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The blu ray of "Butch Cassidy" doesn't look that much better than the last
standard edition Special Edition but that didn't surprise me. As I've mentioned
many times before, the New Hollywood style of fillmmaking in the late sixties
and early seventies doesn't adapt well to the digital formats.
Conrad Hall was an experienced cinematographer who had shot some vibrant
Technicolor films ("The Professionals") before this one. Although he wasn't young,
he jumped onto the New Hollywood Band Wagon and like others with this mindset decided to
abandon everything associated with "Old Hollywood". Rich and vivid Technicolor
imagery was out. Grain was "in". The mantra was that grainy, underexposed and
murky images were more 'realistic' which suited the counter-culture movies of the
time. Well maybe so back then but they don't translate well to modern technology.
The traditional method of filming a Western exterior was to put on a polarizing filter
and expose for the sky making it a bright blue. Then they would add reflectors or
lights on the faces to even out the exposure which would generate a very colorful
and fine grain image. "The Searchers" and "How the West Was Won" and Hall's
own "The Professionals" are examples of this type of camerawork which look spectacular on DVD.
On this movie and in some later features Hall decided to do the opposite.
He exposed for the faces and let the backgrounds get washed out and underexposed.
Since the film starts with a sepia tinted prologue and then adds the color later (just a
little muted color), I assume he was attempting to simulate a Mathew Brady photograph of the 19th
Century. Does it work? I guess it works stylistically then but not really on blu ray now.
The image on this disc is pretty washed out, grainy and soft focus. Only slightly better
than the standard edition.
Fortunately, the movie is so entertaining you can get used to it although I wouldn't
project it on too big a screen. In this case, the bigger the image, the worse it will
look because there is no way of circumventing the underexposed and by now faded 35mm
camera negative. This is a far cry from "Glorious Technicolor".
The 5.1 stereo re-mix of the original mono sound is an improvement compared to previous
discs. Nothing spectacular but the gunfire and bouncy Bacharach score is enhanced
when they spread it out over the multiple channels.
As for the movie itself, it's an amusing Western or Western spoof depending on your
perspective. Newman and Redford have great screen chemistry (as they did in "The
Sting") and the supporting cast is good too (Katherine Ross, Strother Martin). The
score really carries the rather convoluted story about two has been outlaws on the
run from a bounty hunter as well as the twentieth century.
They speak in anachronistic slang and crack puns and jokes with each other. Like "Bonnie
and Clyde" there was some critical backlash at the time about depicting murderous
thieves as amiable pop culture icons although at least this film makes no claims that
this is a biopic or accurate historical acccount of the Hole in the Wall Gang. They even
have a disclaimer about this up front. In addition, the critics in the sixties seem to have
forgotten that Hollywood had a long history of re-writing history, especially regarding
the Wild West. There were earlier movies about Jessie James that also portrayed him
in a sympathetic light. As John Ford use to joke (paraphrasing), "If you have a choice
between showing history and showing myth...show the myth which is always more
entertaining".
The soundtrack album was one of the best selling ones at the time although Bacharach's
score doesn't sound anything like a Western score of the past. The "Raindrops" song
became a hit too despite the fact that it doesn't fit the time period.
So I recommend this movie for it's style, performances and music score but not for it's
cinematography. You'll need some tolerance watching it on blu ray which exagerates the
grain and murkiness. But if you can get past that, it's still fun to watch.
standard edition Special Edition but that didn't surprise me. As I've mentioned
many times before, the New Hollywood style of fillmmaking in the late sixties
and early seventies doesn't adapt well to the digital formats.
Conrad Hall was an experienced cinematographer who had shot some vibrant
Technicolor films ("The Professionals") before this one. Although he wasn't young,
he jumped onto the New Hollywood Band Wagon and like others with this mindset decided to
abandon everything associated with "Old Hollywood". Rich and vivid Technicolor
imagery was out. Grain was "in". The mantra was that grainy, underexposed and
murky images were more 'realistic' which suited the counter-culture movies of the
time. Well maybe so back then but they don't translate well to modern technology.
The traditional method of filming a Western exterior was to put on a polarizing filter
and expose for the sky making it a bright blue. Then they would add reflectors or
lights on the faces to even out the exposure which would generate a very colorful
and fine grain image. "The Searchers" and "How the West Was Won" and Hall's
own "The Professionals" are examples of this type of camerawork which look spectacular on DVD.
On this movie and in some later features Hall decided to do the opposite.
He exposed for the faces and let the backgrounds get washed out and underexposed.
Since the film starts with a sepia tinted prologue and then adds the color later (just a
little muted color), I assume he was attempting to simulate a Mathew Brady photograph of the 19th
Century. Does it work? I guess it works stylistically then but not really on blu ray now.
The image on this disc is pretty washed out, grainy and soft focus. Only slightly better
than the standard edition.
Fortunately, the movie is so entertaining you can get used to it although I wouldn't
project it on too big a screen. In this case, the bigger the image, the worse it will
look because there is no way of circumventing the underexposed and by now faded 35mm
camera negative. This is a far cry from "Glorious Technicolor".
The 5.1 stereo re-mix of the original mono sound is an improvement compared to previous
discs. Nothing spectacular but the gunfire and bouncy Bacharach score is enhanced
when they spread it out over the multiple channels.
As for the movie itself, it's an amusing Western or Western spoof depending on your
perspective. Newman and Redford have great screen chemistry (as they did in "The
Sting") and the supporting cast is good too (Katherine Ross, Strother Martin). The
score really carries the rather convoluted story about two has been outlaws on the
run from a bounty hunter as well as the twentieth century.
They speak in anachronistic slang and crack puns and jokes with each other. Like "Bonnie
and Clyde" there was some critical backlash at the time about depicting murderous
thieves as amiable pop culture icons although at least this film makes no claims that
this is a biopic or accurate historical acccount of the Hole in the Wall Gang. They even
have a disclaimer about this up front. In addition, the critics in the sixties seem to have
forgotten that Hollywood had a long history of re-writing history, especially regarding
the Wild West. There were earlier movies about Jessie James that also portrayed him
in a sympathetic light. As John Ford use to joke (paraphrasing), "If you have a choice
between showing history and showing myth...show the myth which is always more
entertaining".
The soundtrack album was one of the best selling ones at the time although Bacharach's
score doesn't sound anything like a Western score of the past. The "Raindrops" song
became a hit too despite the fact that it doesn't fit the time period.
So I recommend this movie for it's style, performances and music score but not for it's
cinematography. You'll need some tolerance watching it on blu ray which exagerates the
grain and murkiness. But if you can get past that, it's still fun to watch.
