Blu-ray Review: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid - Page 2

The film is a buddy movie, a Western, and a comedy all rolled into one.  It also manages a good deal of drama, particularly with the Butch, Sundance, and Etta's ill-fated trip to Bolivia.  Though the film definitely offers comedic moments in those scenes, they are funny in an if-I-didn't-laugh-I'd-cry sort of way.  Nothing confirms more than their trip to Bolivia that Butch and Sundance are men of a different era, one's who long for a time that no longer exists – if it ever did.

Perhaps that's why the film works as well as it does so many years later.  Our nation has a fascination with nostalgia, with history as we would have had it been instead of history as it was.  Butch and Sundance want the Old West where robbing a bank was as easy as walking into it and asking nicely for the money; a time when bankrobbing was done with childlike simplicity.  So many of us want the nicer, simpler times of our childhood, times which were probably neither nicer nor simpler, but certainly seem that way now.  Butch and Sundance get the opportunity to try to make their world the way they wish it could be, something many of us probably wish we could do as well.

In terms of the audio and video presentation of this Blu-ray release is really quite better than anyone has any right to expect from a 40-plus year-old film.  The vast majority of the film looks good, with rich colors and excellent definition.  There are some shots that contain slightly more grain than others and feel a little flatter (and, unfortunately one shot which doesn't seem to match in color and brightness the shot which came before it).  There are also some scratches here and there, but far less than what one might expect from the film.  If one wants to discuss the transfer to HD specifically it is quite good, the source material however isn't the greatest and the issues in the video presentation of the film seem to stem from that.  The feature does come with a DTS-HD 5.1 channel Master Audio track, and it too performs well (the original mono track is also included).  One won't notice very much hiss or static at all, and while the surrounds aren't often used, but the gun (and dynamite) blasts do ring through loud and clear.

Article Author: Josh Lasser

Josh Lasser, formerly known as "TV and Film Guy," and complete with a Masters Degree in Critical Studies in said areas, gives his opinions on TV, Film, and Entertainment in general. All of which he does in a shameless attempt to try to get paid to do the exact same thing. …

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