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| Butch, Sundance, and Etta arrive in Bolivia: Butch Cassidy: Jeesh, all Bolivia can't look like this. Sundance Kid: How do you know? This might be the garden spot of the whole country. People may travel hundreds of miles just to get to this spot where we're standing now. This might be the Atlantic City, New Jersey of all Bolivia for all you know. |
Butch Cassidy: You know, it could be worse. You get a lot more for your money in Bolivia, I checked on it.
Sundance Kid: What could they have here that you could possibly want to buy?
Butch Cassidy: If he'd just pay me what he's spending to make me stop robbing him, I'd stop robbing him!
Like 'The Wild Bunch,' this is a Western about a gang of desperadoes who flee south of the border to escape bounty hunters. There are bank heists. There's a train robbery. It all ends in a big gun fight.
But unlike The Wild Bunch, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is entertaining. In fact, it's practically the same movie, but good.
Butch and Sundance are loveable bandits. They still drink, steal and frequent brothels like the Wild Bunch guys, but they do so with charm.
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| Paul Newman as Butch and the real Butch Cassidy. |
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| Robert Redford as Sundance, the real Sundance Kid and Etta, and Katharine Ross as Etta Place |
They're extremely funny. After moving to Bolivia, along with Sundance's girlfriend, Etta, they try to resume robbing banks, only to be stymied by their inability to speak Spanish. During their first attempt (after Sundance confidently tells Butch, "Don't tell me how to rob a bank. I know how to rob a bank."), the bank teller greets them cheerfully in Spanish, and unable to understand him or demand money in his language, they just stare in silence, and eventually leave. When they return, they have a script that Etta has been trying to teach them, and Butch awkwardly delivers the lines (reading it off the paper) while Sundance holds them up:
Butch Cassidy: [Trying to say "hands up" in Spanish] Manos a...Manos, um...[Pulls out his script] Manos arriba!
Sundance Kid: They got 'em up! Skip on down.
Butch Cassidy: Arriba!
Sundance Kid: Skip on down!
Butch Cassidy: Todos ustedes "arrismense" a la pared.
Sundance Kid: They're against the wall already!
Butch Cassidy: Donde...Ah, you're so damn smart, you read it!
It's great stuff. But the delivery of the actors is the best part. They're terrifically funny.
Robert Redford (Sundance) and Paul Newman (Butch) were so good together that it makes me want to give The Sting another chance, so I may check that one out again.
I close with this moment from the movie (and one of my stepdad's favorite lines):
Butch Cassidy: Well, that ought to do it.
Sundance Kid: Think ya used enough dynamite there, Butch?
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