Overview

• The piece is an archival reprint of a review first published on Nov. 9, 1969, presented anew on Sept. 16, 2025.
• The reviewer finds the film broadly entertaining and genuinely funny, crediting humor rooted in believable characters.
• Paul Newman’s turn is praised for making Butch distinctive, while Katharine Ross’s role is criticized as underused.
• The score by Burt Bacharach is faulted as too contemporary and intrusive, concentrated in interludes that interrupt the action.
• Director George Roy Hill is quoted saying the much-discussed “Superposse” was a fabrication, identifying it as the script’s key historical liberty.