The Making of 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid'

A few days ago I watched the making-of documentary about the Flight of the Phoenix remake and was surprised at how much profanity it contained. There were several times when Director John Moore would literally scream at the top of his lungs, unleashing streams of profanity at his cast and crew (mostly his crew, I think) about why there weren't doing this or why this happened or what went wrong with that scene or what the hell has that guy been doing while the plane has been flying overhead all this time?? After watching this documentary, I start to get the feeling that maybe film-making is just much more frustrating than I had previously thought!

On the other hand, one of the things that I've always found the most interesting when watching these documentaries is to hear stories about troubles and mishaps that they run into along the way and how those events altered the course of filming or even changed scenes within the movie itself, but evidently there are times when it's such a lengthy and difficult process that it can leave people jaded and disillusioned when it's all over, even when the movie becomes an enduring classic.

I think this was made for some kind of TV show just after the film was released, because it was filmed before the movie was released, before anyone knew what an important film it would be. I found it a little odd that they would have made it at all, since DVDs (and the demand for supplemental documentaries) were in the distant future and it seemed that so many people had substantial doubts about how the movie would be received.

I am always a little put off by Making Of documentaries that spend too much time showing you footage of the movie that you just finished watching, and while this one does quite a bit of it, it doesn't do it in a way that is at all repetitive. There are interviews with Paul Newman and Robert Redford and Director George Roy Hill, but there is no video of the interviews, all we have is the audio, which is set over behind the scenes footage as well as scenes from the final film, in order to illustrate the points that were being made in the interviews.

I wish they would do that more often, because while I don't like to see lengthy montages from the finished films in these documentaries, I do like when they describe how they made certain scenes and what problems they ran into and why they did it this way or that way, and then show the finished scene so we can see what they're talking about.

And yes, that last line will certainly blow your hair back!

Unlike most "Making of" documentaries this one doesn't focus on praising the actors. Director Hill swears a lot and explains how the special effects were done. I was interested to know how the jumping shot to the creek and the final still shot were filmed. Hill reveals every secret that an attentive audience might have wondered.

After seeing this document you'll look at the movie in a different way. Action scenes that nowadays are taken self-evident, required enormous amount of work and talent.

The Making of 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid' (1970)

**** (out of 4)

I've bought BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID on VHS, then on DVD a couple times, then on Blu-ray and I even recently went to see it on the big screen. What's shocking is that throughout all of that time I had no idea that this documentary existed and that's a real shame because this here is quite remarkable on many levels.

George Roy Hill narrates his adventures making the picture and what makes this documentary so special is the fact that we get a lot of behind-the-scenes footage, which shows us how some of the best scenes in the movie were shot. Not only do we get to see how they were shot but we've got the director right there explaining things to us. The train explosion, the ending and the cliff jump are just a few of the legendary scenes that are discussed here and we get some terrific behind-the-scenes footage of them crew discussing the scenes and shooting it.

What's even better is that we get a look at a scene that didn't appear in the movie! Not only do we get all of this footage but the director also talks about various things that happen during filming that causes the director to have to do extra work. This could be the actor's not beleiving in a scene or having two actors not agreeing on how something should be played.

As you can tell, there's quite a bit of stuff packed in the 41-minute running time and it's just shocking to think that this documentary isn't better known.

Now most likely to be seen as featured material in the DVD release, this is an excellent documentary. George Roy Hill himself narrates and is refreshingly free from the usual Hollywood hype and bullsh*t, as he honestly and entertainingly describes the hassles (and fun) of making this movie.

Even better, he swears like a sailor and his final line will crease you, I promise.

Effective documentary which sharply follows the key scenes in the movie and which is made all the more fascinating because it is narrated by George Roy Hill, the film's director who is full of fascinating insights all of which is spoken with absolute candour about both scenes and stars.