--- title: "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" year: 1969 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/butch-cassidy-and-the-sundance-kid" fi1m_score: 84 critics_score: 76 critics_reviews: 14 published: "2026-09-20T05:21:15.544384+00:00" updated: "2026-09-20T05:21:15.932812+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) Directed by George Roy Hill · 1h 51m · MPA PG · Western, Crime, Drama **Fi1m score: 84** · Critics 76 from 14 reviews *In a sentence:* Two outlaws who will not stop talking, chased across a state by men who never say a word > George Roy Hill’s outlaw comedy is as easy to like as its reputation says, and Newman and Redford make it look like no work at all. It is padded in places and knows exactly how charming it is, but the chase and the ending land regardless. ## Synopsis Wyoming, at the end of the 1890s. Butch Cassidy (Paul Newman) leads the Hole-in-the-Wall gang by talking faster than anyone else in it, and the Sundance Kid (Robert Redford) backs him up by shooting faster. Butch’s leadership is challenged by the enormous Harvey Logan (Ted Cassidy), who wants a knife fight and gets a lesson about rules instead. The gang robs the Union Pacific Flyer twice, opposed both times by a stubborn clerk called Woodcock (George Furth) who will not open the mail car door. Between jobs the pair rest at the house of schoolteacher Etta Place (Katharine Ross), Sundance’s lover, while Butch talks about Bolivia. After the second robbery the railroad sends a posse that does not stop for nightfall, and the two men begin to realise it is not going home. ## Review The film opens in sepia, with a card that reads ‘Not that it matters, but most of it is true’, and that sentence tells you the tone. William Goldman’s script takes two real outlaws at the tail end of the 1890s, when the railroads had money for detectives and the West was running out of places to hide, and plays their decline as a comedy. George Roy Hill gets it done in 111 minutes. It is a good film with a few habits we could do without, and its last ten minutes are as fine as anything the genre has managed. Paul Newman plays Butch as the talker: he plans the jobs, he has never shot anyone, and he cannot pass a stranger without trying to charm him. Robert Redford’s Sundance says perhaps a third as much and does it from under a black hat. Goldman writes them as a married couple who stopped listening years ago and never stopped enjoying it. The knife fight with Ted Cassidy’s Harvey Logan, settled by a question about rules, is the best joke in the film because it is also the most honest thing Butch does. Katharine Ross, as Etta, has the hardest part and the least to work with. Her introduction, in which Sundance appears to be an intruder ordering her to undress before it turns out to be a game between lovers, played uneasily in 1969 and plays worse now. Conrad Hall photographs all of it through dust and low sun. The gang rides out of haze and the posse rides in it, so that for most of the chase the men hunting Butch and Sundance are a smudge on a ridge and a hat. Hall lets the light flare into the lens and the skies wash out to white. Edith Head puts Redford in a black hat and a corduroy jacket he wears until it is part of him, gives Newman a bowler that sits slightly wrong, and dresses Ross in high collars that make her look like the only adult in the picture. The chase is where the film stopped being merely pleasant for us. We had laughed through both train robberies, at George Furth’s Woodcock refusing to open the mail car and at the dynamite that follows, and then the posse came, and kept coming through the night, and we found ourselves as unsettled as the outlaws were. It was the silence that did it. Hill never gives the pursuers a face or a line; they are a lantern moving across a dark hillside and, by day, a rider in a white hat who does not hurry. Butch asks who those guys are, more than once, and by the second time it is not a joke. The padding is real. Burt Bacharach’s ‘Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head’ arrives over a bicycle ride round a farmyard, and for three minutes the Western turns into a Sunday-afternoon light entertainment programme. It is pleasant and it stops the film dead. Later, editors Richard C. Meyer and John C. Howard cover a long journey with a montage of sepia stills. Goldman cannot leave a scene without a curtain line, and Strother Martin’s Percy Garris gets one good tirade and then repeats it. The film’s fondness for its own charm is what kept us, at intervals, from loving it. Set beside the other outlaw Western of 1969, Sam Peckinpah’s *The Wild Bunch*, this is the sunnier account of the same fact: the century was ending and the men who lived by robbing it had no idea what to do next. Peckinpah answered with a massacre. Hill and Goldman answer with jokes, and keep them going so long that when the film finally stops making them the quiet is worse. We will not describe the ending. We will say that we knew it going in, as most people do, and that it still caught us, because of a choice Hall and the editors make in the last seconds that is the opposite of the crowd-pleasing one. Watch it with someone who has never seen it, and do not tell them. *Fi1m score 84, published 20 September 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics like it, and the ones writing decades after release like it best. The praise clusters on the Newman and Redford double act: the relaxed, straight-faced interplay between them is mentioned in nearly every review, and several call the film a buddy picture in western clothes rather than a western proper. William Goldman’s script is the next most praised element, described as witty, playful and quotable, with Conrad Hall’s photography and Burt Bacharach’s score picked out by more than one writer. The spread is wide, and it runs along a line in time. The reviews from autumn 1969 are the coolest: The New York Times finds the genre-mixing slick but empty, Roger Ebert calls it slow and over-cute, and The New Yorker thinks the facetious tone rings false. Later writers concede some tweeness, a dated soundtrack and borrowings from The Wild Bunch, but treat those as small faults in something they find thoroughly likeable. ### Reviews we read (14) - **Radio Times**, David Parkinson (5/5): Director George Roy Hill's freewheeling, Oscar-winning comic western was one of the biggest box-office hits in the genre's history. It features the unforgettable pairing of Paul Newman and Robert Redford, whose exhilarating performances turn the ruthless real-life desperados into lovable rogues and ultimately tragic heroes. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-hvb1wp/butch-cassidy-and-the-sundance-kid/) - **Empire**, Bob McCabe (90/100, inferred): The critic praises the note-perfect performances by Newman and Redford, William Goldman's playful and insightful screenplay, and the film's memorable moments like the waterfall leap and elegiac ending. They conclude it may be the most likeable film ever made, despite some twee elements and its role in popularising the buddy movie. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/butch-cassidy-sundance-kid-review/) - **Sight and Sound**, David Wilson (90/100, inferred): The film is immensely enjoyable to watch, glowingly photographed, wittily scripted, and features superbly confident performances from Paul Newman and Robert Redford. It plays as a buddy movie more than a traditional western, with a playful tone and relaxed double act from the leads. [Read](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/1629a1be-7805-5278-83cd-d2f12e3cbd84/butch-cassidy-and-the-sundance-kid) - **The AV Club**, Nathan Rabin (A-): The review positions the film as the gold standard for modern buddy comedies, lauding its witty, irreverent dialogue and the charismatic performances of Newman and Redford that blend tragedy with fun and timeless star power. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/butch-cassidy-and-the-sundance-kid-1798201749) - **The Guardian** (90/100, inferred): The critic finds the film a rollicking, spectacularly effective entertainment that still works well today. They single out the magical Newman-Redford chemistry, Goldman’s lively script, Bacharach’s score and Conrad Hall’s photography for particular praise. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/sep/23/butch-cassidy-and-the-sundance-kid-paul-newman-robert-reford) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, John Mahoney (90/100, inferred): The critic calls it a great and exceptionally popular film, praising William Goldman's screenplay, the perfectly cast stars Paul Newman and Robert Redford, George Roy Hill's direction, and innovative techniques like the score, cinematography, and editing that sustain its legendary aura. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/butch-cassidy-sundance-kid-review-1969-movie-743856/) - **The Telegraph** (90/100, inferred): The review calls the film great entertainment that remains fresh and mould-breaking. It singles out the quirky, convention-defying approach, gorgeous locations and the three attractive leads for praise. [Read](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/filmreviews/11359319/Butch-Cassidy-and-the-Sundance-Kid-review.html) - **Variety**, Whitney Williams (80/100, inferred): A lighthearted near-comedy with strong exploitation potential and star power that sustains interest through episodic structure and satisfying direction. Technical credits, especially photography and score, are superior. [Read](https://variety.com/1969/film/reviews/butch-cassidy-and-the-sundance-kid-1200422010/) - **Time Out**, RM (75/100, inferred): Redford and Newman star in one of the funniest if slightest Westerns of recent years, with an often hilarious script and strong interplay between the stars. It is unashamedly escapist but borrows heavily from The Wild Bunch and other films, making it slightly the worse for some of those influences. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/butch-cassidy-and-the-sundance-kid) - **The Times**, John Russell Taylor (70/100, inferred): The critic finds it a thoroughly and determinedly entertaining film that is hard to fault and keeps the audience constantly amused. They single out the pokey, cooler-than-cool script and the straight-faced performances of Newman and Redford, while noting that the constant diversion leaves the film without a clear centre. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/article/film-review-butch-cassidy-and-the-sundance-kid-at-the-carlton-3p83qngvl) - **The New York Times**, Vincent Canby (50/100, inferred): Hill and Goldman mix genres in a slick but empty way, with signs of a better film behind the gags. Strong performances and handsome production are undermined by technical tricks and a gnawing emptiness. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/1969/09/25/archives/slapstick-and-drama-cross-paths-in-butch-cassidy.html) - **RogerEbert.com**, Roger Ebert (40/100, inferred): The film is slow and disappointing despite good laughs and performances. The bloated production and overly cute script undermine what could have been a strong Western. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/butch-cassidy-and-the-sundance-kid-1969) - **The New Yorker** (30/100, inferred): The facetious Western rings false with comical dialogue and an embarrassing tone that the director cannot pull off. It will likely be a hit due to the title and stars but lacks substance. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1969/09/27/the-bottom-of-the-pit) - **Eye for Film**, Sarah Artt (80/100, inferred): The pairing of Newman's quick-witted Cassidy and Redford's brooding Sundance makes for a classic buddy formula that still feels fresh and amusing decades later. The film is well-paced and masterful overall, though the dated soundtrack and one uneasy scene involving sexual tension are minor flaws. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/butch-cassidy-and-the-sundance-kid-film-review-by-sarah-artt) ## Details - **Director:** George Roy Hill - **Director:** George Roy Hill - **Writer:** William Goldman - **Cinematography:** Conrad Hall - **Editor:** Richard C. Meyer, John C. Howard - **Music:** Burt Bacharach - **Costume design:** Edith Head - **Producer:** John Foreman - **Cast:** Paul Newman as Butch Cassidy; Robert Redford as Sundance Kid; Katharine Ross as Etta Place; Strother Martin as Percy Garris; Henry Jones as Bike Salesman; Jeff Corey as Sheriff Bledsoe; George Furth as Woodcock; Cloris Leachman as Agnes - **Runtime:** 1h 51m - **Certificate (MPA):** PG - **Release (the US):** 24 September 1969 - **Genres:** Western, Crime, Drama - **Budget:** $6 million - **Box office:** $102 million - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdJW2UxvSFQ ## Where to watch in the US - Amazon Prime Video: rent $3.99, uhd - Amazon Prime Video: buy $4.99, uhd *Checked 2026-09-20.* Also available in: AE, AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HU, IE, IL, IT, JP, LT, MX, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PE, PL, PT, SG, TR, UA, US, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - Academy Awards 1970: Best Director (nominated); Best Picture (nominated); Best Sound (nominated); Best Cinematography (won); Best Original Score, no Musical (won); Best Writing, Original Screenplay (won) ## If you liked this - *The Sting* (1973), Fi1m 85: Hill, Newman and Redford again, this time with a con and a happier smile — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-sting.md) - *The Wild Bunch* (1969): The same year, the same dying West, and none of the jokes - *Bonnie and Clyde* (1967), Fi1m 88: Glamorous robbers in a hurry, and the film that made this one possible — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/bonnie-and-clyde.md) - *Il Sorpasso* (1962): An Italian talker and a quiet passenger, one road trip, and a sting at the end - *The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford* (2007), Fi1m 84: The outlaw legend told slowly and sadly, with Roger Deakins doing the light — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-assassination-of-jesse-james-by-the-coward-robert-ford.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/butch-cassidy-and-the-sundance-kid