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?