Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (DVD)

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Video
The feature is presented in a 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer. The film looks good throughout, with some moments of wear, some blurring and a few scratches but what damage there is, is barely noticeable. The image is crisp and bold, with colors coming across vibrantly. Conrad Hall´s cinematography is brilliantly on display, with the sprawling western vistas and more intimate moments are wonderfully rendered. This 35 year old film, thankfully, does not look its age.

Audio
The audio is presented in English stereo, English mono, Spanish mono, and French mono. The stereo soundtrack is good, adding some direction to the mix. Dialogue comes through cleanly and there is no distortion or noise present. It´s a fine mix, overall. English and Spanish subtitles are also available.

Extras
The extras on this two disc DVD set are excellent. Coming over from the original DVD release are all of the previous extra features. The first disc includes commentary from director George Roy Hill, cinematographer Conrad Hall, lyricist Hal David and associate producer Bob Crawford. The commentary provides a nice amount of insight from the different filmmaking perspectives. Each of them discuss what brought them to the project and the idea of making a western that was different from the norm. A new audio commentary is also included that features screenwriter William Goldman discussing various points about the film; mainly how it came to fruition and various anecdotes about the making of the film.

Also included on the first disc, and making the journey from the original DVD release, is "The Making of Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid" a 40 minute plus documentary, which features production footage as narrated by Newman, Goldman, Hill and Redford.

Disc two features include a 2005 documentary, "All of What Follows is True: The Making of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The doc is a retrospective look at the film and features new interviews with Newman, Redford, Bacharach, Goldman and others. It´s an interesting look back at the movie from the various filmmakers´ perspectives.

"The Wild Bunch: The True Tale of Butch & Sundance" takes a look at fact versus fiction in the world of "Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid". The 25 minutes featurette includes interviews with historians, academics and some of the filmmakers as they discuss certain elements of the film and how they compare historical accounts of the real life Butch and Sundance.

A number of interviews also make the journey over from the original DVD release, which included Paul Newman, Robert Redford, screenwriter William Goldman, composer Burt Bacharach and actress Katharine Ross. Also included in this section are more interviews, split into two separate sections: "All of What Follows is True" and "Maybe Some of What Follows is True".

Also featured is "History Through the Lens: Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid: Outlaws Out of Time", an hour and half long documentary that´s a mixture of all the previous docs presented. It takes a deeper look at the history, the making of the film and everything in between. It´s good and interesting stuff but feels somewhat repetitive after having seen the other features.

Rounding out the extras are an audioless deleted/extended scene entitled "Tent", which features optional commentary by director Hill, three theatrical trailers for "Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid", production notes, an alternate credit roll and The Films of Paul Newman, which features trailers for "From the Terrace", "Hombre", "The Hustler", "The Long, Hot Summer", "Quintet", "The Towering Inferno", "The Verdict" and "What a Way to Go!"

Film Value
"Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid: The Ultimate Collector´s Edition" offers up some great additional features. The transfer is essentially the same as the original DVD release but also features a new, slightly improved sound mix. For big fans of the film it might be worth it to invest in the new disc for Goldman´s commentary and new docs. Nevertheless, the film more than holds up after all these years and remains one great film.

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