The Making of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

The Ultimate Collector’s Edition DVD of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid which will be released on June 6 has a very interesting documentary on the making of the film. The writer, William Goldman, had Jack Lemon and Paul Newman in mind to play the leads. After 20th Century Fox paid an astounding $400,000 for the screenplay, Steve McQueen was slated to partner with Paul Newman. But McQueen and Newman couldn’t agree on billing. Richard Zannick, the studio head (whose skillful facelift makes him appear wickedly youthful) suggested a compromise: they would split the globe down the middle. Newman would get top billing in half the world, McQueen in the other half. They couldn’t agree. (I once saw McQueen walk down the street with James Coburn. Steve McQueen was Steve McShort. A tiny, tiny fellow). Joanne Woodward gets credit for picking Robert Redford (who those of us in the know like to call “Bob.”) Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid launched Redford into the film stratosphere where Newman resided and neither has returned from that orbit. Such is the power of a blockbuster movie. The documentary reminds us that critics didn’t like the film. However, audiences ruled the day and it was a smash hit, the last of the big westerns and father and mother to a slew of buddy movies that included another Newman/Redford collaboration—The Sting, and the female version of Butch and Sundance—Thelma and Louise. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid works because of the chemistry between the two actors. They were amusing and they clicked. After the first screening director Hill consciously took out some laughs because the audience didn’t appreciate the tragic ending. Interestingly, the Academy Award winning song Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head was George Roy Hill’s idea. A musical wasn’t in the script. William Goldman says that bicycles were the video games of the day. He had a scene where Butch and Etta ride a bike through a ghost town. But Hill decided to “musicalize” the number and stick it in the middle of the movie. Redford, when he saw the scene, thought it “killed” the film. Katherine Ross says it was a musical interlude stuck in the middle of the movie. Hill’s biographer claims it shows off Butch Cassidy’s pleasant looniness; shows Butch the trickster and the clown. Richard Zannick after reviewing the box office receipts proclaimed the Raindrops scene “perfect.” Burt Bacharach says he kept hearing words. Raindrops...raindrops...raindrops. (Am I the only one who thinks Burt Bacharach is kind of creepy? Can we get him to quit wandering out onto stages, like where they are having an American Idol competition, with Dionne Warwick?)
One measure of an impactful motion picture is whether or not it spawns a catch phrase. Those of you who were sentient in 1969 will recall, “Who are those guys?” a line uttered by Newman in the 27 minute chase scene that dominates the middle of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. “Who are those guys?” will never be asked about Paul Newman and Robert Redford.