Somebody Up There Likes Me

After a couple of small TV roles and an uncredited appearance in 1953's Girl On the Run (I haven't found it yet, but I will) Steve McQueen's second film role, again uncredited, was in this Paul Newman boxing film that I'd previously never heard of and can kind of understand why. It's not that it's a terrible film, it's just thoroughly underwhelming, and tells a familiar story in a genre that has since far superseded it. To start with, it's a boxing movie where the lead character is Italian and called Rocky Barbella (Newman). If that's not a coincidence I'll be shocked.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

They actually got Robert Redford to run along the top of a moving train. How amazing is that? Yes I’m sure these days there are some actors willing to do their own stunts (and by stunts, they are probably referring to such extreme activities as riding a horse) but running along a moving train? Redford probably needs a wheelbarrow with him at all times to carry those balls of his in. It’s this devil-may-care, balls to the wall sensibility that shines through in Butch and Sundance, throwing in any number of cinematic tricks and keeping what stuck, from showing a road trip taking in destinations including New York and South America entirely in photographic stills, to probably the most famous and iconic freeze-frame ending in history. It is this, combined with Redford and Paul Newman’s co-dependent relationship and easy banter, even in the tightest of situations, that makes the film still a genre classic to this day.

Choose film 9/10