Metacritic Film

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Starring Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Katharine Ross, and Strother Martin

MPAA RATING: PG

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation
Action  |  Adventure  |  Classic  |  Crime  |  Drama  |  Western
110 minutes | Color
USA
Released In Theaters October 24, 1969

The Sundance Kid (Redford) is the frontier's fastest gun. His sidekick, Butch Cassidy (Newman), is always dreaming up new ways to get rich fast. Times are changing in the west and life is getting tougher. So Butch and Sundance pack their guns, don new duds, and, with Sundance's girlfriend (Ross), head down to Bolivia. Never mind that they don't speak Spanish - they'll manage somehow. (Twentieth Century Fox)

WRITTEN BY
William Goldman

DIRECTED BY
George Roy Hill

Overall Metascore

This is a weighted, normalized average of all individual scores given by critics, on a scale of 0 (worst) to 100 (best).

58 / 100

Critic Reviews

100 Empire Bob McCabe
Note-perfect performances, a screenplay steeped in both nostalgia and a timely sense of insight, and anti-heroes you can't help but love.
88 ReelViews
The movie is jovial without being silly; it retains the sense of adventure that characterizes the Western, but replaces the often somber mood with one that is airy and, at times, almost comedic.
88 TV Guide
Butch Cassidy's winking awareness of its own cinematic nature (from the opening "silent movie" train robbery to the famous closing freeze frame) and witty banter give the story a degree of charm and exuberance.
80 Variety Whitney Williams
Action dwells upon the misadventures of the pair as they pursue the outlaw trail, but more importantly, packs the type of fast movement the title indicates.
70 The New York Times
The over-all production is very handsome, and the performances fine, especially Newman, Redford, and Miss Ross, who must be broadly funny and straight, almost simultaneously.
63 Chicago Sun-Times
This good movie is buried beneath millions of dollars that were spent on "production values" that wreck the show.
30 Chicago Reader
George Roy Hill's 1969 film moves with steady, stupid grace from oozy sentimentality to nihilistic violence.
10 Time Staff (Not Credited)
Every character, every scene, is marred by the film's double view, which oscillates between sympathy and farce.

CLOSE THIS WINDOW

©2009 CNET Networks Inc. All rights reserved.