BONNIE AND CLYDE
A film review by Walter Frith
Copyright 1997 Walter Frith
Thirty years after its release, the debate continues over Arthur Penn's simple, truthful and hardcore look at American criminal violence. When it was released in 1967, 'Bonnie and Clyde' stirred up quite a debate over whether or not it "glamourized" violence. Quite simply, it was a straight forward telling of two lonely, mixed up people, Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker (yes, they were real figures in history) portrayed with poetic brilliance by Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway and how they threw their lives away in the pursuit of a criminal life. They were a pair of lovers who terrorized and robbed their way across the heartland of America in the 1930's.
In fact, staggering performances were abound in this stylish film that would receive 5 Oscar nominations for acting, Beatty and Dunaway for Best Actor and Actress, Gene Hackman as Best Supporting Actor along with Michael J. Pollard and someone who would win Best Supporting Actress, Estelle Parsons. Hackman, in one of his first films, plays Clyde's brother Buck Barrow and Michael J. Pollard is C.W., the getaway driver in the mob and Estelle Parsons rounded out the cast as the noisy and frumpy wife of Buck, a preacher's daughter caught in the fight for her life from authorities as they closed in on Bonnie and Clyde. In recent memory, only a handful of films would receive 5 Oscar nominations for acting. Grasping cinematography by Burnett Guffey would also cop an Oscar and 'Bonnie and Clyde' would be shut out for almost every major Oscar it was nominated for including Best Picture and Best Director for Arthur Penn.
Warren Beatty's film debut in 1961 with 'Splendor in the Grass' would prove enormously successful and it wasn't long before Beatty would turn to producing and he did so with 'Bonnie and Clyde'. 'Bonnie and Clyde' does what its supposed to do like every other classic film; it draws the audience in from the opening minutes as it centres on being a two character study for the first several minutes. Just moments after they meet and are immediately attracted to each other, we find out that Clyde has just been released from jail and to immediately impress Bonnie, he robs a grocery store and the story continues from there all the way to its conclusion which was very controversial in 1967 when audience's jaws dropped in view of it. Certainly a timely film in view of the social changes of the 1960's, 'Bonnie and Clyde' will leave an impression on audiences for all time with its message of anti-violence stemming from violence spawned by the poverty of the great depression.
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