Bonnie and Clyde (film)
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Bonnie and Clyde (film)
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This film has been preserved in the National Film Registry in 1992.
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Bonnie and Clyde is a 1967 American biographical crime film directed by Arthur Penn and starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway as the title characters Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker. The film also features Michael J. Pollard, Gene Hackman, and Estelle Parsons. The screenplay is by David Newman and Robert Benton. Robert Towne and Beatty provided uncredited contributions to the script; Beatty produced the film. The music is by Charles Strouse.
Bonnie and Clyde is considered one of the first films of the New Hollywood era and a landmark picture. It broke many cinematic taboos and for some members of the counterculture, the film was considered a "rallying cry." Its success prompted other filmmakers to be more open in presenting sex and violence in their films. The film's ending became iconic as "one of the bloodiest death scenes in cinematic history."
Why It Rocks
- The film single-handedly broke new ground as it set filmmaking and style trends that linger today. It veered from comedy to social commentary to melodrama and completely caught audiences unaware. While movies about attractive criminals meeting grim fates have been around for an extremely long time (The Public Enemy (1931), Little Caesar (1931), and Scarface (1932)) what makes the film so groundbreaking is its matter-of-fact portrayal of violence and its in-depth characterization of its two lawless "heroes." It was also edited in a way that few Americans had seen before, being influenced heavily by French New Wave films like The 400 Blows and Breathless, resulting in the film launching what's known as the American New Wave or New Hollywood.
- The majority of these films tend to be grounded in realism, contain non sequitur, seemingly random scenes in movies for character building, random out-of-order chronology, unresolved plot points, and various forms of discomfort... which all link back to Bonnie and Clyde.
- Another major way the film made a lasting impact was its open examination of the gallant Clyde's sexuality-impotence and the link to his gun-toting violence.
- Aside from its groundbreaking film techniques, the film had hit a raw emotional nerve with much of its audience. Although the film is set in the 1930s, it captured the disillusioned and rebellious attitudes people were feeling toward just about everything in the mid-and late-1960s. (i.e.: hippies, lots of drug use, race riots, several traumatic political assassinations, the Vietnam War, and large-scale military draft resistance.)
- The film's also a period piece of the lawless 30s when hard times gave some people --namely the titular duo-- all the justification they needed for a life of crime, which surprisingly holds up very well today. The film portrays the town banks as apathetic towards the people of the country's suffering by foreclosing on their property, which in turn would make Bonnie and Clyde look sympathetic and justified in their robberies.
- Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway are both perfect as the titular crime duo. Beatty establishes himself not only as a serious actor, but also as one of the most talented film actors/directors/writers/producers of his time, and Dunaway in particular convincingly captured the Depression-era yearning for glamour and escape from poverty and hopelessness. Pretty much the entire ensemble is perfect in their roles.
- The startling graphic ending -- despite being inevitable for anyone familiar with the criminal couple -- still manages to be terrifying and sometimes downright tragic even all these decades later due to all of the build-up to the scene.
- Despite the occasional cartoon-style slapstick comedy -- a tribute to Mack Sennett's silent films and Keystone Kops car chases and getaways -- and banjo music (e.g. Foggy Mountain Breakdown from Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs, helped to introduce country music to mainstream films) and ballads that accompany many of the film's scenes meant to showcase the Barrow Gang's carefree, childlike nature this thankfully doesn't take up the majority of the film, plus the tone would especially change quickly to serious during its final act.
Bad Qualities
- It's never explained what happened to Blanche Barrow or C.W. in the end.
- There are several inaccuracies within the film regarding Bonnie and Clyde's history.
- When they first met, the real Bonnie (19 years old) and Clyde (21 years old) weren't glamorous characters and their romantic involvement was questionable. She was already the wife of an imprisoned murderer, and he was a petty thief and vagrant with numerous misdemeanors. The couple first met in Texas in the early 1930s. Their brief, bloody crime spree (involving kidnapping and murders) ended on May 23, 1934, alongside state Highway 154 near Arcadia, Louisiana (the town nearest to the ambush site in north-central Louisiana), when the desperados were ambushed and killed by four Texas lawmen (led by Texas Ranger Frank Hamer), accompanied by Bienville Parish Sheriff Henderson Jordan and his deputy Prentiss Oakley. Their bullet-ridden vehicle was hit with 187 shots. In actuality, the 25-year-old Barrow and 23-year-old Parker were armed and ready for the ambush when they were killed.
- The film portrays Frank Hamer as a vengeful bungler who was captured, humiliated, and released by Bonnie and Clyde. In reality, Hamer was already a legendary Texas Ranger when he was coaxed out of semi-retirement to hunt down the duo, and never met either of them until the moment he and his posse successfully ambushed and killed them near Gibsland, Louisiana in 1934. In 1968, Hamer's widow and son sued the movie producers for defamation of character over his portrayal and were awarded an out-of-court settlement in 1971.
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