Revisiting the Sundance Kid as Robert Redford Announces His Retirement from Movie Acting.
With the release of what has been announced as Robert Redford’s final film – the pleasant-but-unremarkable “Old Man With a Gun” – it seems appropriate to revisit one of the movies that made him a 70s-era icon. “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” made Redford a superstar. He played opposite Paul Newman, who was already a superstar. In fact, the film originally was going to be called “The Sundance Kid and Butch Cassidy” with another superstar, Steve McQueen, as Sundance. When he dropped out, the character names were reversed in the title, as Newman was now the only current superstar. The 1969 film was an enormous hit, and has since become a classic. And Redford became a superstar at Paul Newman’s level.
“Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” was made during a time when the youthful counterculture led the culture. It was the year of Woodstock and Abbey Road. And while John Wayne scored with the traditional “True Grit” that same year, the western had become a bit too staid and conventional for the new kind of moviegoer. The sixties westerns were better defined by Sergio Leone’s “Dollars” trilogy with Clint Eastwood, or Sam Peckinpah’s edgy, violent “The Wild Bunch.” These films challenged the conventions instead of embracing them.
“Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” somehow managed to create a perfect balance between conventional western action and a certain cheeky satire that lurked within. On one hand we had genre stalwarts like Strother Martin (who also appeared in “True Grit” the same year) and Jeff Corey (a veteran method actor who was imminently adaptable). At the same time we had pop music interludes and pretty Katherine Ross from “The Graduate;" a quintessential counterculture comedy from 1967. “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” was enough of a family film to bring the kids, it was enough of a western to appeal to traditional fans, and it was hipster enough for the counterculture youth. It resonated with every demographic as the sixties became the seventies.
Loosely based on actual train robbers, the story deals with Butch and Sundance using wit and skill to engage in these exploits and also elude the posse of lawmen that follows them wherever they go. Their journey is filled with action, suspense, and a pervading jocularity, allowing the handsome Redford’s charisma to match the equally handsome Newman, with the beauty of Ross supplementing it nicely. They are surrounded by the rugged looking Ted Cassidy, Strother Martin, Percy Helton, and Henry Jones. And, yeah, that is a young Sam Elliot playing cards in one scene.
By the time he directed “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” George Roy Hill had done flops like “Toys in the Attic,” epics like “Hawaii,” and interesting oddities like “The World of Henry Orient.” In his entire career he directed less than 20 films, but at least a handful were impactful enough to keep his name alive after his passing. He never managed to create his own impact, however, and didn’t really connect with a distinctive, consistent style. “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” is competently shot in connection to the narrative, but it is the performances that sustain it. One has to be impressed with Hill’s choice to switch from a medium shot to a long shot for the infamous “oh shit” cliff jump during the “I can’t swim” scene that has become one of those “clips of famous movies” that anyone and everyone has seen. Hill also had the real-life Butch Cassidy’s 85 year old sister on the set as technical advisor. She liked the movie and agreed to endorse it when it came out. (She lived to be 96 – outliving several members of the cast, including both Strother Martin and Ted Cassidy).
Clocking in at just under two hours, “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” breezes by in a most entertaining manner, and its shelf life extends into the 21st century. But its impact on Robert Redford’s career is perhaps its strongest accomplishment.
Redford had bounced around in supporting roles in movies and on TV (including a noted Twilight Zone episode), getting some notice for his appearances in films like “Inside Daisy Clover,” “The Chase,” and “Barefoot in the Park.” He was noteworthy, but hardly at the lofty level of Movie Star when he was hired for the Sundance role after Steve McQueen opted out. Because of its crossover appeal, female moviegoers latched onto Redford’s youthful good looks and the character's engaging manner, and he became a personality who acted rather than an actor (not unlike George Clooney today). This was actually rather unfortunate, because Redford’s fine work in subsequent films like “Downhill Racer” and “Tell Them Willie Boy is Here” has been sadly overlooked. It picked up with box office hits like the rugged “Jerimiah Johnson” and the soulfully nostalgic “The Way We Were” opposite Barbra Streisand. “The Way We Were” came out the same year as his reteaming with Paul Newman for “The Sting,” another George Roy Hill movie that not only exceeded the box office success of “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” it won the Oscar for Best Picture.
The last truly great film Redford acted in was “All The President’s Men,” but he continued to appear in popular, entertaining movies like “The Natural, “ “Brubaker,” and “Three Days of the Condor,” along with forgettable fluff like “Legal Eagles,” sappy dramas like “Indecent Proposal,” “Up Close & Personal,” and “The Horse Whisperer,” and bloated epics like “Hawaii” and “Out of Africa.” His attempt to direct was a bit of a struggle, but can boast successes like “Ordinary People” and “Quiz Show.” And, of course, he established the appropriately named Sundance film festival that celebrates indie filmmaking.
Robert Redford wrapping up his acting career is as hard for us older fans to grasp as is the realization that he is now 82 years old; three years younger than real-life-Butch-Cassidy-sister was when Redford played the Sundance Kid. His handsome face is now creased and weathered, as he has gone from a youthful western desperado to being an “Old Man with a Gun.” But now that he has wrapped up his movie acting career, Robert Redford will be remembered for his best work. And that certainly includes a crossover western that connected with every demographic, and is capable of still doing so 50 years later.
If you haven’t seen “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” fix that today.