Two roaming bandits reject modernity and hold on tight to their saddles — they would never flee their foes on something as newfangled as a bicycle. Adapted (loosely) from true events, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was shot and released the same year as the moon landing, an occurrence that would have thoroughly shaken the film’s protagonists. As the 20th century dawns over Wyoming, Butch Cassidy (Paul Newman, cool and blue-eyed) and the “Sundance Kid” (Robert Redford, warm-blooded and flaxen-haired) attempt to escape the aftermath of a messy train robbery sparked by the twosome’s growing irrelevance after Butch is ousted as leader of their gang. Newman and Redford’s cumulative star power is as bright as the sun; they are as beautiful as they are effective as the best of friends. (The actors would reunite with director George Roy Hill in 1973’s megahit The Sting.) However, their brilliance is not solely responsible for the film’s success: Butch Cassidy was scripted with great care by novelist-turned-first-time-screenwriter William Goldman (Marathon Man, The Princess Bride). Goldman’s all-consuming, years-long obsession with the life and times of the real-life bandits paid off; his airtight script, stuffed with zingers and full of pathos, won the Academy Award and launched a career as Hollywood’s screenwriting It Boy for most of the freewheeling 1970s. 

35mm from Criterion Pictures USA

Preceded by: “Lonesome Cowboy” (Toney W. Merritt, 1979) – 0.5 min – 16mm from Canyon Cinema