‘Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid’ (1969) is a ‘western buddy film’ directed by George Roy Hill. Image by 20th Century Fox/Cinematic Collection.
The opening lines to Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid belie what ensues. “The horse is dead,” declares the salesman. “Meet the future mode of transportation.”
‘BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID’ – 1969
Starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford – Directed by George Roy Hill
“No oats, no mess, no kicks, no running away, no stepping on your foot,” continues the salesman. He shows the crowd a bicycle. It’s the American frontier in the late 1800s – salesman Henry Jones is spruiking a “boneshaker” to the townsfolk while their marshal is trying to raise a posse of volunteers on real horses.
It’s the prelude to the film’s famous sequence of Paul Newman riding a bicycle to the tune of Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head.
Described as a western buddy film, based loosely on fact, it tells the story of outlaws Robert LeRoy Parker, aka ‘Butch Cassidy’, and his partner Harry Longabaugh, the ‘Sundance Kid’, on the run after a string of train robberies. They flee to Bolivia to escape the posse. (Cassidy was so named due to his having worked in a butcher’s shop; his partner’s nickname was because he was once arrested in the Wyoming town of Sundance).
The role of Sundance was initially offered to Jack Lemmon who turned it down because he hated riding horses. A few years before he had made Cowboy and on the first day of filming had spent the entire time on horseback. He was so sore that three stuntmen had to lift him out of the saddle. “I had to wear pads every day for two months,” he said afterward. “I was never off the damn horse long enough for the wounds to heal.”
Other actors considered for the role of Sundance had been Marlon Brando, Steve McQueen and Warren Beatty – all had turned it down. Newman, already a star, was to play Butch and it was at his suggestion that upcoming actor, Robert Redford, play opposite him. The rest is cinematic history.
Robert Redford played the role of the Sundance Kid. Image by Classic Cinema Archive.
TRIVIA: According to western folklore Cassidy and his outlaws occasionally put horseshoes on backwards to trick pursuing lawmen about their direction of travel.
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid bristles with intricate action sequences but none of the stuntmen, wranglers or equestrian doubles appear in the film’s credits. Newman rode a bay named Hud; he’d made a movie with the same name three years earlier. The horse was the offspring of Diamond Jet which had been trained for the family film Smoky, by Les Hilton of Mr Ed fame. (Read more: POETRY JUMPS TO LIFE & YES, HORSES CAN TALK! – Equestrian Life, October 2020)
Redford rode a chestnut gelding for most of the picture. Research indicates that both mounts were probably rented from the Fat Jones Stables in Hollywood, which supplied horses to movies for over 50 years. Others were sourced from Mexico for the Bolivia scenes.
Newman could ride reasonably well but not as capably as Redford, who was directed to tone down his skills so the two characters looked equally proficient. (In the following years he made two major horse films – The Electric Horseman 1979 (Read more: REDFORD TURNS UP THE VOLTAGE – Equestrian Life, November 2021) and The Horse Whisperer 1998 (Read more: INSIDE ‘THE HORSE WHISPERER’ – Equestrian Life, July 2022).
“Their partnership gave
us one of the most enduring
duos in film history…”
Paul Newman as Butch Cassidy and Robert Redford as the Sundance Kid. Image supplied.
“Their partnership gave us one of the most enduring duos in film history – equal parts grit, wit, and wild freedom – and cemented Redford as a cowboy legend whose rides across the big screen still echo today,” said Horse Nation in 2025.
One of the stunts which other filmmakers have replicated over the years is when a mob of horses make a running jump out of a railroad car. As stated by Petrina Mitchum in her Hollywood Hoofbeats: “The car was custom built with the door opening three feet higher than usual so the stuntmen wouldn’t be decapitated on the way out. A ramp was built on the other side of the car to give the horses a running start and allow them to gallop through the car. The scene was shot with multiple cameras including one buried beneath the open door to catch the jumps from below. With a price tag of $1,000 per jump for the stuntmen and their horses the director wanted to be sure he covered the sequence only once.”
The stunt where a mob of horses make a running jump out of a railroad car was at a cost of $1,000 per jump. Image supplied.
Another memorable stunt is when the two outlaws elude their pursuers by leaping from a cliff into a river far below – the scene where Sundance admits he can’t swim, much to the amusement of his partner. What really happened was the actors landed on a mattress-covered platform two metres from where they were standing.
TRIVIA: In 1988 Paul Newman founded The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp to give children with serious illnesses the chance to “raise a little hell”. Each year it serves thousands of children and family members through a variety of year-round programs. Newman named the camp after the gang led by Butch Cassidy.
The actual jump was executed by two stuntmen at the Fox ranch in Malibu where they took off from a 70-foot (21 metre) construction crane above water. The action was shot through a sheet of glass painted to resemble the cliffs around Durango in Mexico.
This motion picture earned a raft of awards and a place in cinematic history, but there was a negative aspect to Butch Cassidy. A notorious trick training device known as a “running W” was used on a mule which painfully nosedived into the dirt.
Before being outlawed this barbaric equipment was used on thousands of movie horses. The rigging worked as a pulley system where a rope was attached to the horse’s legs, run up to the saddle and held either by the rider or anchored securely to the ground. When the animal was moving, often at a gallop, the rope was triggered, instantly stopping the horse’s front feet and pitching it violently forward. It routinely caused injury or death.
Apparently, the mule wasn’t seriously harmed; however, the scene was cut from the UK release. To obtain a PG classification it was edited out in accordance with the British Board Film Classification guidelines.
Thankfully, these days on most film sets in the US there are representatives from the American Humane Society ensuring that no animals are being harmed during a production.
While the movie is considered a classic now and eventually made over $100 million (over $600 million in today’s dollars), initially it wasn’t well received. Reviews were mixed, to terrible. Leading American film critic, Roger Ebert, complained it was disappointing and too slow. However, in 2008, the American Film Institute ranked it the seventh-best western of all time.
In 2008, the American Film Institute ranked ‘Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid’ the seventh-best western of all time. Image by 20th Century Fox/Cinematic Collection.
“The movie is considered
a classic now…”
Both stars went on to give back to the arts and society after the film’s success. Redford owned Timp Haven, a skiing property near Provo, Utah. After making the picture he renamed it the Sundance Resort. In November 1979 he held a three-day conference there for filmmakers and professional artists aiming to promote indie filmmakers. This laid the foundation in 1981 for the Sundance Institute to foster and celebrate the diversity of American filmmaking. Beginning in 1985 the US Film Festival was held there. The name was officially changed to the Sundance Film Festival in 1991.
Newman and his wife, Joanne Woodward, bought a 54-acre farm in North Salem in 1982 with the idea of turning it into the best horse show and community educational facility in the Northeast. They named it Far West Farms. At the time their 16-year-old daughter Clea was one of the top 10 junior riders in America. EQ
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid can be viewed on DVD or Disney+. It is also available to buy or rent digitally through Apple and Amazon Prime Video.
Next time in Horses & Movies, the 2020 documentary ‘The Mustangs: America’s Wild Horses’, with songs by Bruce Springsteen, Emmylou Harris and Willie Nelson.
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