Review of Bonnie and Clyde (1967) by David L — 15 Apr 2010

The first twenty minutes or so are superb. Bonnie meets Clyde in a situation which begins unorthodoxically and ends as strangely. The two leads are introduced in slam bam fashion and their chemistry is instant fusion both in the best repartee of the film and the sizzle of sexy Dunawaye and Beatty. Dunawaye is amazing throughout the whole film and has that big presence and timing only a few actors are lucky enough to possess. Beatty does a respectable job. The camera work is wonderful and is also more impactful for the first part of the tale.

Bonnie and Clyde's individual personalities for the movie are not only explained in this superfast synopsis, but their identity as a duo is also at bullet speed. When Clyde doesn't or can't have sex with Bonnie he expains "I don't see no percentage in it." Bonnie responds, "Your advertising is dandy. Folks just would never guess that you don't have a thing to sell." Then Clyde goes about whooing her by other means. "If all you wants a stud service..." Unexpected events like this and fantastic writing and camera work emblazen the first few scenes of the movie in one's psyche. Their comraderie and daring are infectious. But by the time one is taken in the best of the writing and story have already been spent.

Maybe it's a silly question, but why was this movie made? Is it to go on a thrillseeking ridealong and witness some carnage? To what purpose. I could not deduce the foundation of the intent and this keeps the film from greatness. Again, the other inhibiting factor is that there is not much reason to watch more than the first half hour in that little mystery or surprises remain.

Gene Hackman is surprisingly unbelievable as the hillbilly brother of Clyde and when his character Buck and his wife Blanche (Estelle Parsons) meet up with Bonnie and Clyde the previous epic dialogue and freshness are all but gone. The scene where Buck and Clyde are fake fighting and goofing around including their talk about Bonnie does not seem realistic and worse still, doesn't work. Blanche is a sad sack whiny tagalong and is purposefully annoying. Parsons won best supporting actres I believe, but she wasn't given the scenes or writing to make that a fair result.

Though the film takes liberties with the true history of Bonnie and Clyde I was shocked to realize that many of the events shown in the film are fairly close approximations of what really happened. Bonnie and Clyde really did escape numerous run ins with the police. In the film it seems like they have more lives than a cat, but this wasn't far from the truth. Their gang really did kill a quite a few policemen (probably 9) and a few civilians if they got in the way (at least 3). The police really did send an armored car to help deal with the gang at one point and the gang really did escape! Apparently Clyde truly was good with a gun and got better under pressure as he gained experience. His gang survived one confrontation with police because he realized that rifles were far more effective than tommy guns when the police had positioned themselves too far away. Bonnie really did write that poetry and it really did get published. They really did steal an undertaker's car and when the undertaker and his wife pursued them, they really did kidnap them and take them on a ride! According to the undertaker, Bonnie told them that if they weren't so amusing they may have been killed. Bonnie and Clyde really were ambushed with the help of the father of one of their gang. A lot of surprising realities.

When you know how a movie will end, and the story is basically a fatalistic love story mixed with a crime spree then in my opinion the story needs another level some other angle to pinion the obvious and stoke the unkown. Again the first part of the movie has those elements, but then it fades. With no deeper message to tell or mystery to unfold this simply isn't one of the top 100 movies some people make it out to be. But those first twenty minutes are sweet.