Review of Bonnie and Clyde (1967) by Richard D — 20 Jan 2013

A really groundbreaking film. It's influence on the gangster genre was pronounced (although most of the elements of this film, including the Freudian angle, were already present in films like AIP's "Machine Gun Kelly", the tome of them changed in obvious ways after 1967), but it also has a pretty wide influence outside of it's narrow genre by introducing a blend of satire and violence to Hollywood films.

I doubt that "A Clockwork Orange", to pick one example, could have happened without it. Interestingly, the two elements that I don't think work very well are the ones that most strongly anchor it in 1967.

The idea of Clyde being impotent seems to be included strictly as a daring stroke, and now that it no longer feels very daring at all, it feels totally irrelevant. Also, the film's phony populism feels like a mistake.

There are a lot of awkward gestures towards Bonnie and Clyde being motivated by identification with the plight of the little people, and the film seems to genuinely believe this. This doesn't sit very well with the fact that they have no compunction from stealing from businesses besides banks, stealing any old car they run across and shooting whoever gets in their way.

I think the film works best as a satire of ambition and the American dream, so any notion that Bonnie and Clyde aren't completely fooling themselves by identifying with the plight of the little folks seems naive and quite out of place.