Superb screenplay highlights Western

If there was ever a movie where the dialogue was the best feature, it would have to be Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Now don't take this to mean the other elements in the movie aren't very well done. In fact, they're great, and they all add up to make this movie a masterpiece. It's just that the dialogue in the Oscar-winning screenplay is fantastic.

Set in the last days of the Old West, the true story follows two colorful and humorous outlaws. After robbing several trains, they become famous. It is then that a notorious lawman and an expert Indian tracker start to hunt them down. The problem is, Butch and Sundance are unable to lose their pursuers. That's when they head to South America where a whole new series of disasters awaits the film's heroes.

The 112-minute film is broken into two parts. The beginning half is Butch and Sundance's last days in America, and the second half deals with their life in South America. This brings up the one part of the movie that doesn't particularly work and that's the transition between these two parts of the film. In an overly long musical segment, the audience sees black and white pictures of the two outlaws partying in New York and leaving the country. Though it is a bit drawn out, the strength of the rest of the movie makes this segment easy to overlook.

The real life characters of Butch and Sundance are brought back to life by the great performances of Paul Newman and Robert Redford. Their performances, along with the direction of George Roy Hill and the screenplay by William Goldman, make this movie a classic. Newman and Redford are wonderful at playing off each other, and the dialogue of the film makes it easy for them to shine.

It's a tricky thing to make a Western into a comedy, but this movie does it with no trouble at all. It does it so well, in fact, that it was added to the AFI's top 100 American movies of all time. Everything in this movie contributed to its success, but it's witty dialogue brings it to a new level. Executed perfectly by Redford and Newman, and directed to perfection by Hill, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, is a great, funny movie that you should check out soon.