Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid has all the great qualities of a western film including orderly settlements, train robberies, sheriffs, climatic gunfights, and the good old wilderness. Although it doesn’t stop there, it goes above and beyond with the director’s, George Roy Hill, keen sense of narrative, sound, filters and character types.
The tone for the movie is set by some non diegetic elements including narrative and sound. The opening scene is a flickering, unstable, sepia toned short film of “The Hole in the Wall Gang”, with their cunning leader Butch Cassidy that has an almost nostalgic effect that brings out its intended heroic and historic vibe. Melancholy music is combined with the film while the narrative states that what is about to be shown is the past, Butch and the gang are dead. This sad tone of the remembrance of their deaths gives us an impression of the gang’s greatness and how they will be be portrayed in a positive light even if they are outlaws.
The dynamic duo has become so iconic in the western genre that you could say “Butch and Sundance” while having most of the population knowing you’re talking about. This is because Hill identifies these main characters in the film extraordinarily well. Sundance Kid is introduced with a close-up shot reaching well over 20 seconds in duration emphasizing his face and allowing you to identify him throughout the movie. Similar close-ups are also shot of Butch in the beginning, allowing for them to be recognized and for their characters types to stand out. This is important since the it is the combination of their opposite, but compatible characteristics that make them the lovable anti heroes that they are. While butch is witty, charismatic, brains while Sundance is the calm, quiet, brawns of the team. This makes them useful to each other and gives them an unbreakable friendship. Enough so to the point where they can practically both share a love interest, Etta.
Like any western there are many daylight exterior scenes, long shots, and the majestic open range. However, Hill takes a new approach to the narrative of his western, almost crossing over into more of a drama genre with character development and social interactions that moves the audience emotionally. The plot portrays the west on a transition point where banks are becoming more secure, bicycles are being ridden around, and criminals are on the run putting a twist on the original wilderness versus civilization story. Resistive protagonists in a changing society with the promise of imminent death was the perfect recipe for emotional attachment and an iconic film.
The sepia tone filter is used three times during the movie. It is used in the beginning of the movie to introduce the whitts of Butch and Sundance’s gunslinging abilities as an indestructible force in the west. The second time the filter is used is mid way through the film when Butch and Sundance are on the run. It switches right after Butch’s bicycle wheel slowly comes to a stop, this is a key transition in the film. Before they were pursued by Joe LeFors, the bicycle marked the happiest of times in a montage of Butch and Etta riding it down to a barn. Now it was rudely being discarded by Butch. Not because it was inconvenient to bring, but because it symbolized that society was changing to a time where rough outlaws have no place. The last time the filter is used is at the end of the film, right before they face the gunfire of over a hundred Bolivian troops, the imminent fate of the two’s decision to resist changing their ways along with society. The shot of them both running out freezes and turns amber colored. Followed by the continued audio of the Bolivian firing squad and the end of their journey.
Worked Cited
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Dir. George R. Hill.
Perf. Paul Newman and Robert Redford. Ken Films, 1969.
The tone for the movie is set by some non diegetic elements including narrative and sound. The opening scene is a flickering, unstable, sepia toned short film of “The Hole in the Wall Gang”, with their cunning leader Butch Cassidy that has an almost nostalgic effect that brings out its intended heroic and historic vibe. Melancholy music is combined with the film while the narrative states that what is about to be shown is the past, Butch and the gang are dead. This sad tone of the remembrance of their deaths gives us an impression of the gang’s greatness and how they will be be portrayed in a positive light even if they are outlaws.
The dynamic duo has become so iconic in the western genre that you could say “Butch and Sundance” while having most of the population knowing you’re talking about. This is because Hill identifies these main characters in the film extraordinarily well. Sundance Kid is introduced with a close-up shot reaching well over 20 seconds in duration emphasizing his face and allowing you to identify him throughout the movie. Similar close-ups are also shot of Butch in the beginning, allowing for them to be recognized and for their characters types to stand out. This is important since the it is the combination of their opposite, but compatible characteristics that make them the lovable anti heroes that they are. While butch is witty, charismatic, brains while Sundance is the calm, quiet, brawns of the team. This makes them useful to each other and gives them an unbreakable friendship. Enough so to the point where they can practically both share a love interest, Etta.
Like any western there are many daylight exterior scenes, long shots, and the majestic open range. However, Hill takes a new approach to the narrative of his western, almost crossing over into more of a drama genre with character development and social interactions that moves the audience emotionally. The plot portrays the west on a transition point where banks are becoming more secure, bicycles are being ridden around, and criminals are on the run putting a twist on the original wilderness versus civilization story. Resistive protagonists in a changing society with the promise of imminent death was the perfect recipe for emotional attachment and an iconic film.
The sepia tone filter is used three times during the movie. It is used in the beginning of the movie to introduce the whitts of Butch and Sundance’s gunslinging abilities as an indestructible force in the west. The second time the filter is used is mid way through the film when Butch and Sundance are on the run. It switches right after Butch’s bicycle wheel slowly comes to a stop, this is a key transition in the film. Before they were pursued by Joe LeFors, the bicycle marked the happiest of times in a montage of Butch and Etta riding it down to a barn. Now it was rudely being discarded by Butch. Not because it was inconvenient to bring, but because it symbolized that society was changing to a time where rough outlaws have no place. The last time the filter is used is at the end of the film, right before they face the gunfire of over a hundred Bolivian troops, the imminent fate of the two’s decision to resist changing their ways along with society. The shot of them both running out freezes and turns amber colored. Followed by the continued audio of the Bolivian firing squad and the end of their journey.
Worked Cited
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Dir. George R. Hill.
Perf. Paul Newman and Robert Redford. Ken Films, 1969.