BLAZING THROUGH 'BUTCH AND SUNDANCE: THE EARLY DAYS'

Butch & Sundance The Early Days Year Released: 1979

For those not diehard BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID fanatics, this prequel isn't blasphemous like it must be to many nostalgic cinema goers...

It's actually pretty entertaining, following a young Butch, played by a more loose, affable and resilient Tom Berenger than his psychopathic LOOKING FOR MR GOODBAR role which he'd already watered-down with two forgettable romantic comedies, and who does in fact resemble a young Paul Newman, only bigger, more primal: herein freed from prison and, despite his promises to the warden, quickly returns to a brand old life of crime, where he witnesses the coming and going of a skinny blond "kid" robbing a saloon: that being CARRIE prom king/BIG WEDNESDAY lifeguard/future GREATEST AMERICAN HERO and haunted HOUSE pawn William Katt as a young Sundance...

Great DVD art for The Early Days: ***/12

Butch joins a posse with an agenda... to find this perfect new partner: and soon both have the law, led by revenge-driven and an always-effective villain Brian Dennehy on their trail...

Since Berenger and William Katt aren't trying for Newman/Redford imitations... especially Katt, who looks nothing like him (or he'd already have been a major sex symbol, right?)... it all seems pretty fresh and feels fun, spontaneous...

Under the direction of the early BEATLES movie-maker who went on to a pulpy THREE MUSKETEERS and then took over the troubled and controversial production of SUPERMAN II to lord over a maligned yet underrated third film, Richard Lester creates a comedic yet adventurous journey in which every action sequence has a reason to occur, and there are plenty of occurrences with many binds for the resilient duo to get into and out of and so, if you don't expect too much and/or take the original too seriously, you might enjoy yourself. At least there aren't any Raindrops Falling on their heads this time around. God that was awful.