Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid: 

A Movie Review

      Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is a retelling of the tale of the outlaws Butch Cassidy (Paul Newman) and The Sundance Kid (Robert Redford) (as if that wasn't obvious by the title). But this review is not geared towards the story of the film (no major spoilers here, you want to know the story go watch the movie). This review is geared more towards behind the scenes elements such as camera work and coloring. As such this movie is awash with great camera work and the color use is top notch. A particularly effective bit with the camera is in the beginning of the movie, after the second robbing of the "Flyer" (the train Butch and Sundance rob coming both ways in the beginning of the movie), with the antagonists being "revealed." Which is made far more interesting since we view the movie through the perspective of the outlaws, rather than the heroes which in the context of the time, the antagonists of the movie would be the heroes in any other telling of the tale of these outlaws? Where this on its own wouldn't mean too much on its own, this film is quite different as instead of developing those characters, or even showing them for the audience to see them, the Cinematographer Conrad L. Hall in coordination with Director George Roy Hill made it so the audience never sees them, the only establishing connections the audience gets are through the chasing horses, and the hat of one of them. Along with this, the antagonists were never shot close to the camera or even at a distinguishable distance, always acting as a foreboding presence in the distance. Also each outdoor shot whilst Butch and Sundance flee from the antagonists is very stark and bleak, with many shots obtained with a boom from above them to symbolize how helpless they were in that situation. while when they get to Bolivia about halfway in, every exterior in Bolivia is very vibrant and colorful, with every interior being dark and dull, symbolizing their choices, with banks being a path of darkness, and the outside being a potential hope for salvation. Also, any scene where Etta is helping them is lit very dark, even darker than the banks, as she is basically setting Butch and Sundance up to repeat what they did before going to Bolivia. On top of that before the end of the movie, Etta mentions that she won’t be there to see them die, and leaves right before the final scenes, signifying the obvious conclusion we as the audience would come up with. Also, throughout the chase scenes the camera work is phenomenal as I mentioned earlier. A good example of what I mean is while Butch and Sundance are riding over the sand dunes early in the chase, with the camera panning, tracking, and craning to keep them in focus as they rise and fall with the height of the sand dunes, another example of how the camera is making them feel helpless as to the audience this sand dune portion seems flat, while Butch and Sundance keep dipping into the valleys in between dunes. Also, they chose a brilliant way to transition events with the use of the sepia color and using real photographs of the duo, adding another layer of depth to the film as this happens twice, once as the opening of the film (however the opening of the film includes a filmed bit in the sepia, but that was intended to introduce Butch and Sundance to the audience) and once depicting their travel to Bolivia. These work even better with the context of the story as the opening would be hard to work with if they introduced the duo and what they have done fully, and the travel to Bolivia would be more or less dead time in comparison to the pacing of the rest of the movie. My praise is quite similar to most critics and reviewers, along with the general public at the time, as the film has won several awards since its release in 1969, along with a box office revenue of $102,308,889. With this review done, I urge you to go watch this movie if you have not already, as this is a really great movie, and I will see you with my next review, Good Bye

-Conner Baker

-Sources Referenced

File:Butch sundance poster.jpg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Oct. 2013. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Butch_sundance_poster.jpg>

Prince, Stephen. Movies and meaning: an introduction to film. Sixth Edition ed. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2004. Print

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Dir. George Roy Hill. Perf. Paul Newman, Robert Redford. 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, 1969. Film.

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