Wednesday, October 1, 2008

BUTCH CASSIDY & THE SUNDANCE KID (1969)

“I got the vision, rest of the world wear bifocals.” Butch said to Kid.
The movie is a portrait of two real outlaws & their bonding - smart ass Butch & fast-gun Sundance. Most of the film shows the trail & follow up hiding & chasing after them by top class lawmen & this is where most of their characters revealed internally with scenes of their happy go lucky bonding & its charm which stays with you even after you complete the film. They escaped to Bolivia & got new identity there till one fine day they met their final nemesis. Its tale which not glorifies the tale of these outlaws like other westerns but an attempt to show their attitude when their time is over & here lies the true integrity of the Butch & Sundance. Watch the terrific chemistry between both Paul Newman & Robert Redford, very rare nowadays. Its warm & witty film which you can’t fix to one genre. Because it has little bit of everything- comedy, action, drama & romance. Its tough to ask more from a movie.
Newman & Redford made an amazing duo & set so many clones of this kind of buddy films. Our Sholay is hell lot inspired from this one along with certain other westerns directed by Sergio Leone.
Conrad Hall is one of my favorite cinematographer and he stunningly portrayed candid long shots of rough desert locations required to canvas westerns. This film won him Oscar along with 3 more in best sound, screenplay & song.
EXTREME FUN TO WATCH AGAIN & AGAIN…

Ratings- 8.5/10

1 comment:

Unknown said...

This is definitely one of the greatest westerns ever made... the bonding between the central characters was fantastic. this was adapted by director Mani Rathnam as Thiruda Thiruda