Butch Cassidy in Three Acts
“Screenplays are structure,” William Goldman once said. And though Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is known for being a highly unorthodox take on the Western its basic frame is surprisingly straightforward. There are three major parts to the film: Butch and the Kid’s ordinary life with the Hole-in-the Wall Gang, including their robberies of the Flyer; Butch and Sundance’s flight from the Superposse over the Western landscape; and finally the pair’s second career and last stand in Bolivia.
Here’s how it breaks down using a 10 point outline:
10 point outline
Act 1
1. Set up — Introduction of Butch, Sundance
2. Inciting (10 minute mark) — Butch tells Sundance he wants to go to Bolivia to rob mine payrolls. “Boy, I’ve got vision and the rest of the world wears bifocals.”
3. Central question (18 minute mark) — After the gang robs the Flyer, the Marshal fails to organize a posse to go after them. Central Q: Will Butch and Sundance be caught?
4. End of Act 1 Lock (35 minute mark) — As second robbery of the Flyer fails, the Superposse arrive. The hunt begins.
Act 2
5. Step up. (46 minute mark) — The Superposse doesn’t fall for Butch and Sundance’s fakeout. “Who are those guys?” Bledsoe prophecy scene: Butch and Sundance are going to die; they only get to choose where.
6. Midpoint Twist (60 min mark) — Butch and Sundance jump off the cliff to escape the Superposse (Sundance can’t swim.)
7. False ending (75 min mark) — Butch and Sundance learn Spanish, rob banks in Bolivia. Back in business. Until Lefors (Superposse lawman) shows up.
8. Low Point (90 min mark) — After going straight and taking a job defending the payroll, Bolivian banditos attack them. Blood bath ends their attempt to go straight. Etta suggests ranching. No way. Etta decides to go back.
Act 3
9. Final Challenge — At restaurant, the Bolivian police catch up with Butch and Sundance. Final shootout.
10. Conclusion — Butch and Sundance leap into the fusilage, shooting. Freeze frame. Bleed out the color.
And here’s a breakdown by major sequence:
1. Butch introduction.
2. Sundance introduction
3. The Hole in the Wall Gang. Butch’s unorthodox leadership. Butch will fight dirty to win.
4. First robbery of the Flyer. Woodcock, the Company man. Butch and Sundance try not to kill unnecessarily; they’re good at robbing.
5. The Marshal tries to gin up the crowd to go after the gang. Saloon scene. Butch and Sundance’s real names. Bicycle salesman–the Future.
6. Etta’s introduction. Another revelation. Sundance has a schoolteacher steady. Butch hangs at brothels.
7. The Future. Musical Interlude I. Butch and Etta and the bicycle.
8. Second robbery of the Flyer. Humorous interlude with Woodcock again. Too much dynamite, the money flies everywhere. The pair makes mistakes.
9. Introduction of the Superposse (Antagonists) as they pour out of second train.
10. Superposse chase Butch and Sundance over Western landscape.
11. At the brothel, Sweetface covers for Butch and Sundance. Butch and Agnes.
12. Back on the run. “Who are those guys?”
12. Bledsoe scene. Prophecy. The old times are over.
13. Back on the run, the Superposse finds them again. “Who are those guys?” The Indian, Lord Baltimore as tracker. The lawman’s gotta be Lefors. Butch and Sundance climb higher.
14. The Leap of Fear. Over the cliff into the stream.
15. At Etta’s, Superposse has been hired by E.H. Harriman to kill them. Decision to go to Bolivia. Etta will join.
16. The Future. Musical Interlude II. New York.
17. Bolivia’s introduction. It’s the pits. And they don’t know Spanish.
18. Learning Spanish.
19. Banditos Yanquis, Back in Business. Musical interlude III
20. Joe Lefors reappears. Let’s end it here.
21. Going straight with Garris, guarding payroll.
22. Blowout with Banditos.
23. Etta decides to return home. She doesn’t want to watch them die.
24. [In script but cut from film: Musical Interlude III. Watching themselves die on screen.]
25. In jungle, Butch and Sundance rob the Alpoco Mine payroll. They take the mule. Marked men.
26. At restaurant in town, the mule is spotted. Leadup to
27. The Final Shootout
28. Freeze frame ending. Butch and Sundance come out with guns blazing.
Something very interesting emerged for me in this outlining process: we often think of late 60’s/early 70’s films as having broken with traditional rules and conventions. Goldman is famous for having written the unWestern Western in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. This is a story, after all, in which our heroes RUN AWAY. As as we all know, John Wayne never ran away. John Wayne stayed and fought; he took a stand. Butch and Sundance depart for Bolivia happy to simply escape from the law. Butch’s main interest is the future; he’ll be content to just keep going.
And yet for every rule he breaks, Goldman also follows the conventions of good storytelling. As with most screenplays, the hook here is set early on. At the 10-minute mark Butch tells Sundance that the pair’s time with the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang is coming to a close. The future is Bolivia. Right on schedule, the pair’s goal is defined.
The flaws that contribute to both men’s downfalls are also clarified early. Sundance is stubborn and a bit proud. Butch has a creative if often foolhardy appetite for novelty and risk. The flameout at the end is arguably the inevitable climax for two proud risk-taking men who know little else than thieving and getting away with it.
So the “want” is clear, but won’t a “need” take over? In case we anticipate a left turn into a Hollywood Western morality play, Goldman makes clear early on that there will be no aspiration to a higher justice here. As Butch points out during the robbery of the Flyer, everything they’re good at is illegal. These two men don’t *need* to be good. They *need* to be legends.
There IS a point late in the second act where the heroes consider a transformation or the standard Hollywood metamorphosis. When their reputation as the “Banditos Yanquis” catches up with them in Bolivia and signs appear that the Superposse may again be on their trail, Butch decides they should go straight. They take a job guarding payroll (no small irony here.) When Bolivian robbers set on them in the mountains, however, the paymaster is killed and Butch is forced to kill a man for the first time in his life. Their attempt to go straight has landed them in their worst bloodbath ever. And with everyone else now dead, Butch and Sundance are once again in possession of the payroll. By following their code of loyalty, this time to an “honest” man, they’ve once again become banditos.
We might be surprised by this if we look to other Westerns for guidance. But if we’ve been following this script closely we realize that Goldman’s fully prepared us for the movie’s shocking end. Everything that happens in Act 3 has been set up early in Act 1. As human, loyal, and endearing as these guys are, what they fundamentally are are outlaws. That Butch is planning a final escape to Australia even as an entire army of Bolivian policemen close in is both suitably ironic and the perfect fulfillment of their destiny. To die like a hero, you gotta live like a legend.
I hadn’t expected this film’s structure to map so closely to standard screenplay form. The exercise became that much more fun as I began to discover the familiar patterns within.
What do you think? Did the structure heighten the surprise for you? Or ruin it? Would you have broken down any of this differently? Did you come across any other changes from script to screen?
Butch Cassidy — The Movie Star Intro
Julia Roberts’ glamourous entrance down the Bellagio’s staircase in Ocean’s Eleven didn’t come easy. It took more than a few takes to get her arrival, a pivotal moment in the story, just right. Gamely staying in character throughout, Brad Pitt ate over 40 shrimp as they shot and reshot the scene. Of course, Julia did have an awfully long set of stairs to glide down. Still, 40 is a lot of shrimp. In the end, Julia delivers one sexy descent. Maybe the shrimp were worth it?
The proper “introduction” of a movie star in a film showcasing its stars’ charisma is no small challenge to the seasoned screenwriter. For us newbies it’s yet another intimidating element to juggle while crafting our scripts. We can learn much from William Goldman. Few films deliver such memorable character introductions as Goldman does for Paul Newman (Butch) and Robert Redford (the Sundance Kid) in this week’s movie under study.
Interestingly, it’s Paul Newman, the much bigger star at the time, that almost gets the shorter end of the stick. When we first meet Butch Cassidy, he’s casing a bank. Not that we necessarily know this. (Or as Goldman writes, “if we don’t quite what it is that he’s doing at this point, that’s all right too.”) To clarify what he’s up to Goldman, pushing today’s rules, spells out a series of shots: the bank’s thick door, the money being counted, the guard’s holster, the safe. But whereas in a more traditional crime movie, the criminal would first case the joint and then stealthily slink off into the darkness, here our bankrobbing hero steps directly into the spotlight and addresses the guard. “What happened to the old bank?” Butch wants to know. “People kept robbing it,” comes the reply. “That’s small price to pay for beauty,” yells the disgruntled Butch from across the street.
With minimal dialogue we already know that Butch is a loudmouth, unafraid of attracting attention, and more likely than not, never shuts up. No strong silent cowboy he, Butch is also a romantic, nostalgic for the good ole days when banks were beautiful and robbery was a respected profession of sorts. Have we ever met a Western lead quite like this?
It only gets better with Sundance’s intro. Here’s the scene broken down into component beats:
1) Ordinary world. The Kid (we don’t yet know it is him) playing cards at Macon’s saloon. We learn that The Kid is cleaning everybody out. Also, The Kid, unlike Butch, is a man of few words.
2) Inciting. The Kid agrees to play saloon-owner Macon. It’s a fast moving game. Macon loses and accuses the Kid of cheating. The Kid tries to ignore the slight and just keeps stacking his winnings.
3) Point of no return: Macon orders the Kid to leave the money–and go.
4) Step up. The Kid resists. He bridles at being accused of cheating. “What if I stay?” “You won’t.”
5) Midpoint Twist. Butch enters. Perhaps he can save the day? Butch indeed tries to persuade the Kid to leave. Instead of listening, the Kid insists he wasn’t cheating.
6) False ending. the Kid offers: if Macon invites them to stay, he’s willing to leave. Meanwhile, the Kid cases the room for his shooting angles (parallels the earlier series of shots when Butch cased the bank). Butch asks Macon to consider inviting them to stick around.
7) Low point. Macon refuses to invite the Kid to stay. Butch: “Sorry I can’t help you, Sundance.”
8) Final twist. Macon panics. “The Sundance Kid.” He didn’t know it was the Sundance Kid. If he draws the Kid will kill him. Butch again urges Macon to invite them to stick around. And Macon, under the Kid’s withering glare, does.
9) Conclusion. At Macon’s request, Sundance demonstrates his shooting prowess. Butch ribs the Kid about his one miss. Is the Kid over the hill? And then they are gone. Dissolve to main title sequence.
Breaking the rules as his wont, Goldman uses an exceptionally long scene to accomplish all this: 10-1/2 pp in the 7/15/68 draft. Yet every beat is worth it.
The contrast between Butch and the Kid couldn’t be stronger. Sundance, taciturn, poker-faced, uncompromising, a master at both cards and guns, is a guy’s guy who lets his actions speak for him. He’s got his own code of honor and he’ll be damned if he’s going to let others accuse him of dishonor. Sundance seems loyal in the best ways. He’s also proud, the kind of pride that can be a man’s downfall.
Butch is voluble, a born salesman and negotiator, quick on his feet, sly, and constantly trying to compromise to turn the situation to their advantage. He’s already aware of life’s shadows (Butch repeats several times that they are over the hill), but one senses that Butch won’t run out of energy or conniving until he drops down dead.
Intriguingly, these two opposites have clearly managed to form a deep bond. This is an old married couple. They get each others’ jokes. They tweak each other. They even ignore each other when convenient. But ultimately they stick up for one another. They’ll always have each others’ back.
It’s a masterful introduction to the Kid. And to the pair. It tells us everything we need to know about Butch and Sundance for the rest of the movie. They’re stubborn and talented. And they push things to the edge. With its sly humor, the scene has us immediately rooting for these two unpredictable rebels. It also asks the central question: Will they prove to be over the hill? Has their time passed? Or will they triumph in their schemes? Like all great character intros, it has us perched on the edge of our chairs waiting to find out.
p.s. After Goldman’s masterful intro, would YOU eat 40 shrimp for these guys? What do you think? Did the intro work as well for you as it did for me?
And the Winner Is…..
After much consideration and not a small bit of angst, the inaugural pick is. . . .BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID.
Yeah, it’s #11 on the WGA list, not #1. And no, it’s not a standard screenwriting teaching tool (see: Silence of the Lambs, Se7en, The Godfather etc.) Most studio execs today would probably find its structure not to mention its ending a wee bit problematic. But a wise TA once told me that there’s a deep well of inspiration in the movies we loved when we were young. And though Butch Cassidy had already achieved its reputation by the time I came to it, boy do I love this flick. Why?
First and foremost, it’s a buddy movie with two of the best drawn characters ever at its core. It’s a period piece that feels both relentlessly researched and yet utterly modern. And then there’s its whimsy. Like one of my favorite films of last year, True Grit, Butch Cassidy is a western adventure with an unmistakably playful voice. From its score to its direction, we sense an unalloyed yet slightly amused affection on the part of all involved that keeps us in its thrall.
Even as the heroes flee with increasing desperation to their end, the movie remains a blast. The dialogue is spot on. The characters are unforgettable. And the irony is palpable. It’s the classic western upended and the movie that inspired Thelma and Louise, a classic in its own right. Finally, it’s written by the godfather of contemporary screenwriting William Goldman. ‘Nuff said.
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