Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)

Halfway through a Western about two outlaws on the run, the movie stops for a bike ride set to a pop song, and it plays like a music video that wandered onto the wrong set. The other stretch that tests your patience is the chase. A posse that won’t quit tracks Butch and Sundance across rock, river and desert, endlessly. Still, that chase has a strange, creeping power, the lawmen always tiny shapes on the horizon, never giving up. Paul Newman plays Butch as all ideas and grins, a planner who’d rather talk than shoot. Robert Redford makes Sundance cool and quiet, and the two of them squabble through every getaway like brothers arguing over directions on a family road trip. Katharine Ross’s Etta gets one lovely scene and mostly watches. The cliff jump is a perfect comedy beat. It made $102.3 million worldwide on a reported $6M. An 8.6 because the friendship feels effortless and the ending is legendary. $2,601 says you hum the bicycle song for the rest of the day and can’t get past the first line.

What works: Paul Newman and Robert Redford have effortless chemistry, and the long chase builds real dread out of men who are never more than specks on the horizon.

What doesn’t: The bicycle montage stops the story cold, and Katharine Ross’s Etta is given almost nothing to do beyond watching the men.

Who it’s for: Anyone who loves buddy movies and wants to see the one half of them are quietly copying.