Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969 George Roy Hill)

Interesting how much it has in common with The Wild Bunch made the same year - same time period, same feeling the wild west is all over, same ending - though we both loved the freeze frame finale (Q says perfectly that it leaves the two characters with their dignity). (The Time Out suggestion it copies Peckinpah's film is ridiculous as it came out only three months after.) It's also very much of its time, a revisionist western, using such cinematic tricks as sepia sequences, a montage created entirely using photos and the Bolivia scenes cut to one of those Bacharach sixties vocal pieces (not lyrics, just singing - there's one in the President's Analyst, I swear). And, with the wise-cracking relationship between Newman and Redford, it's surely the blueprint for Lethal Weapon and every other buddy action flick.

The photography is sensational and we laughed at how Conrad was trying to damp down those blue skies he never got on with (he operated his own camera - 'I get to see the movie first'). There's a moment in the 'Raindrops' sequence with the camera tracking though some slats, catching the couple and the sun, and it's just incredible. There's also some very canny use of the widescreen.  It's a very well edited film, too, and seeing as neither of the guys responsible (John Howard and Richard Meyer) were noted for much else of note we wondered if some of that was down to Hill, (they did win a BAFTA, as did film and screenplay - William Goldman - who has based his screenplay on true material).

That long chase sequence makes it unusual, too - I agree with Newman, who argued passionately with Hill that the scene with the marshal discussing enlisting was in the wrong place - he was right, it should have been after the chase.

With Katharine Ross, Strother Martin, George Furth (the unfortunate Woodcock), Kenneth Mars and - low billed - Sam Elliott as a card-player.

Goldman's book reveals how following a preview, Hill took out some of the jokes. It was too funny, and he figured the ending would be imbalanced. It would be kinda interesting to see this version, though...