Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is your classic Western. There are cowboys, horses, outlaws, and the desert. Oh, and the showdowns and gun shooting. You can't forget the gun shooting. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is about two Western bank and train robbers who flee to Bolivia running away from the law. Like I stated previously, your basic Western movie. Although, I must admit, the main characters Paul Newman and Robert Redford make a delightful cowboy duo.
I thought it was interesting how Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid begins. There was an old silent film strip that was playing, in a sepia tone special effect, that was giving us the back story to the film (as shown below). While the old film was playing, the opening credits were also playing with an instrumental nondiegetic insert. The nondiegetic piano playing went hand in hand with what was going on in the old silent film strip. For example, if the cowboys were running and shooting their guns then the music was fast paced and upbeat. I liked the way Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid started, because it gave me something to watch instead of reading the opening credits. I also like the back story, and the special effect of the old film strip.
I thought it was interesting how Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid begins. There was an old silent film strip that was playing, in a sepia tone special effect, that was giving us the back story to the film (as shown below). While the old film was playing, the opening credits were also playing with an instrumental nondiegetic insert. The nondiegetic piano playing went hand in hand with what was going on in the old silent film strip. For example, if the cowboys were running and shooting their guns then the music was fast paced and upbeat. I liked the way Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid started, because it gave me something to watch instead of reading the opening credits. I also like the back story, and the special effect of the old film strip.
One scene that really stood out to me in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was when Sundance has a woman, who we find out later is named Etta. at gunpoint making her undress. At the very beginning of this scene we see Etta running in the dark toward her house. She has a white blouse on. The lighting of the scene made it so we could only see her white blouse and the outline of her surroundings. I liked how the film makers used suggestive lighting to drop us hints that once Etta gets inside she is going to be forced to take it off. Once the woman enters her bedroom the camera is zoomed in on Sundance pointing a gun at her. Etta is unbuttoning her white blouse the camera is zoomed in on each button she is unbuttoning. I liked how the camera men used an extreme close-up shot to show every detail of her unbuttoning her blouse. The extreme close-up shot enables us to see the look on either Sundance's or Etta's face, or anything else besides the buttons. This makes us think that this poor woman is undressing against her will, when in reality she is Sundance's girlfriend.
Another scene in which I thought there was crafty camera work was when Butch Cassidy and Sundance were robbing the train the second time. After they accidentally blow up the money car a little black train pulls up behind the main train. The camera zooms in on the little black train as it pulls up. This train looks evil. It's charcoal black, has oil bubbling out of it's valves, and it displeasing to the eye. The looks of the black train give us, the audience, the sense that something bad is going to happen. Of course, something bad does happen. A handful of cowboys come rushing out of the train and start racing toward Butch Cassidy and Sundance.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. I loved seeing how good of a shot Sundance was. I have come to the conclusion that Sundance is pretty much a "Gun God". I am not usually a fan of Western of movies, but I liked Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid because it had a good mixture of humor and gun shooting. Besides, how can you go wrong with Paul Newman and Robert Redford? They are both rather pleasing to the eye, if you know what I mean.
Works Cited
http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/butch-cassidy-and-the-sundance-kid/
http://rolexblog.blogspot.com/2000/03/complete-history-of-robert-redford.html
http://www.davidadamsfilms.com.au/projects/journeys/bolivia-the-last-trail-of-butch-and-sundance/
Barsam, Richard M. "Chapter 1-6." Looking at Movies: An Introduction to Film. New York, NY: Norton, 2013. N. pag. Print.
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Perf. Robert Redford and Paul Newman. Twentieth Century-Fox Films, 1969. DVD.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. I loved seeing how good of a shot Sundance was. I have come to the conclusion that Sundance is pretty much a "Gun God". I am not usually a fan of Western of movies, but I liked Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid because it had a good mixture of humor and gun shooting. Besides, how can you go wrong with Paul Newman and Robert Redford? They are both rather pleasing to the eye, if you know what I mean.
Works Cited
http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/butch-cassidy-and-the-sundance-kid/
http://rolexblog.blogspot.com/2000/03/complete-history-of-robert-redford.html
http://www.davidadamsfilms.com.au/projects/journeys/bolivia-the-last-trail-of-butch-and-sundance/
Barsam, Richard M. "Chapter 1-6." Looking at Movies: An Introduction to Film. New York, NY: Norton, 2013. N. pag. Print.
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Perf. Robert Redford and Paul Newman. Twentieth Century-Fox Films, 1969. DVD.