Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

Bonnie and Clyde
Directed by Arthur Penn
Written by David Newman and Robert Benton
1967/US
Warner Brothers/Seven Arts; Tatira-Hiller Productions
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] Farmer: All I can say is, they did right by me – and I’m bringin’ me and a mess of flowers to their funeral.[/box]

Did this change Hollywood films forever or just for the next ten years?  Was it a change for the better?

Bonnie Parker (Faye Dunaway) is beyond bored working as a waitress in her small Texas town.  She needs excitement – sexual excitement in particular.  She meets handsome Clyde Barrow (Warren Beatty) as he attempts to steal her mother’s car.  Clyde admits right away that he is an ex-con who robs banks.  That sounds plenty exciting to Bonnie and she and Clyde take off on a crime spree that lasts for most of the film.  Unfortunately, Clyde’s not up to much in the sexual excitement department.  Nonetheless, there is a real love between the two.

Along the way, Bonnie and Clyde hook up with Clyde’s brother Buck (Gene Hackman) and his irritating new wife Blanche (Estelle Parsons).  Completeing the gang is driver C.W. Moss (Michael J. Pollard).   As the spree continues, the gang’s escapes from the law become increasingly violent.  It doesn’t help that the gang attempted to humiliate a very determined Texas Ranger.  With Gene Wilder in his film debut as an undertaker who gets carjacked.

You can feel the electricity of the “new” surging through this picture from the cast, to the screenplay, through the style.  Sexually frank and graphically violent, Bonnie and Clyde prefaces work that would grow even more so throughout the seventies.

For the first time on this viewing, I was bothered by the misanthropy of the thing.  All the characters, even the leads, are laughably odd.  It’s sophisticated enough to also earn them some empathy, though.  When I suspect a movie is also laughing at its audience it starts to lose points with me.  Not many as this remains an absolute must-see.  The ending is like nothing we had never seen before.  Stunning.

Estelle Parsons won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.  Burnett Guffey won for Best Cinematography.  Bonnie and Clyde was nominated in the categories of Best Picture; Best Actor; Best Actress; Best Supporting Actor (Hackman); Best Supporting Actor (Pollard); Best Director; Best Original Screenplay; and Best Costume Design.

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All attempts to add Georgie Fame’s rendition of the unused theme song (The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde) failed.  Worth looking up!