Sometimes, there’s a story that is ripe for adaptation. And even more rarely, there are stories that benefit from being told as they really happened and not with embellishment. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is such a film. Kind of. Other movies about outlaw gangs tend to make their antiheroes tough-as-nails, never-run-away-from-a-fight, and no-nonsense. They’re stoic and, even though their methods aren’t always right, their results are usually seen as a positive. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was originally rejected as a project because the screenplay depicted Butch and Sundance’s escape to South America, which is what actually happened. So, though the film does embellish in places (their personalities, the timing of events, and “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head”), but the events that occur in the film were what really happened, and it made for an unusual and more interesting story than most Westerns at the time provided.

Butch Cassidy (Paul Newman) is the fun-loving leader of the Hole-in-the-Wall gang, and Sundance (Robert Redford) is his quiet, crack shot right-hand-man. Together, with the rest of the gang, they successfully rob a couple of trains, but that alerts the attention of the head of Union Pacific, who sends a posse of lawmen after them. Cassidy convinces Sundance and Sundance’s girlfriend, Etta Place (Katharine Ross), to hide out in Bolivia, which Cassidy inexplicably assumes is an outlaw’s paradise. However, they are soon deprived of that fantasy upon their arrival. Sundance particularly loathes the place. Due to their inability to speak Spanish, they are initially unsuccessful at robbing banks, so they consider quitting the criminal life for good. Their first day as honest-working men ends with their boss being killed by bandits in a shootout. They decide the honest life isn’t for them, and return to their old ways. When they arrive in a small Bolivian town, they are met by the local authorities who have also called in the Bolivian army to help bring down Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The two friends go down in a blaze of glory and the film ends with the greatest freeze-frame of all time (although, Thelma & Louise gives it a run for its money).

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is another one of those films where everything sort of came together perfectly. George Roy Hill was just eccentric enough of a director to bring this strange story to life and prevent it from being a cartoon. The chemistry between Paul Newman and Robert Redford is magnetic, so much so, between this film and The Sting, they are considered one of the greatest on-screen duos of all time. But what ties it all together is the script from William Goldman. Goldman is one of the best screenwriters who ever lived because he could, and did, write in any genre. He could tackle westerns, detective films (Harper), drama (The Great Waldo Pepper), war epics (A Bridge Too Far), political thrillers (Marathon Man, All the President’s Men), biographical (Chaplin), horror (Magic, Misery), romance and fantasy (The Princess Bride). He was a master, and he fought hard the script he wrote, refusing to cut important elements such as the time in Bolivia. Anything less would not be the iconic movie we know and love today.

Bonus Review: Hell or High Water

Depending on who you talk to, Taylor Sheridan is the savior of the Western genre or just really obsessed with it. He has written a critically-acclaimed trio of neo-Westerns – Sicario, Hell or High Water and Wind River – as well as created your favorite Paramount television show, whether it’s Mayor of Kingstown, Tulsa King or Yellowstone or one of its prequels. He’s become something of a hot commodity and has even been given the directorial reins of the upcoming adaptation of Empire of the Summer Moon (and if he screws it up, there will be Hell Toupee). He got significant recognition for Sicario, but Hell or High Water got him Yellowstone and Yellowstone got him Carte Blanche. Hell or High Water is a neo-western thriller about a pair of brothers who rob banks to gather the money to save their family’s ranch – the quintessential outlaw-with-a-heart-of-gold storyline, almost a cliche really, but it allows for the characters carry the story.

The Howard brothers, Toby and Tanner, rob two branches of the Texas Midlands Bank. They are meticulously planned out by Toby, but Tanner’s erratic behavior poses a danger to their work. Texas Midlands provides the reverse mortgage on their family’s ranch, which their mother lived in but died recently, so the brothers are attempting these robberies to prevent foreclosure. If they can keep that from happening, they can reap the benefits of recently discovered oil on the property. Two Texas Rangers, Hamilton and Parker, pursue them and Hamilton seems to have a knack for profiling the brothers. Tanner robs another bank without alerting Toby and then they take their money to a casino in Oklahoma, passing the money off as winnings to cash into a check, making the money untraceable. They return to Texas to rob another bank, but it turns out be crowded and Tanner ends up shooting a security guard and an armed civilian. A posse pursues them out of the town and the brothers split up. Toby takes the money to a casino to launder, while Tanner holds the posse off with a rifle. Tanner kills Parker, but Hamilton circles around and shoots Tanner in the back. Toby makes it to the bank with the money just in time to avoid foreclosure. Toby is cleared as a suspect in the bank robberies and shootings because he has no prior criminal record and the amount of money he gets from the oil on the land is large enough to where he has no motive. Nevertheless, the now-retired Hamilton still believes Toby to be the mastermind and pays him a visit. When confronted, Toby admits that his motive was to prevent his children from experiencing the poverty he and Tanner grew up in. Hamilton says he holds Toby responsible for Parker’s death. Just then, Toby’s ex-wife and estranged children arrive, and it is revealed that Toby has given the ranch to them. Toby and Hamilton agree to “finish” their conversation another time.