Bonnie and Clyde (film)
"Bonnie and Clyde" is a 1967 crime drama film that chronicles the exploits of the infamous bank-robbing couple, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, during the Great Depression. The film portrays their violent heists and their tumultuous relationship, highlighting both their criminal activities and the social context of their time. Directed by Arthur Penn and featuring performances by Warren Beatty as Clyde and Faye Dunaway as Bonnie, the film is noted for its blend of dark humor and graphic violence, which was groundbreaking for its era.
The screenplay, penned by David Newman and Robert Benton, drew significant influence from French New Wave cinema, incorporating innovative editing techniques and a shifting tone that seamlessly transitions from comedic moments to intense violence. Upon release, "Bonnie and Clyde" faced controversy for its depiction of brutality, yet it resonated strongly with younger audiences, becoming one of the highest-grossing films of 1967 and earning critical acclaim. It received ten Academy Award nominations, winning two, including Best Supporting Actress for Estelle Parsons.
The film's legacy is marked by its cultural, historical, and aesthetic significance, leading to its preservation in the Library of Congress. It is often regarded as a milestone in cinematic history, influencing future filmmaking with its realistic portrayal of violence and complex characters. Overall, "Bonnie and Clyde" remains an important work that reflects the intersection of crime, romance, and societal issues, inviting viewers to explore the darker facets of American life during a tumultuous period.
Bonnie and Clyde (film)
- Release Date: 1967
- Director(s): Arthur Penn
- Writer(s): Robert Benton; David Newman
- Principal Actors and Roles: Warren Beatty (Clyde Barrow); Faye Dunaway (Bonnie Parker); Gene Hackman (Buck Barrow); Estelle Parsons (Blanche Barrow); Michael J. Pollard (C. W. Moss); Denver Pyle (Frank Hamer)
Bonnie and Clyde, a crime drama film released in 1967, follows Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker, a bank-robbing duo, as they carry out violent heists and hide from the police. The film’s story is inspired by the real-life 1930s gangster couple Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow. During their active years of robbing banks, they killed a number of civilians and police officers. Other members of Barrow and Parker’s gang appear in the film as well, although some members are combined into single characters and possess different names.
The screenplay, written by first-time screenwriters David Newman and Robert Benton, was sent to François Truffaut, a seminal French New Wave film director whose work heavily inspired the script. However, Truffaut was unable to direct Bonnie and Clyde and instead recommended several other French directors, including Jean-Luc Goddard. As the script floated around Paris, it eventually found its way to American actor Warren Beatty. Beatty requested a copy of the screenplay as soon as he arrived back in Hollywood. After quickly buying the rights to the script and abandoning the idea of bringing in a French director, he enlisted the help of American director Arthur Penn. For the role of Bonnie Parker, Beatty and the other producers originally considered Beatty’s sister, actress Shirley MacLaine. However, once Beatty decided to take on the role of Clyde, a new actress had to be considered. Many top Hollywood actresses were in the running for the role, including Jane Fonda and Natalie Wood, but the producers eventually settled on up-and-coming actress Faye Dunaway. Dunaway’s portrayal of Bonnie Parker would garner her a first-time Academy Award nomination for best actress as well as secure her spot in the Hollywood spotlight.
Plot
Bonnie and Clyde is set in Texas during the Great Depression. It is there that Bonnie Parker, a young waitress, has grown frustrated and bored with her life, and while sulking in her bedroom one day, she spots a young man out the window who is attempting to steal her mother’s car. She leaves her bedroom, stops him in the act, and soon learns that the dapper man is Clyde Barrow. The chemistry between the pair is immediately apparent as they begin to flirt, and on a walk into town, Bonnie learns that Clyde lives a life of crime. Almost immediately, Bonnie watches Clyde rob a local shop, and then the two of them flee in a stolen car. Bonnie is attracted to Clyde’s dangerous lifestyle and decides to become his partner.
The pair’s first few hold-ups are not very profitable—a bank that they target has no money, and at a grocery store, Clyde has an altercation with a butcher who is wielding a meat cleaver. When Bonnie and Clyde experience trouble with one of their stolen getaway vehicles, they stop at a gas station and meet C.W. Moss, a foolish attendant who fixes their car and then decides to join them. However, during his first job as the getaway driver, Moss attempts to parallel park the vehicle, delaying the gang’s getaway and forcing Clyde to murder the bank manager in order to successfully escape. Soon, Clyde’s brother Buck and Buck’s wife Blanche join the gang. The police begin to pursue the criminals, although the first attempt to ambush them is unsuccessful. Later on, when Ranger Frank Hamer attempts to ambush the gang members, they capture him, restrain him with his own handcuffs, and humiliate him before letting him go.
During the gang’s third bank robbery, Buck is shot in the head, and Blanche, who is injured and captured by the police, helps Hamer track Moss, Bonnie, and Clyde to their hideout at the house of Moss’s father. The older man makes a secret agreement with Hamer to help capture Bonnie and Clyde, but only if Hamer will guarantee his son’s safety. Hamer agrees, and the police set a trap for the two fugitives, who are ambushed and shot dead.
Significance
Bonnie and Clyde was heavily influenced by French New Wave cinema and sought to provide a comic nod to the Hollywood gangster films of the 1930s. As a result, the film possesses many New Wave characteristics, such as choppy editing techniques that often involve a quickly shifting tone in scenes. Many of the violent action sequences in the film begin as comical—they are almost slapstick—but then they quickly turn gruesome and depict graphic violence. Throughout the production of the movie, Beatty floated a number of ideas—such shooting the film in black and white—that the executives at Warner resisted. They were bitter because Beatty had earlier refused to star in another one of the studio’s pictures. Beatty angered Jack Warner further by exceeding the film’s budget and because of the scheduling problems that delayed the on-location shoot in Texas, In the end, the entire crew and cast was brought back to Hollywood to finish filming the movie in a studio.
Additionally, nervous about the bloody, graphic violence depicted in the film, executives at Warner Brothers refused to promote Bonnie and Clyde or to release it for general distribution. At the time of its release, Bonnie and Clyde contained some of the most gruesome violence of any Hollywood film released previously. Many earlier films portrayed gunfights as bloodless affairs, with actors simply falling to the ground in a painless fashion. However, Bonnie and Clyde employed the use of squibs, small explosive devices that released fake blood on cue, making bullet hits look more realistic than ever before. In particular, Bonnie and Clyde’s death scene was the most graphic and realistic scene of its kind when the film was released in the late 1960s.
In spite of the difficulties the film experienced, Bonnie and Clyde proved to be a huge success during its limited theatrical run, finally prompting Warner Brothers to put the film into wide release. While the film remained controversial among critics and filmgoers, but it was extremely popular with younger generations, and it helped usher in a new era of realistic filmmaking. The film became one of the top five grossing films of 1967 and earned the studio over $50 million in box office sales in the United States alone. The film was nominated for ten Academy Awards, and it took home two—Best Supporting Actress for Estelle Parsons (Blanche) and Best Cinematography. Bonnie and Clyde was one of the first one hundred films selected for preservation in the Library of Congress by the United States Film Registry, which cited the film for its cultural, historical, and aesthetic significance. In the history of cinema, Bonnie and Clyde is considered to be a milestone film.
Awards and nominations
Won
- Academy Award (1967) Best Cinematography ()
- Academy Award (1967) Best Supporting Actress (): Estelle Parsons
Nominated
- Academy Award (1967) Best Picture
- Academy Award (1967) Best Director: Arthur Penn
- Academy Award (1967) Best Actor: Warren Beatty
- Academy Award (1967) Best Actress: Faye Dunaway
- Academy Award (1967) Best Supporting Actor: Gene Hackman, Michael J. Pollard
- Academy Award (1967) Best Supporting Actor (): Gene Hackman, Michael J. Pollard
- Academy Award (1967) Best Screenplay (Original): Robert Benton, David Newman
- Academy Award (1967) Best Costume Design: Theadora Van Runkle
- Golden Globe (1967) Best Motion Picture (Drama)
Bibliography
Caldwell Barrow, Blanche. My Life with Bonnie and Clyde. Norman: U of Oklahoma Press, 1954. Electronic.
Dirks, Tim. "Bonnie and Clyde (1967)." AMC Filmsite. American Movie Classics Company, 2015. Web. 7 Nov. 2015. <http://www.filmsite.org/bonn.html>.
Friedman, Lester D., ed. Arthur Penn’s Bonnie and Clyde. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2000. Print.
Niemi, Robert. "History of Crime on Film and Television." History in the Media: Film and Television. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2006. 389-93. Print.
Segaloff, Nat. Arthur Penn: American Director (Screen Classics). Lexington: UP of Kentucky, 2011. Electronic.