelming odds. On first viewing, I expected them to escape. But the choice to show what happens in the face of overwhelming odds was the correct one.The final shot was a good way to end the story and makes me think of The 400 Blows as it ends with a still.I still don't like westerns in general, but I have always liked this movie. It's carried by the charisma of two wonderful actors of the time and brings back a lot of good memories for me.The Blu-ray presentation is weak. The sepia shots look terrible and it looks like a DVD for most of the 110 minutes. The main exception is the final scene which was shot in sunlight and has better detail. A film of this quality deserves better treatment. That said, I would still buy the BD and own the best possible version of the film.The Sundance Festival was named after Robert Redford's character and he was the inaugural chairman with Katharine Ross also on the first jury in 1978.Overall 4.5/5

Very entertaining. Especially enjoyed the interviews.

Such a classic

One of the biggest films of the late sixties and into 1970, the film that made Robert Redford a superstar, one of the highlights of Paul Newman's long career, famous for its hit song and winner of four Oscars including Best Picture, there is much to recommend Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Its greatest asset is the chemistry between Newman and Redford that is what the picture is all about. The studio had wanted Newman as the Sundance Kid and had pursued Marlon Brando and Steve McQueen to play Cassidy, Newman really liked Redford's acting and insisted on him to the extent of switching roles. Newman was right.What follows is a different type of Western. For one thing despite its increasing seriousness as it develops it is essentially light, at times a comedy. You can't take everything at face value and certainly not as history. Though the basic outlines of the plot are true, this is a buddy picture more than a classic Western and that has befuddled critics ever since it came out. One of the controversies of the film, and there are a few, is that its not a "Serious" Western and does not fit into the great Western tradition. Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch, based on relatively the same material with changed names does fit in, and is done with absolute seriousness and great violence had come out earlier in 1969 to great critical acclaim. To them Butch Cassidy looked like a sanitized, overly-groomed version of the West inhabited by glamorous characters.The public decided to ignore the critics this time and made it phenomenally popular far beyond the box office of Westerns into the stratosphere of its day. The film fall into three sections. The first part is a light look at the business of robbing banks and trains carrying payrolls and at times is purely comic. Things change when their famous robbery of the Union Pacific Overland Flyer leads to their relentless pursuit by a group of trackers 9representing the Pinkerton's) whose ability to follow them anywhere, always close behind becomes absolutely eerie, almost like the Black riders in The Lord of the Rings. After a photo montage trip to New York they flee to Bolivia where the remainder of the film becomes very serious. even then, the buoyancy of the two leads keeps the buddy movie atmosphere going and never allows it to feel truly grim. Throughout their ups and downs, Katherine Ross (recently in The Graduate) as Etta Place, Sundance's girlfriend, is able to hold her own with Newman and Redford.The Academy Award song, Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head, and score by Burt Bacharach and Hal David was one of the movie's supreme delights at the time but since then has also become controversial. At the time it was a daring experiment to use a pop song in a film, especially when it would be anachronistic. After all this was a Western set around 1898 to 1908 not exactly a Bacharach era. But for the public it worked, however odd it seems today, and they made it a very major hit. If you can give it a chance, it works in its way in this whimsical scene, early in the film. Just remember the raindrops are metaphorical as some people complain that it's not raining in the scene. The only thing I find odd is that it's between Newman and Ross and not Redford and Ross.Some people have objected to the robbers, and these guys are robbing the payrolls of hard working people, being portrayed as virtual heroes. But this is a film from the Late Sixties, a time of great change and unrest, and a time when antiheroes were popular and it was hip to have outlaws and those outside the system as heroes. The movie is light enough that you really don't need to take issues like that too seriously. The movie is about the end of the Old Wild West as the twentieth century dawns and the end of guys like Butch and Sundance. It's beautifully acted, full of spirit and worth seeing.

Great movie is a classic

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid é um filme americano de 1969 dirigido por George Roy Hill e escrito por William Goldman. Baseado vagamente em fatos, o filme conta a história dos bandidos do Velho Oeste Robert LeRoy Parker, conhecido como Butch Cassidy (Paul Newman), e seu parceiro Harry Longabaugh, o "Sundance Kid" (Robert Redford), que estão fugindo de um grupo de crack dos EUA após uma série de assaltos de trem. A dupla e a amante de Sundance, Etta Place (Katharine Ross), fogem para a Bolívia para escapar do pelotão.

Very good western.

Excelente película siendo un excelente producto

I must say I was pleased by the audio amd video quality of this blu ray. It is Pristine. Also the movie packs a western classic action movie punch thar will impact u for a long time. Got it for a deal at Rs. 370 on amazon. Brilliant movie.