Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)

Updated: 21 February 2014

"Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" is the greatest of cinema fun from the late 1960s, and the best buddy comedy action film ever made. Period. Flat out.

Even if I hate, loathe, despise, and cringe at the hippie-dippy piano crap Burt Bacharach music heard in the title song "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head." And the dodololedo-shit near the end, you know it sucks.

Commie? Maybe. But I hate the music.

Oh, yes, the film. Worship. In case you're not familiar with this classic tweaking of the western genre, here goes: The Hole in the Wall Gang, led by Butch (Paul Newman) and The Sundance Kid (Robert Redford), robs one too many trains and is pursued by a never-seen gang of lawmen. In their bid to stay alive and re-start their career criminal ways, Butch and Sundance, along with the latter's lover (Katherine Ross of "The Graduate"), head to Bolivia.

Big mistake.

But, watch it and love it.

Mixing standout comedy, solid Western action, and some mild suspense, "Butch" jump-started the Hollywood buddy flick and satirized everything about all of the above before it ever got popular enough to poke fun at.

The film is never better when Newman and Redford not only out fox the law, but also out-smart-ass each other with witty and riotous dialogue. When Butch and Sundance jump off a cliff into a raging river below to escape their captors, it's one of the great stunts of all filmdom, and played off as a quick laugh. Startd by tough-guy Redford's admission that he cannot swim.

The build up to that jump ("What do you mean you can't swim?!?") is comedy/action nirvana, and a send up of tough guy posturing. There's never been a screen duo as cool as these guys. (Ambiguously gay theses abound if the viewer chooses.)

If only for that damn music, this would be classic Top 20 proportions. Top 10. Ugh. "Raindrops." No. Tone deaf bricks. On my head. As is: A-