Robert Redford, who passed away on Tuesday at the age of 89, once stated that he did not like the choice of “Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head” for the classic scene in “Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid”.
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The actor and director always made clear his admiration for the character he played in one of his greatest cinematic successes, so much so that he named the festival he created to promote independent cinema Sundance.
The film, starring Redford and Paul Newman, was loosely based on the story of two notorious outlaws fleeing a gang after a series of train robberies. The duo, along with Sundance’s partner Etta, played by actress Katharine Ross, then flee to Bolivia to escape the group pursuing them.
For the classic scene between Newman and Ross, where the two happily play on a bicycle, director George Roy Hill chose the ballad “Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head,” sung by J.B. Thomas and composed by Burt Bacharach together with lyricist Hal David; but the music did not please Redford.
“When the film was released, I was very critical,” Redford told USA Today in 2019. “How did the song fit into the film? It wasn’t raining. At the time, it seemed like a dumb idea.”
Redford, however, admitted that over time he realized he had been wrong; “How wrong I was, because it turned out to be a huge success,” he said.
The song, which was almost removed from the film, ended up winning the 1969 Oscar for Best Original Song and sold more than 3 million copies worldwide.
Images: 20th Century Fox reproduction. This content was created with the help of AI and reviewed by the editorial team.
