Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) (Blu Ray) - 8/10

Butch Cassiday and the Sundance Kid is always fun to revisit so I decided to watch the Blu Ray with the writer and director's commentary to get some history about the making of this unconventional western classic. Coming out during the Vietnam era, this tale of two bank robbers running from the law is a wonderful representation of those buddy type films where Robert Redford and Paul Newman shine as the cowboys with nothing to lose, representing the direct contrast to the growing technology of that era. Talking about the difficulties of production, the commentary goes into the tricky tasks of filming in various locations of Colorado, Bolivia, and Mexico for the epic final shootout, as well the on set pranks and fencing duels between the stars. This idea of the good guys running away from the law with a comic twist really made me connect with their enjoyment of robbing banks as even the Burt Bacharach soundtrack really makes this movie unique. The fantastic scenery is an essential backdrop to the movie's strength, pitting this love triangle between the main characters an underlying tension that helps keep their emotions centralized. I liked the stories they tell of shooting on the hillsides during action scenes where they had to use close ups of the actors to contrast the long shots of the approaching horses to show a huge depth of field. Even shooting Day-as-Night scenes to get a longer horizon of detail in the shots, the director mentions not even having a video department but just winging it on set with the cinematographer to get what they wanted. I like how this movie kinds of steps outside the western by giving us lovable outlaws who ultimately need eachother to survive, keeping the humor up while the violence is not glorified so that we are sad when the famous freeze shot ends with them going out in a blaze of glory.