BONNIE AND CLYDE by Arthur Penn
When Bonnie Parker (Faye Dunaway) catches Clyde Barrow (Warren Beatty) trying to steal her mother’s car it is love at first sight. Clyde tells her he is doing armed robberies, and without further ado she joins him to exchange her dull life as a waitress for a life of adventure, excitement, love, wealth and crime. Adventure and excitement they have, and Clyde’s impotence doesn’t wreck their love, but there is no wealth for the couple. Clyde is bragging a lot about his criminal endeavors, but he’s more shop lifter and car thief than bank robber, and not always lucky in choosing his targets. The company and admiration of a beautiful woman make him more daring, but not luckier – the first bank Clyde wants to rob has gone out of business already.
It’s the Great Depression era, and it’s easy for Bonnie and Clyde to find accomplices – young C.W. Moss (Michael J. Pollard) happily joins them when they boast about their crimes, and Clyde’s brother Buck Barrow (Gene Hackman) and his wife Blanche (Estelle Parsons) complete what will soon be known as the ‘Barrow Gang’.
The newspapers celebrate the outlaws as heros, and the poor sympathize with them, but when Clyde commits his first murder, the law closes in on the gang, and their escapes get ever bloodier and narrower. Bonnie and Clyde know the end of their criminal career is near, but they will rather die than go back to a dull life or to prison.
Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty |
The real Bonnie and Clyde |
A classic tale of crime and love, Bonnie and Clyde was the first movie where it was OK to sympathize with the criminals. The film is based on the true story of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow who were criminal celebrities during their short, violent ‘career’ in the 1930’s. Not very successful as robbers, but good in escaping the law, and brilliant in public relations: they sent pictures of themselves posing with their weapons to the newspaper who printed them, and they were enjoying their fame while it lasted.
It’s ‘live fast and die young’ for Bonnie and Clyde, and the beautiful Faye Dunaway and the handsome Warren Beatty are the perfect actors to make you feel for them regardless of their actions. Bonnie and Clyde is the movie that made criminals look cool and sympathetic and is the direct ancestor of films like NATURAL BORN KILLERS or BADLANDS.
Set in the 1930’s but made in 1967, it’s a film about a new era. While the Vietnam war is raging, the youth at home is rebelling. Bonnie and Clyde are the young who rebel against the establishment, and their rebellion is bloody and violent like war. In the end they still get ‘what they deserve’ – they are lured into a trap and gunned down without warning, but it’s not only a new era for the USA, BONNIE AND CLYDE is also one of the classic movies that marked the beginning of a new era for Hollywood.