The following is a paper I wrote for my Audio Production class a couple years ago. I got a 20 out of 20 points for it with the comments "Excellent! Great observation from this great film. Well written. Interesting reading."
The sound of this film was fairly subtle throughout, the movie being more focused on the title characters than action. I believe the main reason for this was partly due to the year the film was mad -- 1969 -- as opposed to today. I'm sure that the Coen brothers borrowed the sound use of Butch and Sundance for their film No Country for Old Men.
Music, to me, had the biggest impact on the sound of this film, mainly because it was used so sparsely. Excluding the closing credits, there were only three instances where music was used.
The first was in the opening credits, where an effective sound effect was implemented as well. The opening credits showed a recreated old black and while silent film of "Butch Cassidy's Hole-in-the-Wall Gang" robbing a train. A sound of a film projector was playing to give it more of a newsreel type of feel from the very early days of film. A very "open," airy piece of piano music was played over top of the silent film as a counterpoint to the action of the train robbery. The piano music was slow, moody and nothing like an "action" piece, which is what one would expect in today's filmd.
The second instnace of music in the movie is probably one of the more famous scenes. BJ Thomas, later a lead singer for the disco group Blue Velvet, sang a contemporary version of "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" as Butch Cassidy rode "the latest technological marvel," a bicycle, around a farm with Sundance's female friend on the handlebars. Similar to the opening title sequence, no other sound is heard while this song is playing, with the exception of when Butch, while riding the bike backwards, crashes through a fence and into a bullrun, where a bull is standing, watching the crazy man on the bike. The song pauses until the bull begins to chase Butch out of his pasture.
The final instance of music occurs when Butch, Sundance and Eta are in Bolivia and they decide to take up robbing banks again. The music, as established twice before, is the only sound as a montage of the trio rob banks throughout the country. And, like the second song, there is a pause in the song as the actual sound of the film is brought forward. The bank robbers are hiding on a tree and begin firing warning shots at the "posse" that is chasing them from their latest heist. The posse retreats, the robbers laugh and go on to their next escapade, and the song resumes, returning it to a silent film reel.
Music used in this fashion -- with no other sound effects or dialogue -- give this classic Western the feel of a silent film of the early days of Hollywood. It's also subtle enough where people would notice the lack of other sound, but might not make the connection to the opening scene and silent filmscores.
Speech plays a major role in this film as it is mostly character driven, due to its biographical nature. The scenes where Butch and Sundance are trying to learn Spanish so they can rob banks in Bolivia bring it to a larger awareness. There aren't many subtle scenes of speech: no whispering, no shouting, not a lot of dynamic feel to the dialogue. Although it does give us some very memorable lines such as, "I got vision while the rest of the world needs bifocals," and "Hell, the fall'll probably kill ya."
As far as sound effects go, it was a nice mix of effectiveness, in my view. The final scene where a part of the Bolivian army has Butch and Sundance pinned down seemed a little forced with the sound effects because ALL of the rifles that were being used sounded exactly the same, regardless of position of the wielder or distance. The same can be said for the pistols, even if different types of pistols were being fired (as by Butch and Sundance). I attribute this to the time the movie was made and sound "design" wasn't even really thought of yet (but it wasn't too far off). This isn't to say that sound effects weren't used effectively, they just sounded very similar.
Explosions were used in a couple of spots near the beginning of the film to do a quick cut scene, as the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang was robbing the Union Pacific Flyer.
One other thing I noticed that was quite subtle, and probably would NOT have noticed had it not been for the comment about E.T. and the one "hunter's" keys being used to identify the man. Most of the middle of the movie has the title characters chased across a couple of states by a lawman named DeFours who wears a white straw hat (I wonder if that's where Kevin Smith got the idea for the mall security guard of the same name and distinguishing headgear in Mallrats). You never see DeFours, or his posse, except at a great distance. However, as Butch and Sundance are being followed, you can always hear the distant hoofbeats of the posse. No individual horses can be distinguished, but there is a distant rumble similar to thunder anytime they are nearing their quarry.. In some scenes, there is nothing in the shot except for a hill that Butch and Sundance had ridden over a couple minutes prior, and the sound has that distinct distant rumble. Very soon, it daens on you that that particular sound is to be identified with DeFour's posse, and imminent danger to the title characters.
All in all, the music probably had the greatest impact of sound, being used effectively and sparsely in the movie. The rumble of hoofbeats was probably a close second, although I wouldn't think of the posse when I hear that sound unless I am watching Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
