10 Great Screenplays: #6 Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid (1969)

When I picture bank robbers and criminals, the last guys that come to mind are Robert Redford and Paul Newman. Those guys, by virtue of their popular image, were supposed to be the essence of cool. They have to look good, even at the expense of a solid acting performance. Then I saw Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid, and now I can't see the pair as anything else but a couple of bickering bandits.

Think ya used enough dynamite there, Butch?

Anyway, onto the screenplay. William Goldman, the imaginative author of The Princess Bride, delved into the pages of history with Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid. Butch and Sundance were the last of the great Western-style bandits, gunslingers who accomplished their deeds on horseback. Also, as Goldman portrays them, they were prone to light-hearted bickering and the occasional unnecessarily long frolicking escapade on a bike. 

The playful duo pull a couple of bank robberies and then danger comes, the kind of danger that says flee instead of stand and fight--a super posse. An angry railroad baron calls for their heads and assembles an unrivaled gang of lawmen and trackers to make sure they don't get away. Every time Butch and Sundance think they're free, the posse shows up, foiling any feelings of relief.

Who are those guys?

After a daring escape that involves a leap of faith, Butch and Sundance go to the only friend they've got, Etta Place. She's also Sundance's girl. At Butch's behest, they head south to Bolivia and find a very impoverished situation. Of course, they remedy this by robbing banks and pissing off the government. 

At the end of the day, Goldman's masterful screenplay is all about dialogue and every writer's friend, the monomyth. The dialogue, on top of completing it's primary purpose of moving the story forward, is simply dripping with wit. There are seemingly more moments that illicit laughter than there are moments of intense drama. In short, it's fun, it's got action, and it's got drama, and that's rare for a screenplay. Also, by virtue of being a Western, the Hero's journey or monomyth is on full display. Yes, every story contains the monomyth in some fashion, but here it is more prevalent. All the boxes are checked very clearly. Does that make it formulaic and unoriginal? 

Not in the slightest.