Film Openings Analysis #2 | Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid follows the eponymous duo as they embark upon their criminal escapades. However, these are soon cut short when, whilst robbing a train, they begin to be followed by a group of unknown men, who are constantly on their tails and a cross-border chase begins.

Title

The opening title sequence of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid are untypical of other films of the genre. Instead of opening on the wide expanse of the Western Frontier, the filmmakers have opted for an opening that is stylish yet understated, with each of the characters being introduced via a cut-out of them alongside their names, written in a characteristically Western, serif-laden font. This seemingly double nature of the opening credits of this film could perhaps indicate the seemingly contradicting and contrasting nature of the elements of the movie, as it combines genre-abiding violence with uncharacteristic humour which seemingly satirizes its fellow Westerns and their cliches.
Also featured in the opening credits is the use of images to highlight to the audience major features of the movie. As footprints move across the screen, the audience is realising that there is most likely going to be a chase scene involved in the film, an idea which is reinforced through the use of the horseshoes throughout the sequence. The use of the symbol of the bicycle is unusual as it is not an image that one associates with the Western Genre, again highlighting how this is much more an original, lighthearted, revisionist western than simply being one that is 'paint-by-numbers" and trite. icons of the genre that appear onscreen can verify: Birds of Prey, cacti and even some windmills.

Music

The music plays a major role, not only in the credits, but throughout Butch Cassidy. The opening sequence is accompanied by BJ Thompson's Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head. Again, this is not the musical accompaniment one would expect when watching a film of the Western genre. Once again, Butch Cassidy turns the genre's iconography and the audience's expectations of it on its head.

Does this film follow Conventions?

As I have made clear, the opening titles to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid prepare the audience for a fun Western which in many ways defies the audience's expectation of the genre, by breaking the many codes and conventions, but in others follows these conventions e.g. Typical Western violence.