Bonnie and Clyde (1967) User Reviews

The film at the end of the production code...

[AlsExGal · 9/10 · 5 August 2021]

Because other films might have some sex and some violence in it, but this one raised the bar and opened the gates and nothing was ever the same.

"Bonnie and Clyde" set a new standard for crime films in 1967, with its scenes of intense violence that had never before been seen in American film. This somewhat fictionalized account of Depression-Era bank robbers Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker earned Oscar nominations for all five of the stars; Warren Beatty (Best Actor), Faye Dunaway (Best Actress), Gene Hackman and Michael J. Pollard (both for Best Supporting Actor), and Estelle Parsons (Best Supporting Actress), who was the only one who won, for her fine performance as Blanche.

It also depicts the sexual tension between Bonnie and Clyde (its implied that he's either impotent and/or latently gay), and she's poor white trash who's never been in a meaningful relationship with a man. The final scene when Bonnie and Clyde are ambushed by machine gun fire is one of the most visually graphic death scenes in film history.

It's got good character development. Bonnie and Clyde start out reckless, thinking robbery is fun, but one day they end up killing a fellow and at that point law enforcement makes them a priority. The farmers who lost their farms and homes to banks really didn't care as long as they were just taking stuff - they were considered heroes. Blanche, a timid soul, marries into more than she bargained for when she becomes a Barrow. And Denver Pyle plays s a lawman with revenge on his mind after Bonnie and Clyde capture and humiliate him. At least that was the story two years before the Summer of Love when movie goers thirsted for anti-establishment heroes. Watch the film "The Highwaymen" to get a truer look at what Bonnie and Clyde, and the lawman who went after them, were actually like.

This was also the end of the last of the movie moguls - Jack Warner. One day, rather fed up with Warren Beatty trotting about the studio demanding this and that, Warner pointed out the studio water tower with WB on it and asked him whose initials were on that thing anyways? Beatty replied - "Mine actually - Warren Beatty". The right answer being Warner Brothers. At that point Jack Warner decided to retire. It just wasn't fun anymore.

Nihilism on Acid...

[Xstal · 8/10 · 14 October 2020]

The catalyst of poverty without opportunity, combined with rage and a rejection of society, resulting in chaos, murder, mayhem, with a background of depression era America. Two of the greatest performances of the time capture the menace deployed by the Barrow Gang as they carve, shoot and slaughter their way into cult stardom, both on and off screen - the super antiheroes of their day.

It can be a challenge accepting interpretation over fact but if fact is a cornerstone of your experience then perhaps documentaries are more to your taste. Once you take the lives of others and throw them on the big screen it's done for entertainment not education, so you have to be prepared to take things with varying sized pinches of salt. You can always follow up the facts later if the fancy takes you. Cult heroes to some, raging psychopaths to others - either way, characters that appear in various guises over the course of cinematic history and more likely will continue to do so for some time to come - always a fiction but occasionally grounded in fact.

A masterpiece that dares to be excessive!

[Nazi_Fighter_David · 9/10 · 8 February 2009]

'Bonnie and Clyde' is not a film about two real people famous for so many bank robberies and murders across the big country... It shows a new kind of fury in which people could be harm by weapons... The film, however, manages to carry the impression that these two youngsters took great pleasure in robbing banks and stores... It also suggests that it was very easy for them to fool the law—as certainly occurred in real life... Though merited punishment caught up with them, audiences laughed at their remarkable deeds and wanted them to get away...

In 'Bonnie and Clyde,' Penn created an emotional state, an image of the 1930s filtered through his 1960s sensibility... The sense of this period reflects Penn's vision of how the 1930s Depression-era truly was, and for all the crazy style and banjo score, this vision is greatly private...

What is also personal about 'Bonnie and Clyde' and constitutes its incomparable quality, is its unusual mixture of humor and fear, its poetry of violation of the law as something that is gaiety and playfulness...

'Bonnie and Clyde' is both true and abstract... It is a gangster movie and a comedy-romance... It is an amusing film that turns bloody, a love affair that ends with tragedy...

A modification between pleasure and catastrophic events is important to the essential aim of the film... In their second bank robbery, a daring and joyful action goes morosely embittered when Clyde is forced to kill an executive in the bank, and real blood pours out from his body...

Bonnie and Clyde take self-gratification posing for photographs with their prisoners… But when surrounded by detectives in a motel, they turn into vindictive bandits struggling for their lives... C. W. Moss, specially, brings to mind Baby Face Nelson, when he murders policemen with a blazing machine gun...

One of the stimulating moments in the film happens when Clyde chases Bonnie through a yellow corn field, while a cloud transverses the sun and slowly shadows the landscape... Here the characteristic quality of the Texas countryside and the vague aspect of the story are beautifully communicated......

Penn's masterpiece nominated for ten Academy Awards, including Best Picture, won two Oscars, one for Best Actress in a Supporting Role and another for Best Cinematography...

The movie that defined the 'New Hollywood' generation and the greatest cinematic era ...

[ElMaruecan82 · 10/10 · 27 June 2011]

She's restlessly lying in bed, naked, like a capricious girl her parents just punished, impatiently waiting for 'something to happen'. The monotony is eventually broken when the beautiful blonde girl catches a handsome young man about to steal her family's car. When a bored girl meets a strange newcomer, it's not properly what we'd call a 'love at first sight' but there's obviously a mutual attraction, fascination. And the man has more than his dandy charm to offer, from his pockets he carefully unveils a gun that the girl sensually touches like a phallic trophy. The days of 'old-school' cinema are numbered.

But showing a gun is one thing, the guy must use it to assess his manhood, so he robs a store and runs away with the girl, and they finally exchange their names. Warren Beatty is Clyde Barrow and Faye Dunaway is Bonnie Parker, the rest is legend … The two young lovers escape from their condition in a sort of existential impulse and leave the boredom of small rural towns behind them. No place in their hearts for the Great Depression. And you can easily draw the parallel between "Bonnie and Clyde" and cinematic history. When the gap between the baby-boom generation and their parents got wider, when cinema was marked in the 60's by an abundance of dull musical comedies and classic block-busters, when sex and violence were still taboo in America, I guess people felt like Bonnie in the opening shot ... before two guys, Michael Benton and David Benton, came up with a script, recommended by the French New Wave authority, François Truffaut himself. Then Arthur Penn made his entrance with a gangster film that exuded violence and sexuality in an unusually indecent way, during the ground-breaking year of 1967. A cinematic Revolution was marching in.

"Bonnie and Clyde" was a break-through film in its fast paced, entertaining and bold portrayal of violence and sex. The times of "Cleopatra", "My Fair Lady" or "The Sound of Music" were definitely over, American cinema reached its maturity with Arthun Penn's masterpiece that consecrated the anti-heroic figures, a model that would enrich the 'New Hollywood' era with some of its greatest and most iconic characters. We root for Bonnie and Clyde as they are the epitome of anti-system rebellion. And never seems their violence gratuitous or cold-blooded. We're far from the John Wayne's stud figure with Clyde who obviously uses his gun to compensate his sexual problems, or to impress his girlfriend. And in the famous pivotal moment, where they meet the farmers ruined by their bank, they're transformed into modern 'Robin Hoods'. Indeed, the iconic line "We rob banks" is more than a simple statement; it's the affirmation of this rebellion against the system. It's pretty ironic that Penn 'sold' the film to Warner Bros majors as a homage to the gangster films of the Golden Age, which is not totally untrue, except for the Hayes Code from which film-makers were freed in 1967.

Maybe we could blame Arthur Penn's for the liberties he took with the characterization of notorious gangsters, and the deliberately romantic portrayal of Beatty and Dunaway. Maybe Bonnie is too gorgeous in a glamorous way, maybe Clyde is too good-hearted as he would express many grieves all through the film, highlighting the fact that he feels as much a killer as a lover. But take into consideration that for a long time, the Hayes Code prevented bandits and gangsters from being portrayed in a sympathetic way, except maybe for comedy. This is why analyzing "Bonnie and Clyde" should always take the context into consideration. In these days, when Americans were getting killed in Vietnam for a war that was proving to be pointless, who could really point his finger in something and say 'this is good and this is evil'? The Vietnam war made the youth question its own approach to good and evil, and it's less an alibi to root for Bonnie and Clyde, than an element that explains, not justifies, how their figures could have been so popular. The audience was mature enough to identify with "Bonnie and Clyde" as movie characters.

And to be honest, it's hard not to find this film appealing, as soon as the gang is constituted by its core before being joined by Michael J. Pollard, as C.W. Moss, Gene Hackman as the good-hearted brother Buck Barrow and Estelle Parsons as his wife Blanche (with an interesting note that all the members of the Barrow Gang will be Oscar nominated), the whole film embarks us in a road adventure with the banks of the Depressed America as so many stops, and the same exhilarating banjo music as the film's musical signature. It's difficult not to feel like belonging to the gang, seated in the numerous cars they ran away with. Dede Allen's fast-paced editing provides unforgettable thrills, reasonably punctuated by necessary and relationship-developing pauses. But progressively, as the adventure is looking more like a cat-and-mouse chase, as we feel getting closer to the end, the levels of realism the violence reaches gets more and more disturbing, and heart-breaking, as to remind us that whoever lived by the gun, die by the gun, and antiheroes didn't have the monopoly of violence.

Indeed, the movie doesn't end with banjo music, with no music actually and this is another testimony to the movie's legendary value, something that was waiting to explode on screens after so many decades of repressed violence, where gunshots hardly made blood spilling, where the portrayal of death was just acrobatic moves with a possible 'aargh' for the bad guy and more solemnity for the good one. Arthur Penn opened the Pandora Box that would inspire "The Wild Bunch", "The French Connection" and "The Godfather" and only for that cinematic accomplishment, he deserves respect and admiration.

"Bonnie and Clyde" is a landmark and definitely one of the most important films of American history.

Almost French Slice Of Americana

[ggallegosgroupuk · 10/10 · 14 April 2017]

I wasn't surprise to find out that Francois Truffaut and Jean Luc Godard had been seriously considered to helm the tragic tale of Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker. Fortunately Arthur Penn took over. I say fortunately, not because I think any less of Truffaut or Godard but I'm sure nobody could have made this glorious American classic but Arthur Penn. Somehow there is an air of Frenchness permeating every frame even if Bonnie and Clyde is profoundly American. For a foreigner, like me, America has always been a Country to admire even if puzzling. Guns and Bibles. Violence with a poetic aura that it's as startling as it is disturbing. Warren Beatty is superb as Clyde - the real life character was homosexual but for the film he is impotent - more acceptable? Amazing to think of it now. Faye Dunaway became an icon, deservedly so. Gene Hackman, the extraordinary Estelle Parsons, Michael J Pollard and even Gene Wilder complete the cast of this extraordinary American film.

An Extremely Important And Ground-breaking American Film.

[giggitygiggitygoo451 · 7/10 · 14 July 2012]

Whether you love or hate it, Bonnie and Clyde was, and remains to this day, a ground-breaking film in the history of American cinema, and should be praised hugely for that alone. Aside from the re-defining techniques of showing violence on-screen and the depiction of main characters who are far from typical heroes, it contains career-boosting roles for many actors, and comes from a very talented director of the time, Arthur Penn.

The story follows the titular real-life bandit couple of Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker. The story traces them from first meeting, and follows their crime-spree throughout a Depression-era America with their gang, robbing banks, evading police and creating a notorious reputation for themselves. The film is slightly romanticised, depicting the couple as young, foolish kids who don't really seem to realise what they're getting into, but the violent and unpredictable undertone and the impressive period detail ensures an edge that lifts it above typical gangster movies, and always assures us that what's happening isn't remotely romantic, while granting the characters and events gritty depth.

Penn is on fine form from the beginning, and handles a range of different scenes with ease and a huge amount of skill, from thrilling banks-robberies and shootouts, to the more intimate character scenes, in particular those between Bonnie and Clyde, which depict one of the most interesting and unusual screen couples to date. The cinematography and editing are used to huge effect, and resulted in some of the most ground-breaking scenes of the 60's, while the folk-style soundtrack gives an air of humour.

The film tends to play a bit fast-and-loose with the facts- like condensing several real-life members of the gang into the single character C.W. Moss, and neglecting the fact that for nearly a year, Bonnie was almost unable to walk due to a car crash, but writers David Newman and Robert Benton can be forgiven for these inaccuracies considering they succeeded in crafting a story that is both thrilling and exciting as well as tragic and thought-provoking.

But the story would be nothing without first-rate cast it boasts. Warren Beatty as Clyde excels in the multi-layered, dramatic role that he had sought after for so long, and more than succeeded in his attempt to be taken seriously as an actor. Beatty's depiction of a confident, intelligent, but naive young man looking to make his name and fortune is spot-on, and while romanticised to a certain degree, is never glorified. His Clyde is more than matched by Faye Dunaway's Bonnie, who gives a hugely convincing portrayal of an everyday girl getting caught up in something she should never have become part of. The two have an excellent and very unusual chemistry, even by today's standards, and work together brilliantly as a man not used to such intimacy and a woman desperate to live the romantic life of an outlaw with him.

The supporting players may not be quite as strong as the leads, but hold their own quite well, particularly Gene Hackman as Buck. In my opinion one of the greatest actors of all time, Hackman gives a brilliant performance that's both spirited and grounded as Clyde's brother, expressing the same wide-eyed desire for the life of an outlaw as the others and maintains a hugely convincing brotherly relationship with Beatty throughout. Michael Pollard also performs well as gang member C.W, whose quiet demeanour assures his character stands out, despite being relatively small. Estelle Parsons suffers with Blanche, a supremely annoying character that personally I found too irritating. But in fairness, that's precisely the intention behind the character, and Parsons certainly manages to convey it. Throw in one of Gene Wilder's first screen performances and you have an extremely talented and interesting cast.

But aside from the great cast and direction, the truly ground-breaking, incredibly influential aspect of the film is much simpler and much more important- the depiction of on-screen violence and the impact it makes. For the first time, when people were shot or killed, it looked like it hurt. Bad. Penn and his crew pushed boundaries that before, hadn't even been considered. Suddenly, violence was being portrayed in a gritty, shocking and unsettling way. For the first time, screen violence was truly violent. This is what made the story of a group of young and naive people deciding to become criminals so powerful- the fact that we really saw what that really meant. We see what it's like to be shot, and this helps to drive home their story with such impact and power. This was the first step taken that shaped the entire future of motion-picture, and inspired other films to follow it's example, such as The Wild Bunch, and later films like MASH and Jaws that continued to push the limits of what could be done on screen.

Now, I am definitely NOT a fan of gore or extreme violence. Give me E.T and Toy Story before all the Saws and Texas Chainsaw Massacres in the world. But that doesn't mean violence in films is wrong. Violence can be a means of driving home a point, or setting a film's atmosphere, or at times it can even just be pretty damn satisfying. But whether you're a pacifist or a gore-hound, it can't be denied that violence in films is prominent, and many times it's done well, while other times it's not. This film revolutionised it. And more than that, it gave film-makers the influence to do other new things, and was the perfect film to kick-start the revolutionary era of the late 60's and 70's, and inspired them to use their own ideas rather than what would make money.

This is a very special film. Personally, not one of my favourites, but it deserves a good 8 out of 10 purely for its historical relevance and powerhouse cast. It may not be perfect, but if you haven't seen it, see it, and know that you're watching history being made.

One of the First, and Still Best, Movies About America's Obsession with Violence

[evanston_dad · 10/10 · 3 July 2006]

Every time I watch "Bonnie and Clyde" I'm convinced that this time it won't shock me. And every time I'm proved wrong.

"Bonnie and Clyde" was one of the first American movies to acknowledge that Americans are turned on by violence. People blame this movie for ushering in the increasingly graphic content of movies that in the present day makes it seem as if nothing is off limits. But this is wishful thinking on the part of people who don't want to admit that America has been a violent culture from day one. "Bonnie and Clyde" was a huge hit, but it's because it gave people what they wanted, not because it introduced them to something they'd never thought of before. At least in this film, you see what happens when a bullet tears through human flesh -- I can't say the same for the countless morale-boosting WWII films from the 1940s or the John Wayne westerns that are so beloved by conservative America.

In the world of "Bonnie and Clyde," sex and violence are extensions of the same impulse. Clyde can't get one "gun" to work, so he uses another. Bonnie is as restless as a cat in heat -- but Clyde won't scratch her itch, so she finds other ways of releasing tension. It's a movie that makes us identify with the killers. They're gorgeous and glamorous, but they're also vulnerable. They're Robin Hoods, justifying their crime by stealing from the rich and giving to the poor; but they're also naive in thinking that when they steal money from banks they're not also stealing from the poor rural people who use those banks. Authority figures aren't seen much in the film, but when they are, they're sadistic. Sheriff Hamer is a stony, craggy mass in comparison to the movie-star killers, and C.W. Moss's dad, who's finally the one to turn Bonnie and Clyde in, does what is right morally, but that's overshadowed by the fact that all we see him do is beat C.W. and call him white trash. It's no wonder this half-wit kid ran away with the Barrow gang in the first place. We know there's only one possible ending to the movie, yet by the time it comes, we find ourselves half hoping that Bonnie and Clyde can start over and make the American dream a reality. We've forgotten that they've killed, many times, in cold blood.

The most haunting scene in the film is the one in which Bonnie visits her mother for one last time, and her mom tells her what the audience has known all along but hasn't consciously acknowledged until that point: "You try to live within three miles of me, and you won't live long honey. You best keep runnin'." It's one of the most chilling and effective moments I've ever seen in a movie.

Grade: A+

"We Rob Banks."

[stryker-5 · 10 January 2001]

Boy meets girl, boy takes girl on robbery spree, cops chase boy and girl. This innovative film transformed Hollywood's approach to the crime genre and ushered the nouvelle vague into America's mainstream.

The real-life Bonnie and Clyde ranged the rural Texas-Oklahoma-Missouri emptiness in the early 1930's, holding up village banks. A product of the Depression, these amateurish outlaws attracted media attention because they brought drama to a bleak, joyless world. They were freewheelers who turned the tables on the banks, notorious but somehow admirable villains. The Robin Hood theme is quietly insisted upon throughout the film. Banks foreclose on poor farmers, or suddenly fail, wiping out ordinary folks' savings. Out of this chaos emerge these youngsters, scourging the rich and living for the moment, riding their luck for as long as it lasts, "uncertain as times are".

Mythology is the stuff that Bonnie and Clyde are made of. The film deals admirably with both reality and myth. A farmer touches Clyde reverently, as he might touch a sacred relic. On the other hand, Old Man Moss is disappointed by the ordinariness of the dynamic duo - "they ain't nothin' but a coupla kids!" We see the clumsy, ragged robberies and the burgeoning fame. Our lovable rogues may be violent thugs, but they favour the little guy. During a robbery in progress, a farmer is permitted to keep his money. The authorities are portrayed as hapless oafs, as is customary in 'Robin Hood' movies, but here it bears an underlying significance - America's institutions have failed the citizens. People can't repose trust in the police. (The film was made at the depths of the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights disturbances.)

One of the striking features of the film, and one which attracted criticism on its release, is the linking of violence with comedy. This was a period when violence was being portrayed graphically onscreen, and what is new in this film is that the firing of the gun and the bullet hitting the victim are both contained in the same camera shot, as opposed to the traditional euphemism of the cut away from the gun. We never forget that, for all their hedonistic levity, our two leads are "staring square into the face of death". The final shoot-up is a shocking and fascinating danse macabre. "There's nothing quite like the kinetics of violence," says director Arthur Penn. He uses crazily juxtaposed running-speeds to compound the horror of the madly-flailing corpses, an effect which he calls "both spastic and balletic".

And then, of course, there is sex. The real Clyde Barrow maintained a homosexual liaison with C.W. Moss, and originally the writers Benton and Newman had wanted the menage-a-trois with Bonnie to be a part of the film. Warren Beatty objected to playing a bisexual, and on reflection the Beatty-Penn-Benton-Newman production team dispensed with the sexual sophistication, reasoning that it would complicate the story unnecessarily and alienate cinema audiences. The only remaining vestiges are Clyde's difficulty making love to Bonnie, and some laddish cuddles during the card game in the hideout. The meeting of Bonnie and Clyde at the start is filled with playful sexual imagery. A bored, trapped Bonnie pummels the slats of her bedframe, pouting with sexual frustration. Clyde bursts into this 'prison' and seduces her with his aura of danger and excitement. Check out the phallic symbols - toothpick, gun and coke bottle.

The music is wonderful in itself, and wonderfully appropriate. Flatt and Scruggs' "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" evokes place and time perfectly, and provides a rousing accompaniment to the car chases. Director Penn has the boldness to dispense with incidental music and, where dramatic effect requires it, to rely on ambient sound such as eerily-rustling grass.

At the writing stage, Benton and Newman were in love with the French New Wave and wanted this project to enshrine the nouvelle vague principles. Strenuous but abortive attempts were made to recruit first Truffaut and then Godard, but Beatty finally convinced the writers that outer trappings such as European directors were unnecessary, because the script held all the New Wave ingredients. Truffaut's benign influence pervades the final version, especially the section where Bonnie reads her ballad aloud. We move visually through three scenes as Bonnie's voice proclaims the couple's testament, a cinematic gem suggested by Truffaut. Throughout the action, the jump-cut style of editing captures perfectly the spareness which is the essence of New Wave. Two sheets of newspaper are scattered on the swirling wind, an image which underscores the feckless, empty existence of the protagonists. Benton may not have got his francophone director, but in this fresh treatment of classic American subject matter he succeeded in making his "specifically European film".

"We couldn't have made it on the back lot," says Beatty, and he is right. The rural Texas locations are terrific, their open spaces hinting at both freedom and emptiness. Bonnie and Clyde are at their best when on the move, and they grow fractious whenever cooped up. The countryside is almost a participant in the story, as when the distraught Bonnie, filled with thoughts of death and separation, absconds through the field of withered corn, or the Eugene-Thelma episode closes with a dustcloud 'wiping' the action. The night-to-day sequence around the two cars after Buck's misfortune is beautifully done.

Beatty produced the film as well as starring in it. He held daily pre-shoot discussion sessions for the cast, an admirable attempt to enrich the creative process. By the evidence of this fresh, entertaining and superbly-constructed film, his inclusive instincts triumphantly augmented a winning formula.

Bloodshed in the American Dustbowl...

[moonspinner55 · 7/10 · 7 October 2008]

Although numerous chapters in film manuals have been dedicated to Arthur Penn's violent, jagged, cynical "Bonnie and Clyde"--and, indeed, it kick-started a new permissiveness in American movies which then generated many imitations--the first 20 or so minutes of the picture are pretty awful. Depression-era waitress, bored and thrill-seeking, finds herself drawn to a smooth-talking, reckless hood, an ex-con who, when playfully dared to, robs a general store right in front of her. He's sexually impotent but does have a sympathetic heart for the unfortunates and the working class; she's a high-wire act, strictly amoral and greedy. Their initial meeting outside her house has all the conventions of a standard 1930s drama--and just because the movie's look is generally correct doesn't mean what's happening on the screen is original. Producer Warren Beatty and screenwriters Robert Benton and David Newman were inspired by the French New Wave in regards to the film's approach and style, and their efforts to duplicate the amoral feel of European films paid off (this is a good-looking picture shot by Burnett Guffey, who won an Oscar). However, Arthur Penn's direction isn't visionary, and the multiple car-riding shots with back projection don't seem to break new ground. The film's greatest achievement--aside from its textured look--is the casting: Beatty and Faye Dunaway do marvelous work in the leads; Gene Hackman and Estelle Parsons are also fine as Clyde's brother and sister-in-law (Parsons won the film's second of two Oscars as Best Supporting Actress); Michael J. Pollard is an amiable curiosity as partner C.W.; and there are dandy smaller bits by Denver Pyle, Dub Taylor and Gene Wilder. The violence grows increasingly, steadily, as the film inches toward its queasy conclusion, while Penn juggles (successfully at times) ribald character moments with deadly serious--and bloody--scenes (which also became fashionable). The sweat and the flies, the downtrodden and the righteous, they all get a work-out in this scenario, which, in its best moments, has a prickly-comic and dangerous edge. Nominated for 10 Oscars in all, including Warren Beatty as Best Actor and producer of the Best Picture, Dunaway as Best Actress, Hackman and Pollard in the Supporting Actor category, Penn for his direction, Benton and Newman for their original screenplay and Theodora Van Runkle for her costumes (which started a brief fashion trend). *** from ****

The movie that made it okay to sympathize with murderers...

[filmbuff-36 · 10/10 · 30 October 2001]

First of all, let me say that I'm appalled by the real life Bonnie and Clyde. They were two psychopathic thrill killers from Dallas who had a special hatred for law enforcement officers. I must admit that I do feel sorry for the way they were killed, but like the old axiom goes, "If you live by the sword, you die by the sword."

That said, the movie "Bonnie and Clyde" was a groundbreaking film. It was the first time that we the audience were allowed inside the killers minds, and could see what made them tick. This is perhaps the first film that takes a somewhat objective look at crime; we the audience don't have "FBI Seal of Approval" morality shoved down our throats, but we still can tell by the actions of the characters that they are evil, whether they know it or not.

The story is of two Texas young adults who, bored with their lives and the prospects of going nowhere in the world, decide to live out their dreams of stardom by going on a crime spree. They fancy themselves a sort of "Romeo and Juliet" couple, and think of their robberies as harmless fun. They start out small by knocking over grocery stores and gas stations, but soon graduate to banks when they need more money to accommodate their lifestyle. Soon they have a simple minded gas clerk named C.W. and Clyde's brother and wife in the gang, and the duo goes down into history.

Then the fun and games are over. With law enforcement officials now looking for Bonnie and Clyde, they become targets of bounty hunters, unethical cops and other greedy persons who wish to make a name for themselves, and they lose a part of their childish innocence as the escalation of their crimes makes them become more and more violent. When death finally comes for Bonnie and Clyde, it comes with a vengeance.

Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway have never been better. Beatty, who plays Clyde Barrow as an impotent, ne'er do well country boy who seems to be sowing his wild oats, is in top form. He makes Clyde likable, with a goofy smile perpetually pasted on his face, even when sticking up a bank with two guns in his hands. Dunaway is the ultimate femme fatale as Bonnie Parker, a sweet natured Southern belle who likes the feel of a .38 in her hands as she politely asks for all the money. It's absurd, it's unrealistic, but hey, it's Hollywood. And the film works.

But most importantly, Bonnie and Clyde are in love. It's a kind of love that only few films afterward have been able to equal. There is a genuine feeling of giddy romance between the two no matter what the scene, be it a bank robbery or family get-together away from the reaches of society.

Arthur Penn was obviously a man on a mission when he directed this film. You could sense with every frame that he knew of the importance of this movie; a cinematic masterpiece that dares to make its audience evoke pathos for what would have been banned just a few years earlier.

The finale is still to this day a triumph of audience manipulation. The two bandits, finally captured and unable to escape, are dealt with in a fashion that will haunt you days after viewing. It's sad, it's disgusting, but it brings closure to the lives of two individuals whose works and existence could not be tolerated by the powers that be.

The movie "Bonnie and Clyde" inspired a generation of film makers to look at cinema in a different light. Actions movies were allowed to be funny from this point; funny movies could get away with violence. On the negative side, however, the film changed the morals of Hollywood by allowing murder to be dealt with in such a nonchalant fashion.

Sure, Claude is obviously shaken up after his first kill, as are Bonnie and C.W., but from that point on violence against law officials is no longer a problem. The police in this film are rather like the way gangsters used to be portrayed; a collection of stupid, soulless individuals who only want to ruin Bonnie and Clyde's fun.

In the end, this in an excellent film about Depression era gangsters. Most ironically, however, is that it seems dedicated to the two real life robbers who don't deserve such an honor of having a film legacy created in their names.

10 stars. Innovative, fresh, and hey, it helped pave the way for "Dillinger", my favorite movie in the robber-gangster genre.

Good, but with some issues

[bull-frog · 7/10 · 1 July 2008]

Bonnie and Clyde takes place in 30s depression stricken Texas and other central states. This film was among the first or perhaps the very first film to show real blood and realistic violence. Films like Bonnie and Clyde helped bring down the strict grip the censors placed on films. Bonnie and Clyde takes you through an adventure in violence and wrongdoing. And at the end they get what they deserve. Although the ending is nothing new, the brutality and grotesqueness of it was groundbreaking for its time.

I do wish more time was taken to develop the characters and their partnership. It seemed like the film just rushed in to the shooting and violence. I thought the two lead characters did a fine job. But I did not however, like the roles of Hackman and Parsons. Their overacting was a distraction. Particularly that of Parson, who's screaming and yelling is annoying. Also, the kid's role to me was a mystery. He was little more than a background distraction. Except for those things, the movie was good overall.

Good afternoon, we are the Barrow gang.

[hitchcockthelegend · 10/10 · 16 January 2009]

Bonnie & Clyde stands today as one of the most important films of the 60s, it's impact on culture alone marks it out as a piece of work to note, but as gangster films go this one is something of a landmark. Quite how writers Newman & Benton managed to craft a story of two deadbeat outlaws into cinematic heroes is up for any individual viewers scrutiny, but they bloody well do it because we all want to be in the Barrow gang, because we get lost in this romanticised outlawish tale unfolding in front of our eyes.

The film is a fusion of incredible violence and jaunty slapstick, and smartly pauses for delicate moments to let us into the psyche of the main protagonists. We know they have hangups, and with that we know they are fallible human beings, and this sets us up a treat for the incredible jaw dropping finale, the impact of this finale hits as hard now as it did back with the audience's of 1967.

The cast are incredible, Warren Beatty gives a truly brilliant performance as Clyde, he looks good and suave tooting those guns, but it's in the tender troubled scenes where he excels supreme. Faye Dunaway as Bonnie is the perfect foil for Beatty's layers, she nails every beat of this gangsters troubled moll. Gene Hackman, Michael J Pollard and Estelle Parsons put the cherry on the icing to give depth and range to the rest of the Barrow gang, and these fine actors are clothed in gorgeous cinematography courtesy of Burnett Guffrey. To round out the plaudits I finish with love for director Arthur Penn, because it's his vision that gives us something of a nostalgic movie that plays up and down with its subjects with cheeky aplomb, in fact it's just like the banjo music that features so prominently throughout this wonderful film.

Nominated for 9 Oscars it won just the two, the entire actors who played the Barrow gang were nominated, and truth be told they all would have been worthy winners, as it is they gave out just the one to the least strongest performance from Estelle Parsons, go figure. Its legacy both in culture and box office lives on and for me Bonnie & Clyde is not only one of the best films of the 60s, it's also one of the best in history. 10/10

Very good with fun action!

[rebeccalucy · 6/10 · 3 November 2017]

Got to say the ending had me really surprised, and is very unique. I enjoy the concept of the film, the dysfunctional couple that rob banks. The action is very fast paced but gripping, with the extremely loud gunshots. Also the banjo music the film uses is quite catchy, it adds the characters of both Bonnie and Clyde. It fits with the location, which can look bland but fits the theme of the depression time period.

Sometimes the plot is quite confusing, as scenes do not really stop or start. They can be quite jarring, as scenes change quite dramatically. I think after a few rewatches it might be easier to understand. A good film that led to many more great ones!

A Gruesome Twosome!

[GordJackson · 4/10 · 30 April 2016]

I wish I could get on the 'we love "Bonnie and Clyde"' bandwagon. But I cannot. I found its paint-by-numbers storytelling style boring and predictable.

Based upon the lives of depression-era criminals Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker, the film routinely shows us how they met, lived and eventually came to their undignified doom.

Certainly, the Oscar winning colour cinematography of Burnett Guffey is breathtaking, the recreation of the thirties depression era superb, an excellent musical score adds immeasurably to the film's ambiance and the acting of the supporting characters is stellar. Sadly however, that's it for me. I found Warren Beatty's Clyde Barrow was forced and unconvincing, with Faye Dunaway's Bonnie Parker less depression thirties than hippie sixties.

Unfortunately, I also did not see much in the way of on screen chemistry between the two leads. For me they were more like a couple of limp lettuce well past their best before date. Only Gene Hackman's good-old-boy brother Buck, Estelle Parsons near- hysterical wife Blanche, and most especially Michael J. Pollard's quirky C. W. Moss add any spark to their characters.

"Bonnie and Clyde" is not exactly a time waster, but do also check out Joseph H. Lewis's 1949 black and white, totally fictional cheapie "Gun Crazy" for a vastly more satisfying take on the B & C story. For this commentator it is far more interesting, with the on screen chemistry of Peggy Cummins' Laurie Starr and John Dahl's Bart Tare threatening to ignite everything around them. Indeed, total conflagration in the Lewis film may only have been avoided because the director had to sanitize his movie past the prissy Hays office.

No, "Gun Crazy" may not have the opulence or graphic violence of the Arthur Penn/WarrenBeatty (who produced) collaboration, but it makes up for it in so many other ways.

Bank robbers during Great Depression well played by Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway

[ma-cortes · 8/10 · 31 March 2008]

The picture tells the lurid criminal story of a famous couple of delinquents, detailing a mythologized biography. In the time of the Great Depression , Clyde Barrow (top-notch Warren Beatty) recently out of jail meets Bonnie Parker(gorgeous Faye Dunaway). She was stark naked, yelling at him out the window while he tried to steal her mother's car. In a matter of minutes they stole a store , fired a few shots and then stole somebody else's car. At that point they had not yet been introduced , subsequently both of whom become usual bank robbers. The antiheroes go across the American Midwest and South robbing banks and stores during the 30s , embarking in a criminal rampage . They form a criminal gang , along with accomplices as Cyde's brother named Buck (incomparable Gene Hackman) and his spouse (Estelle Parsons was Oscar winner), besides an unexperienced young (unforgettable Michael J Pollard). But they're mercilessly pursued by a revenger sheriff (Denver Pyle). "The strangest damned gang you ever heard of. They're young. They're in love. They rob banks." There has never been... You have never seen... a motion picture like this one! They're young... they're in love... and they kill people !.

This classic movie displays drama , a peculiar love story , noisy action, violence and being quite entertaining . A brilliantly directed movie , a groundbreaking film that chronicles the short lives of America's most infamous criminals. In spite of thirty years from film-making still hold well and remains interesting . In the wake of the recently released Sam Peckinpah's Wild Bunch, the flick is plenty of grisly violence including a really violent ending that was extremely polemic. Colorful and glittering cinematography by cameraman Burnett Guffey was Oscar winner, and atmospheric musical score by Charles Strouse . Excellent art direction by Dean Tavoularis and evocative costumes by Theodora Van Runkle. The motion picture was magnificently directed by Arthur Penn . The picture spawned pretty imitators, and created a sub-genre about Great Depression outlaws, such as : Dillinger , Pretty Boy Floyd, Machine Gun Kelly, among others. And other updatings about Clyde Borrow and Charlie Parker life are the following ones : ¨Bonnie Parker story¨(1958) by William Witney with Dorothy Provine and a rendition for TV (1992) by Gary Hoffman with Tracy Needham and Dana Ashbrook.

(Top 10 choice) Superb job done by all involved.

[Hermit C-2 · 10/10 · 22 April 1999]

Besides being an enormously entertaining movie, "Bonnie and Clyde" was an important 1960's landmark film in a couple of ways. Its violent ending helped to hasten the end of the old Hayes code, which had been a severe restrictor of artistic freedom; and it helped shape the '60's image of the anti-hero. For these things it received a good deal of condemnation as well as commendation.

The picture is a melange of artistic license and historical accuracy. The recreation of the Depression-era look is superb. (It's done in an unostentatious manner, however. One feels it rather than particularly noting it.) While some liberties are taken with the story, a reasonable amount jibes with the facts. But certainly there is some romanticization here. And of course the real Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker were not nearly as attractive as Beatty and Dunaway.

The acting by the two principals is top-notch, as well as that of most of the rest of the cast, especially Gene Hackman (the first film I ever saw him in) and Estelle Parsons.It's not generally recognized that actors Denver Pyle, Dub Taylor and Gene Wilder contribute to the movie's success. Technically as well as artistically everyone from director Arthur Penn on down deserves praise for making what I think is one of the finest movies ever made, without qualification. It seems we all reserve the warmest spots in our hearts for favorite films of our youth. This is one of mine.

And you'll love Flatt & Scruggs' "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" too.

Quite Possibly the Most Important Film of the 1960s

[tfrizzell · 10 October 2000]

"Bonnie and Clyde" is a real innovative film in the fact that it does contain some extremely violent content. 1967 was a different time in the cinema. This film was one of the first, if not the first, that really showed violence the way it would be in real life. People bleed when they get shot and they die in gruesome fashions. The film itself is the somewhat true story of the infamous bank robbers who terrorized parts of Texas and Oklahoma in the early-1930s before they were finally terminated by the authorities. Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, Gene Hackman, and Michael J. Pollard all received Oscar nominations. Estelle Parsons won one in the Supporting Actress category. Dunaway and Hackman proved to be the finds of the decade and Beatty became the first real star to be an instrumental part in the actual production of the film. Watch for Gene Wilder in a somewhat funny sequence during the course of the action. Unrelenting and overall exceptional, "Bonnie and Clyde" is easily one of the top 10 films of the 1960s and one of the greatest films of all time. 5 stars out of 5.

good!

[crimsonsanctuary · 6/10 · 16 May 2010]

This movie was one of the first movies to show graphic violence. Although no where near the modern movies, but the violence in movies had to start somewhere. Has one of the best opening credits sequences ever. The actors are extremely convincing and have the right amount of sympathy to not be melodramatic. The themes of the film such as obsession with celebrity, bonds of love, rebellion, and the Robin Hood concept, are investigated but never construe the enjoyment of watching it. This movie has many different feelings to it. Such as it's funny, shocking, sad, frightening, luring, and debatable. The theme of the actual story of this movie, "bonnie and clyde", has been touched in many other movies with different character names and such, but has the same kind of fateful end.

You Don't Need to Like the People

[Hitchcoc · 9/10 · 5 April 2006]

I agree with most folks who have reviewed this film. It has everything a well rounded motion picture can have. Two very charismatic leads, several supporting roles of great depth, brilliant cinematography, and a good story. Even the most minor roles sparkle. This is a story about a sociopath (Bonnie), meeting up with a low self esteem wanderer who is pretty spineless until she shows up (Clyde) and what happens when you set into motion a series of events that can only lead to destruction. Of course, the final scene is one of the most famous in all of movie history and opened the door for future films. It also glamorizes the two anti-heroes and puts them out there. Personally, I don't see them as glamorous at all; they are low life killers with no real respect for human life. That said, their portrayal is extremely well done. When Bonnie sees her mother for the last time, there is that element that you can't go home again. They have cut a path through the film. They have become the stuff of fiction. They are even blamed for crimes they didn't commit. Children read dime novels about them.

I just wanted ot mention Gene Hackman and Estelle Parsons. They don't have the savvy and the bravado that the title characters have, but they fill the screen. Fantastic performances. When I was a child, my parents ran a restaurant. I got to know a drifter who washed dishes for us. He left and a couple weeks later, we found out he had been shot and killed when he and his partner tried to commit a robbery. I remember the police talking to may parents as part of a routine investigation. When I see the people who surround the main characters in this film, I think back to this guy, especially when I watch the Hackman role.

Bonnie and Clyde are pretty dull 6/10

[saadanathan · 6/10 · 3 October 2020]

"Bonnie and Clyde" tells the tale of two of the most famous robbers in american history. The couple known as "bonnie and Clyde" were considered Robin Hood to many civilians during the great depression. Personally I was less impressed by the film and for most of the time it felt dull. Even the main characters are not good enough. For an hour and a half you watch both robbers with their gang robbing banks and killing cops. Not THAT different from other modern crime movies today. The actors are exaggerating with their acting and it feels very fake. The colors throughout the film were nice and the costume design was accurate and good. I don't recommend unless you're not familiar with the story.

1967's best movie.

[Chuck-149 · 10/10 · 10 September 1999]

"Bonnie and Clyde" is, what I would consider to be, the movie that let loose violence in cinema. Artur Penn's based on a true story classic of violence, sexuality, and crime, was excellent thirty-two years ago when it first came out, is excellent today, and will be excellent for decades to come. Plus, it is one of those rare movies that are at the same time a landmark for cinema history as well as a true classic for more than just its landmark aspect. This movie earned five nominations only for acting and won best supporting-actress for Estelle Parsons.

One morning, as she wakes up, Bonnie Parker (Faye Dunaway) notices that a man is trying to subtly break into her car. She quickly dresses up and runs down. The man looks up at her embarrassed and we are than revealed Clyde Barrow (Warren Beatty). The two of them go for a walk down the road but when Clyde tells Bonnie that he is a robber, she doesn't believe him. So, he decides to prove to her that he isn't lying and robs a small grocery shop right away. As soon as he exits the store, he shows Bonnie the money and they escape in a car that they steal. And so begins an adventure they will never forget.

Along their way, they pick up a young boy who works at a gas station who is called C.W. (Michael J. Pollard). They begin doing more and more robberies until Clyde is finally forced to kill someone. Later on in their trip, Clyde's brother (Gene Hackman) and his wife Blanche (Estelle Parsons) catch up with Clyde, C.W., and Bonnie and they continue committing crimes such as robberies and even sometimes murders but usually in cases of self-defense.

"Bonnie and Clyde" is beautifully acted and expertly directed. After "Bonnie and Clyde", Arthur Penn directed some other good movies such as "Little big man" but as good as they were all, none ever equalled "Bonnie and Clyde". If you haven't seen it yet, you should put it first on your "Next movies to watch" list.

We rob banks, huh?

[rhall-14 · 7/10 · 27 January 2006]

A film produced in 1967, Bonnie and Clyde has been celebrated as being one of the turning points for the modern age of film. It seemed to pave the way for other films, changing conventional wisdom and adding new and more extreme elements to the movie industry.

As I watched the film I noticed a variety of examples that exemplified these groundbreaking changes in the industry. The most obvious of these examples is the high amount of violence in the film, and the very explicit way in which it was shown. At the time the movie was made, in the late 1960's, movie audiences were not accustomed to high levels of violence in full length films. In the various scenes when Buck, Clyde, Bonnie, and even Blanche were wounded by bullets, the director had no problems showing the wounds, and showing the violent actions that produced them. And of course, the final scene of the movie, which concluded with the realistic portrayal of Bonnie and Clyde's assassination and the final shot of the bullet ridden car and bodies of the bandits, proved to be a shocking ending to the film. Basically, the violent aspect of this movie not only gave it a sense of realism, but set it apart from earlier films and paved the way for realistic, effective violence in future movies.

Another part of Bonnie and Clyde that changed the face of film was the change in the conventions of typical film. A typical movie during this time portrayed the "good guys" as the main characters, and the "bad guys" as characters you felt no sympathy or good will toward. However, Bonnie and Clyde and the rest of the Barrow gang were all outlaws and bandits, yet they were the people you admired throughout the movie. This changed the face of the common movie, making it acceptable for "bad guys" to be important, likable characters. It took historically dangerous characters, and romanticized them, turning them into folk heroes and movie legends.

Also, the realism of making Clyde have a sexual problem was a new and unusual aspect in the movie industry. To have a main character with such an odd flaw was a very new thing. Usually, lead male characters were "lover boys", yet Clyde struggled throughout the movie to satisfy Bonnie. Warren Beatty's portrayal of this outlaw who believed himself to be "the best" while having such an obvious problem, simply made the film more realistic and moving.

In general, this film paved the way for future films with its originality and its destruction of past film barriers. Bonnie and Clyde could effectively be described as the beginning of the modern age of film in America.

Ripe for Reassessment

[MOscarbradley · 10/10 · 6 September 2006]

When Arthur Penn's Thirties-set gangster movie first appeared in 1967 it was like a breath of fresh air in the American cinema, (though to be fair, on hindsight, the American cinema in the previous few years, particularly in the Independent sector, wasn't doing too badly). Still, Penn's movie seemed to break new ground and not just in it's depiction of violence. It had a lyrical intensity that belonged more to the French New Wave, (and at one time Truffaut's name was associated with the project), and, in that it took back to the American cinema the trappings that the French had originally borrowed in films like "A Bout De Soufflé" and "Shoot the Pianist", seemed to square the circle.

In the intervening years it has fallen somewhat out of fashion. It now almost seems quaintly old-fashioned, it's form more classically structured and narratively driven than might first appeared. But there are virtues that have largely been overlooked. Like "The Graduate" which came out in the same year, it is a young person's film yet it burns with a fierce intelligence that is conspicuously absent from similar films today. I suppose you could say the film has a pop-art sensibility, (a close-up of Faye Dunaway's face, lips burning bright red, could come from a Lichtenstein poster), and its cast seem unnaturally young, (only Beatty had established a persona for himself at the time; the others had yet to establish a reputation), but they became stars because of it. (Gang members Parsons and Pollard didn't make the leap; they were character actors from the start). Arguably you could say Beatty, Dunaway, Hackman, Parsons and Pollard were never to better their work here. They may have equalled it but their performances were definitive.

Arthur Penn, too, was never to make another movie as good. The film's extraordinary critical and popular success gave Penn the freedom to tackle 'weightier' material, but "Little Big Man" and "Georgia's Friends" now seem misguided attempts at solemnity, while even his brilliant western "The Missouri Breaks" seems to succeed more for it's oddness rather than it's originality. Perhaps "Bonnie and Clyde" was a one-off though it did spawn an awful lot of break-neck thrillers and up-dated film-noirs, and was more responsible for the baby-boom in movies in the seventies than "Easy Rider" which followed it two years later. It remains a film ripe for reassessment.

Horrible portrayal of 2 low-life criminals

[CMurphy08 · 6/10 · 20 January 2006]

My reaction to this film is very dichotomous. The film was revolutionary in the way that it was filmed: it shattered a longstanding code of film-making wherein studios were discouraged to include violent and sexual material. The film is known among film scholars as the genesis of a period of American film known as the Hollywood Renaissance.

Many agree that the film was groundbreaking, with new film techniques and risqué content never before seen on the big screen. This aside, the film was sickening in the way it portrayed the notorious thugs Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow. Most people who see the film know that Bonnie and Clyde were real criminals whose crime spree shook Midwestern America in the early 1930s. Perhaps many people don't realize the scope of their crimes, however.

By the time they were shot down by the FBI in 1934, the five criminals portrayed in the film had committed an extensive number of heinous crimes. Collectively, the group was thought to have murdered three police officers and four civilians; kidnapped a chief of police, a sheriff and two innocent people; and committed countless robberies and automobile thefts.

It is clear that these people were low-life cop killers and thieves. So why they were portrayed in such a heroic manor is beyond me. Some film scholars cite the reason for this shocking content as a social commentary on the rebellious attitudes of 1960s pop culture. This is a poor justification. The film undoubtedly contributed to the advent of popular films and video games in which cop killing and grand larceny is encouraged. Such a movement is a scar on our society.

My opinion of the film would be drastically different had the group been portrayed as the antagonists of the story. The film would have been much had the police been portrayed as the heroes in the film, working diligently to catch the group of homicidal criminals. Bonnie and Clyde would have been less likable and less sexualized. This approach, however, would have been much less groundbreaking and would have ended up being a typical detective movie popular in that period. Hollywood executives, as we would expect, clearly opted for the plot that would sell the most tickets.

The point to be made here is that Bonnie and Clyde were villainous murderers who had no regard for society or the law. They murdered innocent people and civil servants. The couple and those who joined them on their reign of terror are undeserving of the way they were portrayed in this film.

Shameful moviemaking

[billythewizard · 1/10 · 5 April 2019]

I saw this film in 1968 after coming home from Vietnam and being discharged from the Marine Corps. I never understood why people would want to glamorize such evil. Thank goodness for the recent Netflix film "The Highwaymen" for finally setting the record straight about the real-life Texas Rangers who hunted down and killed those psychopaths. Arthur Penn portrayed Ranger Hamer as a incompetent red-necked fool by casting bucktoothed comedic actor Denver Pyle in the role. And Hamer's wife successfully sued for defamation of character. The choice of Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway was phoney as well. In real life, both Bonnie and Clyde were little sawed-off squirts and not the beautiful and almost regal characters we see on the screen. Warren Beatty went on later to glamorize another psychotic killer in the film "Bugsy". But this is to be expected from a draft-dodging coward who deliberately got a dishonorable discharge from the California Air National Guard in January 1961, making him ineligible for any future military service. I still can't understand why such murderous evil is glamorized. I hope I never will.