[Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid] is a feast of self-indulgence…. [The film] is so anxious to present its characters as characters, and to let the spectator get an eyeful of their scenic surroundings, that the image of … desolation which lies behind [it] tends to become obscured.

'What happened to the old bank? It was beautiful.' These are the first words one hears from Butch Cassidy as he cases the joint for robbery, only to find it a veritable barrage of locks, bolts and shutters; and a moment later, intervening in a gambling quarrel, he warns the Sundance Kid, 'I'm over the hill—it can happen to you. Every day you get older, that's a law.' He means it as a joke, of course, but as in The Wild Bunch times are changing, the fences are closing in, and Butch Cassidy and his Hole in the...