banhei — 10 years ago(February 18, 2016 02:59 AM)

Mike Nichols said in some TV interview (on a stage) that William Goldman was only copying other movies with BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID. Now, I read Goldman's great nonfiction book about Broadway THE SEASON and he slices Nichols to shreds (calling him "trivial") in the chapter titled
Culture Hero
. So I thought Nichols' comment just sour grapes against a guy who'd criticized him (and Goldman was a bit hard on Nichols). Goldman openly admits that the jump off the cliff in BUTCH he lifted from a similar moment in GUNGA DIN. Big deal, one scene he copied. But the other night I was watching THE CINCINNATI KID and the opening card game where McQueen is accused of cheating is just too similar to the opening card game in BUTCH I thought maybe Nichols' comment was more than sour grapes, and wondered what else in BUTCH Nichols might have been referring to.