zzzorf Having watched Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid only a few months back the story was still in my mind quite well giving me a chance to better understand this movie, to be honest I didn't really need to have that knowledge going into this as it was easily self sustainable and watchable in its own bubble.This was a good character driven/story based Western, the sort I can actually sit and watch and enjoy. It was interesting to have seen what became of Butch and what he had become (even though the whole thing was fictional and not based in fact). his character arc was well done and you could see just where he was coming from.The storyline was simple enough to follow with the final outcome being quite satisfing to the rest of the story and the characters involved.

orterc The Legend of Butch Cassidy can be compared to that of Robin Hood. Steal from the rich, give to the poor. Butch Cassidy is closer to us in time than Robin Hood, his descendants are known to us and we do not live in a feudal but in a capitalist system, just like Butch. The legend Butch is real, whereas Robin is closer to King Arthur and Merlin.Blackthorn makes us sympathize with the figure of a hunted criminal, Butch Cassidy having survived the ambush, living in old age of his humble farm in Bolivia. The death of his and his deceased comrade's love draws him home to the United States. He says farewell to his Bolivian lover, takes all his booty money from the bank and gets back into the saddle for his last long ride. Before our hero crosses the Bolivian border, his plan is interrupted by another criminal, who is being hunted for stealing money from a Bolivian mine. He teams up with the young robber, seeing in him his younger self or rather his dead brother in arms: the Sundance Kid. All looks good, until the terrible truth comes out. The young robber stole from a collective of families that bought the run down mine for the people from the coorparation.Butch Cassidy never stole from the poor so the myth tells us, he fought the law, the system. In this story he is being confronted by a different kind of criminal. One that does not hesitate to exploit the trust and need of the poor to take what little they have.For this alone I would give the movie ten stars. It is not 50's Western it is not Italo, Action fans beware. This is thoughtful post- Unforgiven. Blackthorne has everything my beloved genre demands: great sorytelling, amazing photography of country, desperados, indians, colt revolvers, cartridges, liquor, smoking and riding. It even has chewing of coca leaves. A statement, knowing our drug war.Very good movie, even for people who do not like the genre.

Spikeopath Blackthorn is directed by Mateo Gil and written by Miguel Barros. It stars Sam Shepard, Eduardo Noriega, Stephen Rea, Magaly Solier, Nikolaj Costsr-Waldau, Padraic Delaney and Dominique McElligott. Music is by Lucio Godoy and cinematography by Juan Ruiz Anchia.It was believed that Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid both perished at the hands of the Bolivian army in 1908. Not so, for here is Butch Cassidy 20 years after the supposed event, alive and well and living in a secluded Bolivian village under the name James Blackthorn…What a lovely idea, that of one of history's most famous outlaws actually living longer than history led us to believe. OK, it's a scratchy premise but it allows for a quite elegiac film as we follow an older and grizzled Cassidy on another adventure. That adventure sees him team up with mischievous Spaniard Eduardo Apodaca, the latter of which tries to rob Blackthorn/Cassidy and then offers to repay the old outlaw with the proceeds from some hidden loot stashed away from a robbery. They set off and sure enough there is a posse on their tail, meaning the pair have to stay one step ahead of their pursuers, something which puts the twinkle back in Cassidy's eyes. But not all is as it seems and with flash backs showing Butch and Sundance in their prime (Waldau as the young Cassidy is an inspired choice as per likeness to Shepard), aided by the feisty Etta Place, this is a fully rounded tale.The film quite simply is unhurried and respectful to the art of story telling and is rich with a lead characterisation of considerable substance (Shepard is wonderful, really gets to the soul of the character). Oh it is punctured by the odd action scene, even some humour is in the mix, there's even time for machismo and romantic threads of worth, but this beats a melancholy heart and is All the better for it. It also happens to be one of the most gorgeously photographed Westerns of the modern era. Filmed primarily on location in Bolivia, the landscapes – be it the mountainous ranges or pin sharp salt flats – are sublime, God's wonderful Earth in all its glory expertly realised by Anchia, marking this out as an absolute Blu-ray essential for Western fans big into location photography. While Godoy's musical score is pitch perfect for the tonal flows in the narrative.There's the odd cliché, Rea is a touch wasted and some may decry the simplicity of plot, but this is thoughtful and awash with the love of the Western genre. If only for Shepard and the photography then this is worth it for Western fans, as it is it also calls out to those who like some emotional reflection in their Oaters. 8/10

masonfisk I had heard about this film some time ago & the storyline for me was a little nebulous.Why name a film after an alias? Butch Cassidy is probably the most recognizable name in Western film history that by obfuscating the hero's identity & rewriting cinema history only contorts what the film's story should be.I think this is probably one of the finest westerns to be made in some time along w/Ed Harris' Appaloosa which treat the Western as is should be; a true American art form.What holds my praise back a bit are the various flashbacks which kinda rewrite what we know of Butch's adventures only to justify character shadings which if dropped would've still have been appreciated via Sam Shepherd's great performance.Not a total miss & definitely worth a view.