FILM: Bonnie and Clyde

DIRECTOR: Arthur Penn

YEAR: 1967

WATCHED ON: BBC iPlayer

DATE WATCHED: 02-Jan-2024

FIRST VIEWING: Yes

SPOILERS AHEAD: Yes

This is the first film I’ve watched of 2024, and I can happily say that the year is off to good film viewing.

Having been familiar prior to viewing with the story of Bonnie and Clyde thanks to true crime books, TV documentaries, and a couple of podcasts, nothing in the film (plot wise) came as a shock.

Bonnie and Clyde were two young lovers who robbed banks in the Depression-Era America. They also killed anybody who stood in their way. Dangerous and unpredictable, they became famous through the newspapers and were gunned down in Louisiana.

This film told their story in a very condensed manner. A lot of fluff, robberies, relationships, and sociopathy (to keep them sympathetic towards the audience) got left out. But it’s important to remember that films based on historical characters aren’t documentaries.

Warren Beatty plays Clyde. Cool, suave, confident. He was also the producer of the picture so it can be easy to assume how he managed to get the main role in the film(!), and, despite my snideness, he does play the part well. Insecurities, and a humane side play into the cocky character.

Faye Dunaway plays Bonnie. This film came out before Chinatown which was just shy of, I want to say, 10 year later. So I’m imagining that this was her big break, but I could be very wrong about that. I think her performance of the two titular characters is the strongest in this picture.

A couple of names I was happily surprised to see appear on the opening credits were Gene Hackman - who it was strange to see so young, even though he somehow always has looked old. And Gene Wilder. All the genes. It was like a Levi’s store. Gene Wilder must have been in his first or second role in this film, and I can’t think of another film I’ve seen him acting so seriously in. He was excellent.

Sometimes in the film when they’re speeding away in their 1920’s/30’s rectangular cars, a banjo piece plays on the soundtrack. Foggy Mountain Breakdown. You can see it you YouTube. There’s no shortage of videos of it, and Steve Martin appears in quite a few. Its a fun tune.

Lastly, I’m going to mention the violence. The film came out in 1967 at at time when Spaghetti Westerns were probably the most violent movies on the go, if you think of violence as blood splatters.  The Universal Monsters and Hammer Horror movies don’t even have blood like this film does.

3 instances in the movie stand out to me. The first is when a bank clerk - or maybe he’s a deputy - , following a bank robbery jumps onto the side of the getaway car and has a revolver fired through the window and straight between his eyes. The glass sprays with his blood.

The second, and almost accurate to what I understand, was when Gene Hackmans character is shot in the head. The brain splatter and flood of blood was unexpected.

The third, and most famous for the film, is the ending. It’s no secret that Bonnie and Clyde didn’t get out of it alive. Life - no one makes it out alive. But this film doesn’t just have them shot. They get blown to bits. And it is all shown on screen.

It was a wonderful film, and if it wasn’t for a cast that I recognise for being older now, there’s nothing that necessarily ages it 57 years. Oddly modern.