Butch Cassidy and the Sundance KidThat's no Mitten Butte. That's the Great White Throne, 263 miles to the west, towering behind Angels Landing; a most popular and precarious hike.
Angels Landing - Who could have ever conceived of such a trail as this, it is like an island in the sky often surrounded by low lying clouds. The actual path is a half-mile of narrow rock protruding out of Cathedral Mountain. Angels Landing is a rival for the best known landmark in Zion National Park, the Great White Throne. Climbers scale the big wall, hikers walk the steep path leading to the narrow and arduous fin and sightseers stand in awe at its stunning nobility. A group of four men, F. Fisher, V. Fischer, E. Bingham and C. Hirshi were exploring Zion in 1916 when upon looking up at the great monolith, Frederick Fisher exclaimed, "only an angel could land on it," and the name Angels Landing stuck. Elevation: 5785 feet. This here is Zion National Park country and Butch and Sundance traipse all over it. The title of the movie could just as easily have been called
The Great Chase; 23 minutes of gallivanting through and around all manner of landmarks. Alas, The title was already used in a 1962 movie and
The Great... was pretty tapped out in the 1960's and 70's anyhow. I guess during those two decades they believed, "Everything you see, or think, or say is
Great!"
The Great Imposter 1961
The Great Chase 1962
The Great Escape 1963
The Great Killing 1964
The Great Race 1964
The Great Sioux Massacre 1965
The Great St. Trinian's Train Robbery 1966
The Great Silence 1968
The Great Bank Robbery 1969
The Great Battle 1969
The Great White Hope 1970
The Great Waltz 1972
The Great Gatsby 1974
The Great Waldo Pepper 1975
The Great Houdini 1977
The Great Smokey Roadblock 1977
The Great Bank Hoax 1978
The Great Gambler 1979
The Great Bank Robbery 1969
It's a good thing then that the title ended up as it did. There was a time though, the working title was
The Sundance Kid and Butch Cassidy. Try saying that without tripping up. Trying to categorize this Western has me tripping up. Is it a buddy movie, a tragicomedy, an antihero or revisionist study? They ran away, for Pete's sake! If the answer is yes, then Ballyhoo! It's just so doggone pretty and funny and irreverent and dreadful that I don't particularly care to put it into a box and wrap it up.
With only 26 minutes of music throughout the film, it grabs the spotlight and how! Bacharach style is as hard to pin down as the movie's. A perfect fit. For being so outside that box, it won the Academy Award for Best Original Score and
Rain Drops Keep Falling On My Head won Best Original Song. Burt Bacharach said he wanted the song to represent Butch Cassidy's life and have his playful personality come through.
Crying's not for me
Cause I'm never gonna stop the rain by complainin'
Because I'm free
Nothing's worrying me Always the dreamer. Even up to the end.