The modern attitudes are not there.īut by all means watch Butch Cassidy: it’s a great movie about two completely straight ’s resident sexologist and couples therapist, Isiah McKimmie. And there’s very little point searching for modern attitudes in 50+ year old movies.
Gay kids growing up today live in a nirvana of acceptance compared to what their own parents grew up with just one or two decades earlier. But we live in times that are incredibly different from just 30-40 years ago.
There is clearly a lot of gay subtext in so much film and TV these days. We have to be careful not to judge the past by modern standards. Such an endorsement likely would’ve ended their careers, friendships, and families. But even the most liberal of liberals in the 60s, 70s, and 80s would not have dared to endorse homosexuality. Even then, the film academy was probably one of the more liberal institutions in the country. Gay behavior simply was not accepted, allowed, or condoned in any way shape or form at that time.Īlso, the Academy would not have given it all those academy awards if they had understood it to be a gay film. The major studios also may not have even released the film, certainly not in wide release, if anyone had understood it in any way to be even a slight endorsement of homosexuality. And they would’ve had nothing to do with a film about homo characters. Any association with homosexuality would’ve almost certainly ended their Hollywood careers. At that time, to be gay was to be either a criminal and/or a pervert. I have nothing against Redford and Newman, but it’s almost certain that neither one of them would’ve ever agreed to be in a 1960s movie with a gay subtext. Not even slightly.Īnd it’s important to remember why that might be so. I think it’s safe to say that nothing in the movie even hints or suggests at anything gay between the two male leads.
Watch, and just imagine: every time they reach for their pistols, it symbolizes something else.īutch Cassidy is a great movie, I appreciate the favorable review.īut there is nothing gay about it. So, until we get a full-on gay remake, we recommend spending an evening with a pair of legendary stars. Both are films about same-sex couples living in a hostile world, and who can’t seem to imagine life without one another. It’s not hard to see how Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid had an effect on the western genre in particular, Brokeback Mountain some 25 years later. We hereby endorse a remake that embraces that homoeroticism: before our antiheroes meet with doom, let them enjoy a moment of affection.Īs it is, we still enjoy the original for its direction by Hill, Goldman’s snappy dialogue and the performances of its three leads. Butch & Sundance have to whip out their pistols since they can’t whip out their privates. Both men dote on her to the point we have to wonder: are they in a threesome?įans of The Celluloid Closet will likely remember Susan Sarandon’s take on Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid: that the movie is really about two men in love, and that its climactic shootout is a metaphor. The inclusion of Etta only adds a layer of complexity to the situation. Critics compared the tale of Butch & Sundance to the pairing of Batman & Robin–the pair enjoy the same kind of witty banter…and maybe have more than a platonic interest in one another. All doesn’t go according to plan with their heists, and Butch, Sundance and Etta end up on the run from the law.ĭirector George Roy Hill, working from a script by William Goldman, uses the simple premise as a pretense to stage some wild action sequences, and as a prism through which to view masculinity. The pair plot to rob a pair of trains to make off with enough loot to sustain themselves for a good long while, and so Sundance could finally marry his longtime sweetheart, Etta (Kathrine Ross). The plot: a pair of outlaws, Butch (Newman) and Sundance (Redford) struggle to control their gang in 1890s Wyoming. The movie snagged four Academy Awards and became a major hit for the era, thanks in no small part to its two leads: Robert Redford and Paul Newman. The Proto-Brokeback: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kidīutch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid lands on just about every list of the Best Films of the 60s. Welcome to Screen Gems, our weekend dive into queer and queer-adjacent titles of the past that deserve a watch or a re-watch.