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Dom Robinson reviews

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid:
Special Edition

Distributed by

Cert:
Cat.no: 01061 DVD
Running time: 106 minutes
Year: 1969
Pressing: 2001
Region(s): 2, PAL
Chapters: 24 plus extras
Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 (Mono)
Languages: English
Subtitles: English for the hearing-impaired
Widescreen: 2.35:1
16:9-Enhanced: Yes
Macrovision: Yes
Disc Format: DVD 9
Price: £19.99
Extras: 3 Trailers, Production Notes, Making of the film, Audio commentary, 1994 Interviews, Alternate credit roll

Director:

George Roy Hill

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Great Waldo Pepper, Slap Shot, The Sting, Thoroughly Modern Millie, The World According to Garp

Producer:

John Foreman

Screenplay:

William Goldman

Music:

Burt Bacharach

Cast:

Butch Cassidy (Robert Leroy Parker): Paul Newman
The Sundance Kid (Harry Longbaugh): Robert Redford
Etta Place: Katharine Ross
Percy Garris: Strother Martin
Sheriff Steve Bledsoe: Jeff Corey
Woodcock: George Furth
Agnes: Cloris Leachman
Harvey Logan: Ted Cassidy
Macon: Donnelly Rhodes

Butch Cassidy (Paul Newman) rules the "Hole in the Wall" gang and The Sundance Kid (Robert Redford) is the fastest gun in the West, but after carrying out raids on banks and trains, with the gang themselves torn between which of the two is easier, both are getting harder and after robbing the Union Pacific railway company, its boss has hired some men to go after the pair until they're killed.

The plot of the film's a relatively simple affair with both of them vying for the attention of schoolteacher Etta Place (Katharine Ross) although she's mainly in the hands of Sundance, slightly diverting early on as Harvey Logan (Ted Cassidy) tries to take control of the gang over Butch, but in a bid to stay alive, Butch, Sundance and Etta head for Bolivia but trouble follows them at every turn.

Well, almost every turn. Maybe I've seen too many buddy action films, but in this one the action comes too few and far between with long portions of the film dragging on and on until the eventual, inevitable climax where Butch and Sundance go out in a blaze of glory, but that's not a spoiler as you know from the start that the entire gang ends up dead.

There's some humour in there too as they spark off each other but, again, there's not enough of it and it's too spaced out. Today's audiences require a more quickfire approach, if you'll pardon the pun, which means that the film hasn't aged well. Also, by today's standards, the way it ends seems rather ineffective, however much the director goes at great lengths to describe his pride at the final result.

film clip

Going down in a blaze of glory.

The film is presented in the original 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen ratio and is well-used throughout. For its age it looks very good in the main, although there are some scenes which look a little grainy in places. The average bitrate is 4.75b/s, often peaking over 7Mb/s.

The sound has been left in the original mono, which is a shame as a DD5.1 remix would really have made good of the shootout scenes. Often, when there's just dialogue, the volume needs to be turned up. During shootouts, the gunshots sound rather flat because of the lack of directional movement. The occasional Burt Bacharach track is okay though, with "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head" having been written for this movie.

The extras are the same as on the Region 1 DVD released in May last year, starting with 3 Trailers (two 60-second trailers in non-anamorphic 16:9 and one 3-minute trailer in 2.35:1 non-anamorphic widescreen), Production Notes that show the original script but for those pages shown that are too big to fit on the screen, for some reason it shows the bottom half before the top and an Alternate credit roll which covers both the opening and closing credits.

A 40-minute set of Interviews recorded in 1994 mark the 25th anniversary of the film with all three main cast members talking along with screenwriter William Goldman and composer Burt Bacharach. The Making of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid also runs for 40 minutes and, narrated by director George Roy Hill, features on-set footage and 4:3 film clips, pin-pointing certain scenes and how they were performed. It's in here that some fruity language raises the certificate of the DVD from PG, for the film, to an overall 12.

Also included is a feature-length Audio Commentary from the director, lyricist Hal David, associate producer Robert Crawford and cinematographer Conrad Hall.

There are 24 chapters to the film which is fine, the subtitles are only in English for the hard of hearing and the menus are static and silent, the latter being rather a surprise for a special edition DVD.

FILM CONTENT PICTURE QUALITY SOUND QUALITY EXTRAS
OVERALL

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2001.

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