Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid (1969)

Factual error: Near the end of the film Butch is complaining about the living conditions they have to endure - jungles, swamps, snakes, night work - and Sundance sarcastically retorts "Bitch, bitch, bitch!" In 1908 the term meant just what it literally means: "Female dog." It did not adopt its current meaning of "complain" until much later. At the time the film is set - outside the context of "female dog" - it was considered to be a serious obscenity, and it would not have been used to describe something as ordinary as someone moaning about his living conditions.

Factual error: In the beginning, Sundance is accused of cheating at cards and the man accusing Sundance doesn't know who he is. To prove it, Sundance shoots the holster off the man and then the gun from his hand, and then shoots the gun around the room. All this takes 9 bullets. The gun is a revolver holding 6 bullets.

kh1616

Revealing mistake: In the opening sequence when Sundance shoots the gun belt off the card player, the film was cut to make the quick draw appear faster. You can see Butch's image jump across the screen in the background.

Trivia: Katherine Ross, (Etta Place) was caught operating a camera, filming some footage of the arrival of the train carrying the "super posse". In the late 60s the US film business was strict, closed shop union (to a great extent it still is) and Ross operating a camera was against every rule there is. Several senior crew members demanded her dismissal from the film but producer John Foreman and Unit Production Manager Lloyd Anderson, aware of the fact that a lot of scenes with her in it would have to be reshot at absurd expense, argued for a compromise to which the union agreed - none of the footage she shot would be used (it wasn't) and she would be asked not to be on set while scenes in which she was not involved were shot. Her gender was totally irrelevant to the issue. This is confirmed in William Goldman's excellent memoir, "Which Lie Did I Tell?"

Trivia: In 1981, Robert Redford founded the Sundance Film Festival, which is named after his character the Sundance Kid.

Trivia: The turn-of-the-century-style film (which plays alongside the opening credits) was originally intended to appear in the bulk of the story. On Butch, Sundance and Etta's trip through New York, they view this film, which depicts Butch and Sundance's deaths. It upsets Etta so much, it contributes to her later decision to return home by herself. The segment had an annoyed Butch and Sundance watching the film from the back of the theater, whispering comments like, "We never did that". The change was made when it was decided to make the trip through New York into a musical interlude over still-photos. The main reason for the change: the studio had just finished work on a "period" set of a New York street (ca.1900) for the film Hello Dolly and did not want this expensive set appearing in a different film first.

Butch: Man, I got vision and the rest of the world wears bifocals.

[After blowing up an entire train car while only intending to blow open the door.]
Sundance: Think you used enough dynamite there, Butch?

Butch: Kid, next time I say "Let's go someplace like Bolivia", let's go someplace like Bolivia.
Sundance: Next time.

Cubs Fan ★

Question: What was the point of the dialogue between Butch and Etta when she wonders if they might have been a couple? There are no other moments in the film where she seems to want Butch more than Sundance so why bring it up for no reason at all?

Question: The beginning of the film states that most of it is true. Are there any specific happenings which can be pointed out as not true?

Question: In the final scenes where they are trapped by the Bolivian police in that little room, they're guessing how many men are out there when Butch says, "maybe its only one guy?" Suddenly 3 shots, too quick to be one gunman rings out. Sundance looks at Butch and says. "don't you ever get sick of being right?" Isn't Butch wrong? There's an army out there.