Review of Bonnie and Clyde (1967) by Jhordan W — 02 Sep 2011

Comedy, adventure, romance and hardcore action. Oh, I forgot to mention slowness, because this film gets awful quiet and lazy from time to time, at its most controlled. When this thing kicks in, it slams in, becoming an uncontrolled mess. There's so much forced and sloppily told in the heat of the film's more fast-paced sequences and it doesn't help that we're lacking a bit in the immediate character development department. Of course, it's gotta be that mess that's one of the best things about this film. This is one of the first steps for the new Action-Oriented Hollywood and it genuinely works, as it's audacious, yet no pretentious. It's just here for the grit and reality and those two elements age gracefully.

Perhaps what makes this film age so well, is because its fast-pace sequences and leads are executed so well. Although editing faults every now and then, the action is overall well-edited and well-shot. Also, the fine production designs really bring the world to life and make everything, including the action, more exciting. As for the performances, they themselves have not aged terribly gracefully. However, the performers' chemistry has aged quite gracefully and make the film - dare I say it - pretty fun, once everything is set up. Everyone, particularly Beatty and Dunaway, work quite well off of each other and no matter how overly slow or overly fast the film gets, the character chemistry carries the film the whole way. Man, this is quite the forced, poor review, so I better bail out now.

Ultimately, although is is slow, when not an absolute mess, the fast-paced action and charming chemistry within the cast make "Bonnie and Clyde" an audacious and mostly quite entertaining turning point in Hollywood filmmaking.