George Roy Hill’s 1969 film, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was based on real-life outlaws by the same names. The film was one of the first of the fresh buddy-comedy genre – a welcome relief to the sensitive landscape of the Vietnam War era. Hollywood heavy-weight Paul Newman was the big man on campus on set, whereas the then lesser-known Robert Redford was just being introduced into the world of big cinema.
Photo by Bill Manns, Shutterstock / Snap, Shutterstock
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid went on to collect four Academy Awards, including Best Screenplay, Best Original Score, Best Song, and Best Cinematography. As fun as the movie is to watch, even today, it happened to be a joy to make – for pretty much everyone except for Katharine Ross (and you’ll see why).
This is a look into the making of the classic and the history of the real-life outlaws behind the story.