I watched The Sting (1973) quite a few years ago. It was directed by the same director of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and I remember liking it quite a lot, the chemistry between Newman and Redford was very enjoyable, the whole film had a very lean mood to it, it was great but didn’t take itself to seriously, and allowed itself to play around a bit with the medium. That said, it’s a while since I saw it, and my memory is still a little fuzzy. But again, like The Hustler, I wanted to watch more classics featuring Paul Newman, and this was another of those famous films that I for some reason hadn’t seen so far.
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is a hard film to categorize. The opening is beautifully shot and the atmosphere reminded me of something by Andrei Tarkovsky. However, the film is literally a rollercoaster ride. The film visits so many styles and moods it’s quite dazzling. Some moments are fun and sweet, others are sad and contemplative. But always at its heart there is a lot of humour, funny lines, little observation, and the playful acting between Newman and Redford. There is a strange intangible sense of joy in this film, even in its harsher moments. One of the defining moments in the film is when Paul Newman as Butch Cassidy rides around on a bicycle to the song “Raindrops keep fallin’ on my head”, shot in a wonderful montage style. The scene is in many ways a diversion from some of the seriousness of the film, and is the first true sign of the film leaning more towards a humorous tone rather than a serious one. But that’s fine; I loved the films less edgy mood, the film itself is just a joy to watch. There is this consensus that a film of this type should be serious and gritty. I admit, in my younger adolescent years I also only loved gritty and dark depressing films, but now I love these kinds of films. I don’t care for all out silly films, but in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid it’s done with class and subtly, and makes the film something else compared to most of these types of films.
When I saw the credits, I noticed that Conrad C. Hall was the cinematographer, and immediately I knew I was in for a treat. And yes, the cinematography is beautiful; it varies in form and style throughout the film, which only makes it more impressive. This goes well with the themes of the film, as I said, a rollercoaster ride. It is strange how lovable the two scoundrels that are Robert Redford and Paul Newman can be so lovable, but this is also added to by the humorous tone of the film. If the film had been much more dark and grittier then they might not have worked so well, and would have mirrored Alex from A Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrick, 1971). They are never prone to direct violent action, not a lot anyway, and when they are, we are always rooting for them to succeed. While I’ve empathised that this film is quite humorous and silly at times, there is in fact a couple of really serious and thoughtful sequences, scattered around the film. The fact that they come in bits and pieces make them even more powerful and poignant, something like a crystallizing effect. Films that are too serious and too dark quickly become bland and the audience might lose their engagement, but in this the serious moments create wonderful points which hold the film together as a whole.
I loved Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. I thought it would be a gritty and serious western, but it turned out to be a joyride that has so many outstretching qualities it is hard to examine at times. What kind of movie is this really? This is what I like to think of as a cinema’s movie, a film that so much encapsulates the joy of filmmaking and the art-form, a film that captures the chemistry between Newman and Redford, and will stand as a wonderful exercise in filmmaking, that I will be sure to re-watch time and time again.
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