Butch and Sundance: The Early Days *** (1979, William Katt, Tom Berenger, Jeff Corey) – Classic Movie Review 8138

Likeable young stars Tom Berenger (as Butch Cassidy) and William Katt (as the Sundance Kid) are cast as near lookalikes for their predecessors Paul Newman and Robert Redford in director Richard Lester’s 1979 Butch and Sundance: The Early Days, the fairly attractive prequel to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), made 10 years later.

Horse thief Butch meets Sundance in a bar-room gunfight, and they become instant buddies. But malcontent O C Hanks (Brian Dennehy) dogs their every move, even when Butch takes an honest position as a butcher. So Butch and Sundance plan a train heist to end them all.

Lester directs vivaciously in his trademark style, which is not the usual quality to be found in Westerns. A merely modest screenplay by Allan Burns, based on the characters created by William Goldman, holds things back. If William Goldman had written it again it could have been a real winner. But, even if the magic isn’t there, it is still quite a good movie. It flopped at the box office. Costing $9,000,000, it grossed only $5,136,913 in the US.

Jeff Corey repeats his role as the unprincipled sheriff Ray Bledsoe from the original. Also in the cast are John Schuck, Michael C Gwynne, Peter Weller, Christopher Lloyd, Jill Eikenberry, Joel Fluellen, Regina Baff, Peter Brocco, Vincent Schiavelli, Hugh Gillin and Arthur Hill.

William Katt was born on February 16, 1951, the son of actress Barbara Hale and actor Bill Williams. He is also known for Big Wednesday (1978), The Greatest American Hero (1981), Carrie (1976) and The Man from Earth (2007).

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 8138

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