Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)

The first must-see film of the year.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Despite a few issues, the movie coasts along on the charms of it's iconic duo.We have seen these buddy movies before. Pairing up two characters with opposite temperaments together. In this movie Paul Newman is the easy going and talkative gang leader and Robert Redford is the laconic dead shot. This pairing works wonders. And their interactions easily form the best part of the movie.In the first half of the movie we see them both fleeing from a posse that attempts to pursue them. The movie successfully creates a feeling of dread while hardly showing anything but the outlines of the pursuers from afar. There is a note of impending doom in the air that the movie captures so successfully in this part.But don't worry it's not all serious. In fact it's hardly. There are jokes a plenty. This movie will have you smiling from ear to ear. This is a basically a road trip movie in guise of a western. There are some inspired choices by the director, like the sepia filtered opening, a montage of photos instead of exposition, and of course the iconic ending shot.I have a few issues with this movie. The third act seeps with aimlessness and the movie is not sure what to do with it's characters. Also the Katherine Ross character is really underdeveloped.

Wyoming, early 1900s. Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid are the leaders of the Hole In The Wall Gang, a band of outlaws. After a train robbery goes wrong the find themselves on the run with a posse hard on their heals. Their solution - escape to Bolivia!Superb movie. While having the appearances of a western it's more than that. Quite funny and many of the themes could have played out in any era. If anything, it captures the end of the old Wild West.Great performances by Paul Newman and Robert Redford in the lead roles. So good was the Newman-Redford combination that, four years later, director George Roy Hill reunited them for another of his movies, The Sting.

I was like 15 when this movie came out. Movies were really different in the old days. They took way more time developing a story and characters before the climax started to slowly build. Younger generations are accustomed to the fast-paced stories and action of today's screen writing and cannot endure the slower pace of older movies. I agree, they seem to languish and even stagnate at some places, but what younger generations don't have, is the nostalgic connection of where they were and who they were when they fist viewed this movie. This was a coming-of-age movie for me and it represents way more than just celluloid stretches of what many would qualify as adequate or even mediocre acting, effects, locations, music, never before seen supporting characters and actors. It was a piece of my mid to late teens that contains memories of the life and times in which that movie played. The raw emotion and reverie of the late 1960's will forever be inexorably tied to that movie for me. Nostalgia.

Just on the cusp of the 1970s, this movie is a total classic, with some very dated but still fun to watch 70s montage scenes. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is famous for several reasons, one was the iconic first pairing of real-life friends Paul Newman and Robert Redford. They play off each other beautifully; it's easy to see their true friendship radiating off the screen. Of course, the ending is a famous and often spoofed scene, as is the jumping off the cliff scene.To me, the legacy is the most beautiful aspect of the film. Paul Newman created a children's camp in 1988 for sick kids and their families, named Hole in the Wall Gang Club after the gang in this film. And everyone knows (or should know) Robert Redford founded the Sundance Film Festival in 1978, named after his character in the movie.Obviously, this film touched their hearts. Even if the movie wasn't a classic, it should be watched and respected for what the two men gave back in its name.