Butch & Johnny & Sundance & Henry: a duo of duos

It’s Hollywood arithmetic at its finest, really: first, take one movie star with enough sex appeal and charisma to power the Eastern Seaboard, give him a lead role, and rake in the dough. Now, take two movie stars with sex appeal and charisma: 1 + 1 = 2. Two times the success and the dough. Or it may even be exponential, so you get the amount of dough squared.

And if this has worked once, what are you going to do? How about making another film with that duo of stars that has worked so well previously? You could even get back the director who helped make the first film a hit. What worked once is certain to work a second time.

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The Rear-View Mirror: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)

Each Friday we travel back in time, one year at a time, for a look at some of the cultural goodies that may appear closer than they really are in The Rear-View Mirror. Join us on our weekly journey into the past!

If there was alien life out there that had discovered a method to objectively measure charm and they used that to discover intelligent life in the universe, they would surely have discovered the Earth after the release of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid in 1969, directed by George Roy Hill, written by William Goldman, but most importantly starring one of the greatest double acts in Hollywood history, Paul Newman and Robert Redford as the titular characters. The effortless chemistry between Newman and Redford, combined with Hill’s assured direction and Goldman’s wit, make the film a master class in ’60s cinema. There are few films that are as purely enjoyable as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

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