Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid – Scene Analysis

Link to scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TG-PlNi1vto

This scene is one of the opening scenes in the film and introduces ‘Sundance’ to the audience. He is playing cards against Mr Macon, and keeps winning, causing Macon to accuse Sundance of cheating.

The scene is shot in a sepia tone, making use of close-ups throughout most of the scene. The focus always remains on Sundance throughout most of the scene, with the camera showing the back of Macon in the left third of the frame. The close-up shot shows the dead-pan expression of Sundance, this shows that Sundance does not fear the man and refuses to say that he was cheating. Furthermore, when Macon stands up revealing the gun in his holster, Sundance’s look does not change and his eyes do not move to focus on the gun all that much. He still stares forward, only glancing at his opponent and his weapon. The eye movement shows he is assessing his opponent and knows he cannot best him. The camera moves only briefly to show Macon’s gun from Sundance’s perspective before quickly switching back to the close-up once again.

It is at this point that Butch, Sundance’s partner, comes into frame. Note that the camera stays static and does not move or change shots to show him entering the room, this shows that the focus remains entirely on Sundance. Butch warns Sundance that the man may be faster than him and could kill both of them.

It is at this point that Butch moves past Sundance and tries to reason with the man, only for the man to push him away. Butch is disappointed at this and shows that he will have to tell the man that he is Sundance. Butch says ‘I can’t help you, Sundance’ causing Macon to become horrifyingly worried and look at Butch to see if he is being real or not. The man finally allows them to leave as he becomes increasingly worried.

At the end of the scene, Macon asks Sundance how good he is prompting Sundance to disarm him by shooting Macon’s gun and sweeping it across the floor by shooting bullets at it.

There is no music throughout the scene, this is because it would be superfluous to the tension between the two. Without music, it highlights the actor’s performances entirely, making the scene more urgent. Furthermore, there is minimal editing, the scene relies solely on the camera work and the actors. The use of the close-up throughout the scene keeps the audience focused mainly on Sundance, revealing he is very important and one of the protagonists. The sepia tone also helps give the scene a silence that colour could not have given. By using sepia, the director has made this scene feel much more lifeless in sense which is positive as it kills all distractions that colour could have otherwise produced. Furthermore, the sepia intensifies the lighting which is used on Sundance, making him the most visible and most important. The scene does not change pace to highlight the standoff and suspend whether Sundance will kill Macon or not, hence the suspense that the scene holds. All of this work is aided by a fantastic screenplay and performances from all of the actors.