听 The highly entertaining comedy western, "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid", rides onto DVD with all the hoopla of the film.
Made back in '69, Fox have used a near immaculate print for this DVD transfer. The colours glow with fresh vibrancy and at times you'd swear that it was a brand new movie.
It's hard not to be disappointed that such a feature packed DVD release doesn't merit a new stereo or 5.1 remix. What it does get is a cleaned-up mono track and in comparison to previous TV or video outings, it's a vast improvement in terms of power and clarity.
There's an audio commentary track with four of the principal crew involved, including director George Roy Hill. Despite all these people, there are still some long silences but when one of them pipes up it's usually worth listening to. Especially interesting is the difficulty with which Roy Hill had getting 20th Century Fox to cast the then unknown Robert Redford.
Other special features include a 40-minute 'Making Of' documentary made back in 1969. It's almost entirely composed of behind-the-scenes footage and lacks the cheesy veneer that newer DVD documentaries tend to have. There are also cast and crew interviews, including a typically blunt interview with screenwriter William Goldman, as well as other assorted tit-bits for this classy DVD package.
Chapters: 24
Region: 2
Ratio: 2.35:1 (anamorphic)
Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 (mono)
Extra features: Scene selection, audio commentary with director George Roy Hill, lyricist Hal David, associate producer Robert Crawford and cinematographer Conrad Hall, 'making of' documentary, cast and crew interviews, alternative credit roll, production notes, three trailers, and English subtitles for the hearing impaired.
