The film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, is a riveting, action filled, western adventure that follows the acts of two outlaws and their hole-in-the-wall gang. Butch Cassidy (Paul Newman) and Sundance (Robert Redford) are two people based out of partial truth who in the late 1890s and early 1900s were successful train and bank robbers in the west. When urbanization takes hold of the American West, and a highly skilled posse of trackers are hired to hunt them down, they are forced to flee south for Bolivia. In this Spanish territory Butch and Sundance continue to rob banks which, inevitably brings them to a intense shootout with the Bolivian police. This movie is one that contains some above average acting, a few laughs, and several instances of fantastic cinematography. Much of the time this film is hailed by critics to be one of the greatest westerns of its time, though personally I found this movie to be great for what it strives to be, but it is not without its flaws. Under the direction of George Roy Hill and cinematographer Conrad L. Hall, this movie was rendered into a symphony of colors, brilliant acting, and top notch story telling.
This movie was able to capture the essence of its time perfectly, and successfully utilized all of the tools necessary to create free flowing scenes and shots that contributed to the movie's elegance. What I found most incredible was the constant changes in lighting, mood, and texture that keeps the viewer conscious of its beauty. For example, when Butch and Sundance return home after being chased by a group of unknown pursuers, a very distinctive scene takes place. As Sundance hugs his lover Etta, the lighting of both the brown house and blue outside contrast. What is also interesting is that both are standing in the light and Sundance is wearing brown in the blue light while Etta is wearing blue in the brown coloring of the house; possibly suggesting their romantic connection. Simultaneously we see Butch in the house looking out from the window. I believe that the use of juxtaposition was meant to symbolize how butch feels about Sundance and Etta's relationship. It is fairly evident throughout the move that Butch has feeling for Etta but cannot act on them due to Sundance's involvement with her. All of the variables and elements used in this scene are a textbook example of how a very unique and stunningly beautiful mise-en-scene is created.
A very distinct transition is used when Butch, Sundance, and Etta leave their home for Bolivia. Just before they get on their horse drawn carriage to take their journey south, Butch grabs hold of the bicycle leaning against the house and pushes it away from him. Butch subsequently yells, "The future's all yours, you lousy bicycle." We watch as the bicycle falls and splashes in to a stream, and the trio trots away. The camera then cuts back to the forward half of the bicycle while the front wheel turns along with the flow of the stream. As we view this, the coloring of the camera slowly changes from the normal color scale to sepia to hint at both a transition of the story and to a montage. This form of editing is not very prevalent. It is almost like a fade-in or fade-out, though not in its usual sense. Rather it fades away from the traditional color scale to hint at a transition from the main story to their travel and then finally to Bolivia where it changes a final time. In essence this fade-in/fade-out was a ingenious way to create a break which lets the viewer know what to expect.
Throughout this film the colors progresses from very brown and tasteless to becoming more saturated, beautiful, and diverse with each scene. For example, when Butch and Sundance are deep into the gun fight with the Bolivian police it becomes clear that scale of saturation had gone up considerably. This becomes obvious through the official's uniforms, the landscape and blood. The blood is especially conspicuous, similar to the later scenes in the movie Taxi Driver. This over saturation of the colors is meant to represent the hope in a bleak situation for our anti-heroes.
This movie is one that is remembered for its vast landscapes, variety of rich colors, and solid acting. All of these elements of editing, setting, lighting, and cinematography collectively were able to construct an extremely alluring and suave mise-en-scene. It is true that this movie has some fairly obvious issue in its timing and in some of the superfluous scenes, but all in all the vast majority of the film proved to be worth the analysis and appreciation.
Works Cited:
Barsam, Richard, and Dave Monahan. Looking at Movies: An Introduction to Film. 4th ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 2010. Print.
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Dir. George Roy Hill. Perf. Paul Newman and Robert Redford. 1969. DVD.
"Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 19 Nov. 2014. <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064115/>.
Ebert, Roger. "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid Movie Review (1969) | Roger Ebert." All Content. N.p., 13 Oct. 1969. Web. 19 Nov. 2014. <http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/butch-cassidy-and-the-sundance-kid-1969>.
Gelton, Simon. "Westerns on the Blog." : Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969). N.p., 1 Oct. 2013. Web. 19 Nov. 2014. <http://westernsontheblog.blogspot.com/2013/10/butch-cassidy-and-sundance-kid-1969.html>.
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