Kelly WandBonnie and Clyde
October 4th 2006 02:53
There are good films and there are great films. There are also films that place a marker in the time line. What ever else happens in cinema is marked in terms of before and after. “Casablanca” frequently tops critics lists as the best film ever made but it is not a film that changed anything. Al Jolson’s “The Jazz Singer” is a fairly turgid film that all but buried everything that had gone before it. You will note that no-one is rushing out to provide that milestone with a special edition DVD.
Quality was never a pre-requisite for a place in history. Just ask George Bush (both original and sequel).
Thanks to a particularly brutal finale, “Bonnie and Clyde” marks a milestone in the portrayal of violence on the screen. It is also an extremely good piece of film-making. The gunning down of the titular outlaws, however, would mean nothing if we hadn’t fallen in love with them along the way. Director Arthur Penn ensures we do.
Warren Beatty’s performance is extraordinary. He would never match this level of acting again because he would forget how to play vulnerable. Here, before attempting his first bank robbery, he undercuts boyish charm and bravado with a single all telling turn of the eye. When he lies to his brother about his relationship with Bonnie, you know him like you know a brother. Clyde Barrow is a bit of a dork in a handsome frame. You can forgive him anything – particularly since he demonstrates an odd moral code of his own. In a world turned upside down by the poverty of the Depression, who can blame him. All the cops seem to do is protect the vested interests of the banks.
He genuinely can’t understand why a shop keeper would fight back. “I’m not against him,” Clyde mutters in disbelief as he stumbles bloodied and bruised back into the car after a failed robbery attempt.
Faye Dunaway never looked more beautiful as she does as Bonnie Parker. We understand her even more than we understand Clyde. We first see her alone in the oppressive heat of her home. She tellingly lies on her bed and the frame becomes the bars of a prison. She tests them.
She sees Clyde as her great escape and we watch her fall in love with him. The robberies that follow become a kind of game and we forgive them as we forgive naughty children. We take great joy in the naughtiness of children and – to a large extent – it is Dunaway’s performance that allows this. She relishes her new found freedom and she laughs like she means it.
The film takes a turn with the arrival of Clyde’s brother (played by Gene Hackman) and sister-in-law Blanche (played by Estelle Parsons). Blanche is quite possibly the most annoying character ever enshrined on celluloid. Ghandi would have been tempted to take her out back and shoot her. Repeatedly.
Dunaway is the only person who seems to notice and we see her quietly lose her joy for life as she becomes estranged from Clyde through the arrival of this extended family. Decline does not reach fall until they carjack Gene Wilder. You get a disconcerting feeling you have walked into the wrong movie the moment you see him on the screen. Its almost like Darth Vader removing his mask to reveal Adam Sandler. What the hell is this guy doing here?
It is only when we discover he is an undertaker that we realise we have entered the films final act.
This is a landmark film but it isn’t a relic. It would be utterly boring for me to describe the technical aspects of the film in terms of superlatives. I’ll tell you that the editing was revolutionary at the time (though these days you’d probably want to drop a few excess frames). This was also one of the first Hollywood films to take the camera off of the tripod albeit occasionally.
Lets put it this way; if you haven’t seen this film then you don’t really have a choice. If you have seen it, it won’t hurt for you to see it again.
Quality was never a pre-requisite for a place in history. Just ask George Bush (both original and sequel).
Thanks to a particularly brutal finale, “Bonnie and Clyde” marks a milestone in the portrayal of violence on the screen. It is also an extremely good piece of film-making. The gunning down of the titular outlaws, however, would mean nothing if we hadn’t fallen in love with them along the way. Director Arthur Penn ensures we do.
Warren Beatty’s performance is extraordinary. He would never match this level of acting again because he would forget how to play vulnerable. Here, before attempting his first bank robbery, he undercuts boyish charm and bravado with a single all telling turn of the eye. When he lies to his brother about his relationship with Bonnie, you know him like you know a brother. Clyde Barrow is a bit of a dork in a handsome frame. You can forgive him anything – particularly since he demonstrates an odd moral code of his own. In a world turned upside down by the poverty of the Depression, who can blame him. All the cops seem to do is protect the vested interests of the banks.
He genuinely can’t understand why a shop keeper would fight back. “I’m not against him,” Clyde mutters in disbelief as he stumbles bloodied and bruised back into the car after a failed robbery attempt.
Faye Dunaway never looked more beautiful as she does as Bonnie Parker. We understand her even more than we understand Clyde. We first see her alone in the oppressive heat of her home. She tellingly lies on her bed and the frame becomes the bars of a prison. She tests them.
She sees Clyde as her great escape and we watch her fall in love with him. The robberies that follow become a kind of game and we forgive them as we forgive naughty children. We take great joy in the naughtiness of children and – to a large extent – it is Dunaway’s performance that allows this. She relishes her new found freedom and she laughs like she means it.
The film takes a turn with the arrival of Clyde’s brother (played by Gene Hackman) and sister-in-law Blanche (played by Estelle Parsons). Blanche is quite possibly the most annoying character ever enshrined on celluloid. Ghandi would have been tempted to take her out back and shoot her. Repeatedly.
Dunaway is the only person who seems to notice and we see her quietly lose her joy for life as she becomes estranged from Clyde through the arrival of this extended family. Decline does not reach fall until they carjack Gene Wilder. You get a disconcerting feeling you have walked into the wrong movie the moment you see him on the screen. Its almost like Darth Vader removing his mask to reveal Adam Sandler. What the hell is this guy doing here?
It is only when we discover he is an undertaker that we realise we have entered the films final act.
This is a landmark film but it isn’t a relic. It would be utterly boring for me to describe the technical aspects of the film in terms of superlatives. I’ll tell you that the editing was revolutionary at the time (though these days you’d probably want to drop a few excess frames). This was also one of the first Hollywood films to take the camera off of the tripod albeit occasionally.
Lets put it this way; if you haven’t seen this film then you don’t really have a choice. If you have seen it, it won’t hurt for you to see it again.
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Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
Bonnie and Clyde is influential, entertaining and still packs a wallop. Great story, fine performances and expert Direction from one Arthur Penn.