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Anyone pick this up?

I finally got around to checking out the extras on this new edition and found that they pretty good. A little repetitive at times but very solid in terms of content and quality.

On the first disc and carried over from the previous special edition is an audio commentary by director George Roy Hill, lyricist Hal David, documentary director Robert Crawford and cinematographer Conrad Hall. I enjoyed the mix of production history with plenty of anecdotes.

I believe the commentary by screenwriter William Goldman is new. I actually enjoyed this much more. He tells some pretty entertaining and interesting stories, like how he was worried that the film would be too funny. In test screenings, the audience laughed all the way through it and so Goldman remembers that Hill took out some of the jokes so that there was a better balance. I wish he had taken out "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head" sequence which always felt out of place to me. This is an excellent track as Goldman doesn't just talk about the film but the state of cinema now as well as the business side of things.

The second disc starts off with a new retrospective documentary entitled, “All of What Follows is True: The Making of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.â€

Fletch F. Fletch wrote:I wish he had taken out "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head" sequence which always felt out of place to me.

I actually enjoy that scene simply because it's display of sincerity is so rare in comparison to contemporary films. As a friend of mine pointed out while we were watching this film a few years ago "you will never see a scene like this again." He felt that if anyone were to make a similar scene today, it would be far too self-conscious or sarcastic and it would attempt to be far to "cool". In BC & SK, Hill seems to embrace the fact that it's a super cheesy song for the film to use, and yet the scene itself isn't completely awful - partially because it's a shared moment between two people who are attracted to one another, but can't act on their temptation, yet are content to share a brief moment of private innocent happiness. It's simple, and probably a bit excessive or maybe even kind of saccharine, but it's also genuine, charming, and effective (at least to me - I'm sure I'm in the minority on this one).

I got it last Tuesday from Amazon, together with the two Ford sets. I also like all the new extras. I really don't understand why Fox didn't add this disc to their new Cinema Classics Collection, a la Patton, The Longest Day, etc. Instead they numbered it. Weird, he!

Andre Jurieu wrote:I actually enjoy that scene simply because it's display of sincerity is so rare in comparison to contemporary films. As a friend of mine pointed out while we were watching this film a few years ago "you will never see a scene like this again." He felt that if anyone were to make a similar scene today, it would be far too self-conscious or sarcastic and it would attempt to be far to "cool".

It's interesting you say that as I always felt that the inclusion of the song from Popeye in Punch-Drunk Love was PTA's attempt to do much of the same thing. Have this cheesy but wistfully cheery tune in the middle of his movie.

In BC & SK, Hill seems to embrace the fact that it's a super cheesy song for the film to use, and yet the scene itself isn't completely awful - partially because it's a shared moment between two people who are attracted to one another, but can't act on their temptation, yet are content to share a brief moment of private innocent happiness. It's simple, and probably a bit excessive or maybe even kind of saccharine, but it's also genuine, charming, and effective (at least to me - I'm sure I'm in the minority on this one).

I understand what you're saying but I guess I just feel that in a movie with already plenty of funny, goofy moments, that scene was one too many... or, keep the scene, lose the song, perhaps?