It's interesting to think about how we as a culture perceive our historical or legendary outlaws. Our society views such people with admiration. We make movies where the bad guys are the good guys. If a man and a woman ran around the country today holding up banks and killing people, society would be in an uproar – and rightfully so. And yet, we have Bonnie and Clyde
. It's quite interesting how so much of our society says one thing but subconsciously seem to operate oppositely. The marriage-affirming Bible Belt has the highest rate of divorce in the country, and Utah, whose signature religion claims to be the one and only path to True and Complete Happiness is fraught with use of anti-depressants. Why are we the way we are? This is why we have sociologists, I suppose.
Let's talk about some legendary criminals of the Olde West. It has been said that the American Western is the closest thing our country has to a mythology, and this seems to be pretty accurate. Thus we have films such as George Roy Hill's 1969 effort,
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
, starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford as the title characters, respectively. Butch is the leader of the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang, train robbers extraordinaire, and Sundance is his closest companion. As the law starts to catch up with them, they decide to flee the country and start anew – in Bolivia.
Tinseltown presents
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
today, Wednesday, as this week's installment in the Cinemark Classics series. It will be screened twice, at 2:00 and 7:00. Tinseltown is located at 4400 Towne Center Drive. Further theater information and advance ticket sales can be found at the Tinseltown website.
Image: Internet Movie Database
