Greetings again from the darkness. George Roy Hill‘s Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is one of my all-time favorites. Action, adventure, gun play, wise-cracking, romance, charming lead actors, and a touch of western legend, all combine for a very entertaining film. Spanish screenwriter and director Mateo Gil (s/p, The Sea Inside) takes up the story 20 years from the infamous freeze frame that ended Hill’s 1969 film.
Sure, you might need suspension of disbelief since we all remember the hundreds of Bolivian soldiers firing at once when Butch and Sundance attempted their escape, but this film is really more about aging and trying to put things right in a life that took a wrong turn. The Butch we are first introduced to is writing a letter to the son of Etta Place, after her death. He writes that it’s time to come home – meaning he is to leave the quiet life in rural Bolivia and make the long journey back to the U.S.
This aging “Uncle Butch” is played by the great Sam Shepard. Mr. Shepard is not just a Pulitzer winning writer, but he has always had an incredibly strong screen presence … a wonderful face and trustworthy voice. Here is in full grizzled cowboy mode and sports the bright eyes we remember from Paul Newman, while displaying a newfound peace raising horses in the Bolivian countryside. He lives this life as James Blackthorn, not Butch Cassidy. He even has a relationship with one of the local ladies, who seems filled with the spirit that Butch had as a younger man.
Blackthorn collects his savings from the bank … a bit ironic, eh? He sets off on the journey, but is quickly knocked off course thanks to the recklessness of a Spainish thief played by Eduardo Noriega. Noriega says he can makes things right and the two form an unlikely team. Unfortunately, Butch has become more trusting in his old age, and Noriega turns out not to be the partner than Sundance once was.
This whole story is a bit outlandish, but it’s at its best when Blackthorn runs smack dab into Makinley, one of the old Pinkerton men who was chasing him twenty years ago. Turns out, Makinley (Stephen Rea) is a social outcast because he was the only one who thought the boys survived that attack so many years ago. Seems both Makinley and Blackthorn have been cast aside and trapped for two decades in Bolivia.
While Shepard is outstanding, he shares star billing with the terrain of Bolivia. It definitely holds its own versus the Monument Valley we have seen in so many westerns over the years. The salt flats are particularly beautiful and treacherous, and filmed with skill by the director. We are also treated to periodic flashbacks and a few of the key moments for the younger Butch (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), Sundance (Padraic Delaney) and Etta (Dominique McElligott). We learn that the partnership was truly that … one for all.
This film will probably have little box office success, but it’s certainly worth a look for those of you intrigued by the Butch and Sundance legend, and are able to wonder just WHAT IF ….
SEE THIS MOVIE IF: you are a fan of the original Butch & Sundance OR you never miss a chance to see Sam Shepard onscreen OR you would like to see the rarely seen natural beauty of Bolivia
SKIP THIS MOVIE IF: a slow moving western hold little appeal for you OR you just aren’t willing to buy into the idea that maybe Butch and Sundance survived the Bolivian Army massacre
watch the trailer:
Posted by David Ferguson 
Movie Reviews from the Dark 