In Honor of Robert Redford, Watch the Greatest Movie He Ever Made

Robert Redford, one of the most iconic stars in the history of movies — plus an Oscar-winning director, a political and environmental activist, and possibly independent filmmaking’s most vocal and active supporter — died this morning at the age of 89. As movie fans mourn the death of one of the best to ever get in front of, behind, or anywhere near the vicinity of a camera, you might find yourself in the mood to watch some Robert Redford movies… but where to start? Well, you could do a whole lot worse than starting with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, arguably Redford’s best movie and one of the best movies ever made.

That’s not to take anything away from the rest of the Redford canon, though. All The President’s Men, in which Redford and Dustin Hoffman play reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein as they break the story of the Watergate scandal, is one of the canonical Important Movies. And movies like The Natural and The Way We Were still have a recognizable cultural impact, decades after they came out. Redford even showed up in the two best movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Avengers: Endgame) just to prove that he was so good that he could even make a mark in superhero movies.

Why Is ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’ One of the Best Movies Ever?

Robert Redford in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

Speaking of cultural impact, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’s is undeniable. For starters, it was a star-making film for Redford, who played legendary outlaw Harry Longabaugh (a.k.a. the Sundance Kid) opposite Paul Newman (a massive star in his own right at the time) as Butch Cassidy. The movie also inspired the name of Redford’s Sundance Institute, a non-profit organization that supports independent filmmakers, and the Sundance Institute in turn inspired the name of the Sundance Film Festival, which is the largest independent film festival in the United States. The movie also introduced the song “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head,” one of the most famous movie songs ever written. In fact it’s so famous that its popularity has long since transcended the movie it came from.

But as for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid itself, the movie follows the two eponymous outlaws as both the law and the end of the freewheeling old Wild West days relentlessly pursue them. Part Western, part buddy movie, and part tragedy, the movie goes on as Cassidy and Sundance are forced to go on the run after some botched robberies and end up in Bolivia, where life as an outlaw is no less complicated than it is in America. The whole thing is carried by the performances from Redford and Newman, who banter and quip throughout the harrowing journey — right up until the film’s famous final moment.

The movie remains somewhat divisive among prominent critics (Pauline Kael and Roger Ebert both famously disliked it), but it retains an 89% on Rotten Tomatoes, at least partially because of subsequent reappraisals that take into account its now-iconic status. The catch, such as there is one, is that the movie isn’t on Netflix or any other major streamers, so the only way to see Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid these days is to rent it on your preferred VOD platform (or buy it on a disc). Of course, for everything Robert Redford did for Hollywood, you can probably spare a couple of bucks to see his best movie.