BUTCH CASSIDY
AND THE
SUNDANCE KID
DIRECTED BY GEORGE ROY HILL
PRODUCED BY JOHN FOREMAN/ PAUL MONASH
PAUL NEWMAN (uncredited)
20th.CENTURY FOX
Information From IMDb
Plot summary
Butch and Sundance are the two leaders of the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang. Butch is all ideas, Sundance is all action and skill. The west is becoming civilized and when Butch and Sundance rob a train once too often, a special posse begins trailing them no matter where they run. Over rock, through towns, across rivers, the group is always just behind them. When they finally escape through sheer luck, Butch has another idea, "Let's go to Bolivia". Based on the exploits of the historical characters.
Written by John Vogel.
Cast
Paul Newman ... Butch Cassidy
Robert Redford ... The Sundance Kid
Katharine Ross ... Etta Place
Strother Martin ... Percy Garris
Henry Jones ... Bike Salesman
Jeff Corey ... Sheriff Bledsoe
George Furth ... Woodcock
Cloris Leachman ... Agnes
Ted Cassidy ... Harvey Logan
Kenneth Mars ... Marshal
Donnelly Rhodes ... Macon
Jody Gilbert ... Large Woman
Timothy Scott ... News Carver
Don Keefer ... Fireman
Charles Dierkop ... Flat Nose Curry
Pancho Córdova ... Bank Manager (as Francisco Cordova)
Nelson Olmsted ... Photographer (as Nelson Olmstead)
Paul Bryar ... Card Player #1
Sam Elliott ... Card Player #2
Charles Akins ... Bank Teller
José Chávez ... Bolivian police commander (uncredited)
Percy Helton ... Sweetface (uncredited)
Writing credits
William Goldman
Original Music by
Burt Bacharach
Trivia
* Paul Newman and Robert Redford really leaped off the cliff; however, they landed on a ledge with a mattress roughly six feet below.
* They tried to get Bob Dylan to sing Burt Bacharach's famous song for the movie. He declined.
* Dustin Hoffman was considered for the role of Butch.
* Katharine Ross enjoyed shooting the silent, bicycle riding sequence best, because it was handled by the film crew's second unit rather than the director. She said, "Any day away from George Roy Hill was a good one."
* Paul Newman did his own bicycle stunts, after his stunt man was unable to stay on the bike, except for the scene where Butch crashes backwards into the fence, which was performed by cinematographer Conrad L. Hall.
* The actual name of Butch and Sundance's gang was The Wild Bunch. However, when the Sam Peckinpah film, The Wild Bunch (1969), was released a few months earlier, the name of the gang was changed to the Hole in the Wall Gang to avoid confusion with Peckinpah's film.
* Body count: 30
* According to screenwriter William Goldman, his screenplay originally was entitled "The Sundance Kid and Butch Cassidy." Both Steve McQueen and Paul Newman read the script at approximately the same time, and agreed to do it, with McQueen playing the Sundance Kid. When McQueen dropped out, the names reversed in the title, as Newman was a superstar.
* Joanna Pettet was first offered the role of "Etta Place" but was forced to turn down the role due to her pregnancy.
* The real "Hole in the Wall Gang" hid near Delta, Colorado near the Green River. One of their bank robberies occurred in Delta.
* Actually before the real Butch and Sundance ended in Bolivia, they spent some time in Patagonia (Argentina), in a town called Cholila.
* In 2007, the American Film Institute ranked this as the #73 Greatest Movie of All Time.
* Ranked #7 on the American Film Institute's list of the 10 greatest films in the genre "Western" in June 2008.
* Other actors that were under consideration for the role of Sundance were Steve McQueen and Warren Beatty.
* Sam Elliott's feature film debut.
* Photographer Lawrence Schiller shot the location publicity stills for the film.
* Jack Lemmon turned down the role of Sundance because of a scheduling conflict with The Odd Couple (1968).
* This movie was filmed roughly the same time as Hello, Dolly! (1969), on the sound stage next door. Director George Roy Hill believed that the studio would allow him to film the New York scenes on "Dolly's" sets, since the two films' daily shooting schedules were totally different. After production started, though, the studio informed him that it wanted to keep the sets for "Dolly" a secret and so refused him permission. To work around this, Hill had Robert Redford, Paul Newman and Katharine Ross simply pose on the sets and took photos of them. He then inserted images of the three stars into a series of 300 actual period photos and spliced the two different sets (real and posed) together to form the New York montage.
* All the Bolivia scenes were filmed in Mexico, where almost the entire cast and crew, and the director, came down with Montezuma's Revenge (severe diarrhea caused by drinking Mexico's notoriously polluted water). Only Robert Redford, Paul Newman and Katharine Ross were spared, because they refused to drink the water catered on the set and stuck to drinking soda and alcohol for the duration of the shoot.
* The sister of the real Butch Cassidy often visited the set, and her presence was welcome to the cast and crew. During lulls in shooting she would tell stories about her famous brother's escapades, and was amazed at how accurately the script and Paul Newman portrayed him. Before the film was released, the studio found out about her visits and tried to convince her to endorse the movie in a series of ads to be shown in theatres across the country. She said that she would, but only if she saw the film first and truly stood behind it. The studio refused, saying that allowing her to see the film before its release could harm its reputation. Finally, at Robert Redford's suggestion, she agreed to do the endorsements - for a small "fee."
* Marlon Brando was seriously considered to team with Paul Newman for one of the roles.
* The river jump was shot at the studio's Century Ranch near Malibu, CA. Paul Newman's and Robert Redford's stuntmen actually jumped off of a construction crane by Century Lake. The crane was obscured by a matte painting of the cliffs. Newman and Reford start the jump in Colorado, but only land on a mattress.
* On the first day of shooting, involving the train robbery scenes, Katharine Ross came to the set to watch. There were five cameras and only four operators, so the DP put her on the extra camera. He showed her how to operate it, and how to move it to get her shot. Director George Roy Hill was furious but said nothing the whole day. At the end of the day, however, he banned her from the set except when she was working.
* With nine wins it currently holds the record for the British Academy Awards (BAFTAs). It won for picture, actor (Robert Redford), actress (Katharine Ross, direction (George Roy Hill, screenplay, cinematography, film editing, sound and score.
* The bull's name in the film is "Bill". He was flown in from Los Angeles for the bicycle scene, which was shot in Utah. In order to make Bill charge, the filmmakers sprayed a substance on his testicles. Oddly, he didn't seem to mind and endured it through several takes (from The Making of 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid' (1970)).
* During the 27-minute super posse chase, Butch and Sundance dismount and separate from their lone horse, start scaling rocky terrain to evade their pursuers. Butch asks, "What if they don't follow the horse?". Sundance: "Don't worry, Butch, you'll think of something." Originally Butch retorts, "That's a load off my mind." That line was kept in the movie right through the mid-'70s until it was broadcast on network TV (1976). For some reason it was omitted and has remained absent through every TV, cable, video, laserdisc and previous DVD release. It was reinstated back into the 2006 "Ultimate Collector's Edition" DVD and viewers are treated to it for the first time in 30 years.
* Near the end of the movie there is a tribute to The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948). Butch and Sundance are "caught" by a kid in the village who recognizes the brand on the rump of the gray mule that they have taken. The brand the kid sees is exactly the same as the brand that a kid in "Treasure" sees on seemingly the same gray mule and then runs to seemingly the same police station to report the theft.
* The climactic gun battle at the end of the movie was historically inaccurate. There were only a few police officers present during the shootout (the town of San Vicente where Cassidy and Sundance were allegedly killed was a very small place back in November 1908, and didn't have many police officers). Plus, there were at most two Bolivian soldiers who actually took part in the fight alongside the local police, not the hundreds shown in the film. In addition, the casualty count among the policemen was nowhere near as enormous as that shown (only one soldier and one police officer were actually killed) and most of the gun battle took place in the evening and at night, not in broad daylight as shown in the movie. These were the main reasons the Bolivian government at first banned the film from being shown in that country.
Goofs
* Continuity: The amount of straw that hits Butch while he is riding the bicycle.
* Continuity: In the opening sequence when Sundance shoots the gun belt off the card player, the film was cut to make the quick draw appear faster. You can see Butch's image jump across the screen in the background.
* Continuity: The "foot pegs" through the front axle of the bicycle that Etta uses disappear during Butch's stunt performance and reappear afterwards.
* Errors in geography: In the final shootout in San Vicente, there are trees all around the town and one in the plaza. The real San Vicente, Bolivia is at 4800 meters altitude (over 15,000 ft.), so is well above the tree line.
* Revealing mistakes: During the climactic gun battle, Sundance fires his two six-guns at least 16 times without reloading. Obviously the guns would have to be reloaded after only 12 shots.
* Continuity: In the river, Butch says to Sundance, "You're choking me! You're choking me!" although they're apart at this point.
* Revealing mistakes: When they're eating at Etta's house, before and after Butch shouts, "You probably inherited every penny you got!" you can see Butch's shadow on the set.
* Revealing mistakes: While the second train robbery is taking place, the Pinkertons arrive on the special train. The shot of the special train engine coming to a stop right in front of the camera was obviously filmed with the engine starting close to the camera and backing up, then the shot was run in reverse. Notice the steam is returning to the engine instead of coming out of it.
* Errors in geography: Though the second half of the movie is supposedly set in Bolivia, all the Spanish-speaking actors have Mexican accents.
* Factual errors: In the film, The Sundance Kid claims to have been born in New Jersey. The real Sundance Kid was born in born in Mont Clare, Pennsylvania.
* Factual errors: At the climactic shootout, the shoulder insignia of the Bolivian army officers are wrong: instead of stripes, the shoulder boards should have six-pointed stars.
Filming Locations
20th Century Fox Studios - 10201 Pico Blvd., Century City, Los Angeles, California, USA
(studio)
Chama, New Mexico, USA
Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico
(Bolivia)
Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad, Durango, Colorado, USA
Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railway, Durango, Colorado, USA
(Railway Robberies)
Durango, Colorado, USA
Grafton, Utah, USA
Las Animas River Gorge, Durango, Colorado, USA
New Sheridan Bar - 231 W. Colorado Avenue, Telluride, Colorado, USA
(Bar)
San Juan National Forest, Durango, Colorado, USA
Silverton, Colorado, USA
Snow Canyon, Utah, USA
(Landscape)
Springdale, Utah, USA
St. George, Utah, USA
(Landscape)
Taos, New Mexico, USA
Taxco, Guerrero, Mexico
(Bolivia)
Telluride, Colorado, USA
Trimble Bridge, Animas River, Colorado, USA
(Jump into river) (Baker's Bridge)
Zion National Park, Springdale, Utah, USA