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Jul 13, 2015MICHAEL TAGGART MALONEY rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
By far the top-grossing film of 1969, BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID is a radical picture for several reasons: 1) in its championing of polyandry (Butch and Sundance, whether carnal or not is beside the point, amicably share the affections of schoolteacher Etta Place); 2) in its baleful depiction of big business (the Union Pacific boss E.H. Harriman sicks the machine-like death posse on Butch and Sundance, running them out of the country and off to Bolivia; and 3) the bad guys, the outlaws are the good guys, the hipsters. This was heady stuff back in 1969. This movie, along with EASY RIDER, had an enormous outsize influence on people as the 1960s came to end. Recently having read Weatherman Cathy Wilkerson's memoir FLYING CLOSE TO THE SUN, she remarks that her lover, Terry Robbins, one of those who died in the Greenwich townhouse explosion of March 1970, was deeply affected by the movie. A lot of people in the 1960s thought they were going to go out in a blaze of glory.