Released: September 1969

Directed by: George Roy Hill

Cast: Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Katharine Ross, Strother Martin, Henry Jones, Jeff Corey, George Furth, Cloris Leachman, Ted Cassidy, Kenneth Mars, Donnelly Rhodes, Timothy Scott, and Charles Dierkop as Flat Nose Curry.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, the iconic western from 1969, contains many classic scenes and characters. The knife fight between Butch (Paul Newman) and Harvey Logan (Ted Cassidy), ‘Rain Drops Keep Fallin’ on My Head’, Woodcock (George Furth) who works for E.H. Harriman, ‘Think you used enough dynamite there Butch?’, ‘I can’t swim.’, the New York montage, the Bolivian bank robbery montage, ‘You’ve got to be colorful’, and the showdown with the Bolivian Army. But what resides between, ‘…dynamite there Butch’ and ‘I can’t swim’, and comprises the middle of the film, is the Super Posse.

Throughout the history of the motion picture there have been chases. Car chases being the most obvious, Bullitt (1968), Vanishing Point (1971), Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry (1974), Ronin (1998), various car chases in the 007 movies, and that Fast and Furious stuff. There’s an insane bus vs. train chase in Alfred Hitchcock’s Number 17 (1933), Buster Keaton vs. cops, Buster Keaton vs. potential brides, and of course the Keystone Cops. Then there is pursuit.

The art of the pursuit is something different. The conflict is not going to be resolved in a single action scene. There are lulls, but the threat is always there.

Butch and the Sundance Kid (Robert Redford) are determined to hold up the Union Pacific Flyer. Only on this occasion our heroes have held it up one time too many. Inciting the wrath of Mr. E. H. Harriman, President of the Union Pacific Railroad. Butch and Sundance don’t even have time to collect their loot, when the Super Posse arrives, scattering the Hole in the Wall gang. However, the posse’s focus is on Butch and Sundance.

What makes this section of the film so effective is in part how it was filmed. Using long, up to 500mm lenses, the posse is filmed from great distances, through heat distortion and dust. Making the posse a faceless, soft focus entity that can’t be shaken. At one point, Butch and Sundance are able to figure out the leaders of the posse are lawman Joe Lefors and enigmatic Indian tracker Lord Baltimore. Lefors wearing a recognizable white straw hat and Lord Baltimore, to me anyway, conjures up the image of an eccentric aristocratic character who wears a fine suit of clothes and a bowler hat. Odd imagery for such a great threat, and the only identity the posse is given.

When Butch and Sundance appear to be in the clear, and the posse is nowhere in sight, their skepticism is enough to keep the menace alive. We are shown vast landscapes, and we know they are out there. Somewhere.

The most effective use of the long lens comes at night. Butch and Sundance are high up on some rocks taking a breather. Their brief conversation is cut short by a flicker of light far in the distance. It’s an eerie effect, with a reverse impact. Butch and Sundance, while they are protected by darkness, can see the posse. And the posse is still coming on, unstoppable like a nightmarish specter identifiable only by the glow of lanterns.

Credit Cinematographer Conrad Hall for the effect of this sequence. He manipulates distance in a way that shouldn’t make sense. The threat is brought closer using long lenses, yet they still feel very far away. Tracking skills notwithstanding, you’d think Butch and Sundance should be able to get away. But they never seem to be able to gain any ground.

Inevitably the posse closes in, and with-it desperation. Not only with physical action, but the pace of the editing and rapidity of the dialogue. The posse, as they take position, are literally on top of Butch and Sundance, yet they are still distant and enigmatic.

Conrad Hall won an Oscar for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. As someone who has some experience with photography, I find this film has a singular look for a western that turns classic traditions on their side. This is in keeping with its overall modern aesthetic of the film.

It could be said Sergio Leone reinvented the western. However, director George Roy Hill added his own twist without imitating Mr. Leone.

The themes of ‘civilization’ overtaking the west is handled in a more obvious fashion. But the idea of ‘fun loving’ outlaws, who out of necessity have gone straight to escape capture, are forced to kill for the first time. It contradicts the typical old west legend of the outlaw. How many films have portrayed the outlaw as cold-blooded killers? Butch and Sundance are portrayed as lovable rogues forced to do the worst to do what’s right. The transition is less than subtle, and the beginning of their downfall.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is more than just a fun, modern western. There is a little bit more going on here than just wild west shootouts. In 1969 it was a completely new take on the western that still holds up today. Keeping it singular in the western genre.

The Super Posse sequence is still my favorite part of the film, thanks to the brilliant Conrad Hall cinematography. The whole look of the film is special. I wish films today could look this good. Instead, they look digitally artificial, and way too clean. I hope aspiring filmmakers and cinematographers can look at this film in admiration and think about the people who put it all together and seek to find out, ‘Who are those guys?’

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is available for rent or purchase on various streaming services. Also available on DVD and Blu Ray.