Die Legende von Butch und Sundance

Story line was pure crap!! It was a Hollywooder all the way. No room for fact here! The stars were absolutely crummy! Rachelle Lefevre was the only saving grace. She plays a character named Etta who is the girl friend of BOTH of the main characters. How STUPID can we be? Right?!! She did a marvelous job up against the two (so called) stars. Even if you have nothing else to do some day, do not waste 89 minutes of your day on this one. Of course, we must consider that it was "made for TV." This should be enough to keep you away! Photography was pretty good. Direction was totally stupid. Thank God that we know the REAL story of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid!!

The idea behind this movie is an idea that is doomed from the start. Everybody knows about the classic movie from 1969 starring the unforgettable Paul Newman and the unforgettable Robert Redford, who together had an unforgettable chemistry that clicked in such an unforgettable way that the two would team up again for THE STING.

Now that we got that out in the open, let us evaluate this movie.

For starters, it was a pretty good movie, though it resembled more of a remake of the movie from 1979, BUTCH AND SUNDANCE, THE EARLY DAYS.

Like THE EARLY DAYS, this movie began with the Sundance Kid being paroled from prison on the merit of his father being a man of the cloth, in other words, a preacher. All he had to do was promise that he would go by the straight and narrow. But being a young man of principle, he could only insure the warden that he would never break the law in Wyoming. So he pursues the life of an outlaw in the other states, instead.

In comparing this movie with the 1979 movie, THE LEGEND OF BUTCH AND SUNDANCE is actually the better of the two. As long as this movie is not compared to the classic from 1969, it is actually a pretty good flick and stands pretty well on its own merit.

This TV movie is based on real events about But Cassidy and Sundance Kid and previously adapted to cinema by George Roy Hill with Robert Redford and Paul Newman. This film is well played by a juvenile cast, such as, David Clayton Rogers, Ryan Browning and a gorgeous Rachelle Lefevre, playing to Etta Place. They are continuously pursued by Pinkerton agent, played Blake Gibbons as Durango. Besides appear veterans actors as Susan Ruttan as Etta's mummy and Michael Biehn as Mike Cassidy, the Butch's mentor. The film displays a nice score by Basil Poledouris, at his last film. He was an excellent composer and author of masterpieces, he composed : Robocop, Conan the Barbarian, and the destroyer, Hunt for Red October, Flesh and Blood, Free Willy, Starship troopers, among others. The motion picture is rightly directed by Sergio Mimica, an usual director of television episodes such as, Invasion,Prison break and Battlestar Galactica.

Adding more details about the Butch Cassidy, Sundance Kid and Etta Place life, their true deeds were the following : they were celebrated leaders of the Wild Bunch gang of train robbers, and the last old-style bandits of the West. Cassidy, born in Utah, grandson of a Mormon bishop, his real name was Robert Parker. He adopted the name Cassidy in admiration of Mike Cassidy, a rustler who taught him to shoot and steal livestock , he was dubbed Butch from his short time working in a butcher's shop. He was convicted of stealing horses .By all accounts Butch was a likable fellow, described in a Pinkerton wanted poster as a having a cheerful and affable manner.It is said that, although a crack shot, he never killed anybody, and disliked gratuitous violence. Still determined on a life of crime he formed a gang, known as the Wild Bunch and robbed banks and trains. One of the gang was Harry Longbaugh, known as the Sundance Kid. This notorious pair became rustlers in the mid-90s, and they moved into train robberies, later, gaining fame and fortune but with the Pinkerton and railroad agents hot on their trail. Plus, Etta Place, fabled as the lover of Sundance Kid, it is very likely that Etta did take part in robberies, notably the hold up of Up Train in August 1900, dressed as a man. She did not, however died in Bolivia ambush that killed Butch and Sundance, since she was undergoing surgery on her appendix at the time. The Wild Bunch broke up and Cassidy and Longsbaugh sailed to South America in 1901 and continued their banditry there. It is believed they died in a gunfight with troops in Bolivia, near La Paz or Uruguay.

I don't know why, but there is something in this movie that had me waiting and waiting for reruns. I think it's Roger's charm and bubbly acting that attracted me to this movie. However, the movie seemed a little calm and cool-- maybe too calm for a Western, and sometimes the cowboy twang isn't captured and may had viewers raise eyebrows. The thing I liked about this movie is that the cast did not only fit their parts individually, but they actually fit each other-- sort of an all-cast chemistry. This makes the cast memorable. I felt that the movie lacked some details, but the cast definitely stood up to the challenge of a modern-day Western. Too bad there are no more reruns in HBO! :-(

This could've-- I mean should have been nominated for Art Direction and Cinematography!

Did they even try to pic up a history book on them?!?! The made up history in this movie, far out weighed the factual info. They got their names right, they got Etta's name right, as well as Mike Cassidy and else lays name right. The got butch's promise to the judge in Wyoming never to commit a crime there again, which as far anyone knows he honored that promise. They robbed trains is accurate, they once blew up a train, and the gang was called the wild bunch. The other 90% of the movie is fabricated nonsense. On top of that the script and acting were mediocre at best. If you want to make up a story of the old west, then make it 100% fiction. People like this need to stay clear of history!