George Roy Hill directs Robert Redford, Paul Newman and Katharine Ross in this romanticised look at the partnership between two of the dying West’s most infamous outlaws. 

A perfectly fine action comedy with some neat directorial flourishes. I love the trip to New York told via doctored period photographs. The William Goldman scripted banter is often strong if a tad showy. They all look beautiful, these are three beautiful stars in a movie that wants to be Jules et Jim more often than it wants to be The Wild Bunch. I personally struggle each time with its “classic” status. It all feels a little too prettified, a little too origami paperthin, except when it pointedly isn’t. Diverting fun, but the same team’s superior The Sting hits these same pleasures without the obvious pretensions.

6