MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

Opening with a silent "movie" of Butch Cassidy's Hole in the Wall Gang, George Roy Hill's comically elegiac Western chronicles the mostly true tale of the outlaws' last months. Witty pals Butch (Paul Newman) and Sundance (Robert Redford) join the Gang in successfully robbing yet another train with their trademark non-lethal style. After the pair rests at the home of Sundance's schoolmarm girlfriend, Etta (Katharine Ross), the Gang robs the same train, but this time, the railroad boss has hired the best trackers in the business to foil the crime. After being tailed over rocks and a river gorge by guys that they can barely identify save for a white hat, Butch and Sundance decide that maybe it's time to try their luck in Bolivia. Taking Etta with them, they live high on ill-gotten Bolivian gains, but Etta leaves after their white-hatted nemesis portentously arrives. Their luck running out, Butch and Sundance are soon holed up in a barn surrounded by scores of Bolivian soldiers who are waiting for the pair to make one last run for it. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 2
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 (Cinemascope)
• Audio: Dolby Digital Stereo, Dolby Digital Mono
• Screen: Letterbox for TV, Color
• Subtitle: English, Spanish
• Features:
  • cc
  • Commentary by director George Roy Hill, lyricist Hal David, documentary director Robert Crawford Jr. and cinematographer Conrad Hall
  • Commentary by screenwriter William Goldman
  • "All of What Follows Is True: The Making of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" featurette
  • "The Wild Bunch: The True Tale of Butch and Sundance" featurette
  • "History Through the Lens: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid Outlaws Out of Time" documentary
  • "Making-of" documentary
  • Interviews with Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Katharine Ross, screenwriter William Goldman and composer Burt Bacharach
  • Deleted scenes, production notes, theatrical trailers and more!

AWARDS

• Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

•     Won Best Cinematography - 1969 (Conrad L. Hall)
•     Won Best Original Score - 1969 (Burt Bacharach)
•     Won Best Original Screenplay - 1969 (William Goldman)
•     Won Best Song - 1969 (Burt Bacharach, Hal David)
•     Nominated Best Director - 1969 (George Roy Hill)
•     Nominated Best Picture - 1969 (John C. Foreman)
•     Nominated Best Sound - 1969 (William Edmundson, David Dockendorf)

• American Film Institute

•     Won 100 Greatest American Movies - 1998

• British Academy of Film and Television Arts

•     Won Anthony Asquith Award - 1970 (Burt Bacharach)
•     Won Best Actor - 1970 (Robert Redford)
•     Won Best Actress - 1970 (Katharine Ross)
•     Won Best Cinematography - 1970 (Conrad L. Hall)
•     Won Best Director - 1970 (George Roy Hill)
•     Won Best Editing - 1970 (Richard Meyer, John C. Howard)
•     Won Best Picture - 1970 (George Roy Hill)
•     Won Best Screenplay - 1970 (William Goldman)
•     Won Best Soundtrack - 1970 (William Edmundson, Don Hall, David Dockendorf)

• Directors Guild of America

•     Nominated Best Director - 1969 (George Roy Hill)

• Hollywood Foreign Press Association

•     Won Best Original Score - 1969 (Burt Bacharach)
•     Nominated Best Original Song - 1969 (Burt Bacharach, Hal David)
•     Nominated Best Picture - Drama - 1969
•     Nominated Best Screenplay - 1969 (William Goldman)

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Director:

  George Roy Hill

• Producer:

  John C. Foreman

• Screenwriter:

  William Goldman

• Cinematographer:

  Conrad L. Hall

• Composer (Music Score):

  Burt Bacharach

• Songwriter:

  Hal David

• Editor:

  John C. Howard, Andrew Horvitch, Richard Meyer

• Art Director:

  Philip M. Jefferies, Jack Martin Smith

• Executive Producer:

  Paul Monash

• Set Designer:

  Chester L. Bayhi, Walter Scott

• Costume Designer:

  Edith Head

• Sound/Sound Designer:

  David Dockendorf, William Edmundson

• Makeup:

  Dan Striepeke

• Special Effects:

  L.B. Abbott, Art Cruickshank, Lawrence Schiller

• First Assistant Director:

  Steven Bernhardt

• Casting:

  Michael McLean

• Conductor:

  Burt Bacharach

• Second Unit Director:

  Michael Moore

REVIEW:

• Released the same year as The Wild Bunch, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid covered similar territory about the end of Western myths, but it expressed its revisionism with tongue firmly in cheek rather than with the brutal violence of Sam Peckinpah's offering. Butch and Sundance never lose their gift for one-liners, even when they have to jump off that gorge; George Roy Hill and screenwriter William Goldman send up the image of outlaws heading south of the border with bank robberies conducted in broken Spanish from crib notes. Still, violence impinges on Butch's and Sundance's world, intimating the fate that modernity held for charming bandits who cannot master a horse-replacing bicycle. The jocularly clear-eyed approach to the pair's exploits, combined with the chemistry between Paul Newman and relative newcomer Robert Redford, vastly appealed to audiences; Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid became the most popular film of 1969 and won several Oscars, including one for Goldman's script. Like Bonnie and Clyde in 1967, glamorous outlaws Butch and Sundance were in tune with the late-'60s counterculture, but the movie's humor -- and its Oscar-winning Burt Bacharach/Hal David song "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head" -- softened the revisionist blows amid impending tragedy. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi