Customer Reviews

Bonnie and Clyde (Widescreen/Full Screen)

5 star:		(49)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

love this movie never get tired or seeing it. lots of violence but that aside it's a good one to have in your collection

I wasn't really expecting to like this film, but it has become one of my favourites. The interplay between Beatty and Dunaway is fantastic, Dunaway leaves a lasting impression. It keeps you hooked from the start, and the way it is filmed it is clear how French cinema of the sixties had a big influence. The bonus DVD is not bad, though like most bonus DVDs could always be better. If you collect classic cinema then this has to be in it.

To me, the best film of 1967 (above the other landmark film of that year, The Graduate), and one of the most startling films ever made. I think that the "modern era" of moviemaking begins with Bonnie and Clyde." It's really about a "family" of bankrobbers who owe much of their success to the press; the newspapers make it seem as if they intend to terrorize every small town that has a bank to begin with. And so the Barrow gang becomes legendary during the depression, and heroes to some because they are against the government that is taking so much away from the "little people." Although much praised, "Bonnie and Clyde" was controversial in its day, partly because of the considerable bloodshed and partly because audiences felt bad for the two criminals. As one character says, "they're just a bunch of kids!" This is one of the rare films in which the violence punctuates the story--it makes the viewing experience more powerful. Because of it, one watches much of the film in a state of apprehension.

Trust Hollywood to turn two common criminals into two American folk heroes. Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker were two small-town young people drifting aimlessly during the Great Depression of the 1930's; she's bored out of her gourd, and he's a felon who had killed fourteen men by the time he met his end at the ripe old age of twenty-four. They meet, fall sort of in love, and embark on a petty crime spree. At first it's all good-humored fun; they steal a couple of cars, hold up a couple of stores, and in a moment of hilarious insanity, Clyde attempts to rob a bank that went bust a week before, much to the amusement of the banker and Bonnie, who's collapsing with laughter over the steering wheel. But then a storekeeper takes offense at Clyde attempting to hold him up, and is pistol-whipped by Clyde in his frantic efforts to escape. Once the batterer storekeeper ID's Clyde's photo to the cops, things turn serious.

As Clyde's posse expands to include a lowlife neer-do-well named C.W. Moss and Clyde's brother Buck and his sister-in-law Blanche, their crimes get bolder and the violence spirals out of control. A bank robbery in broad daylight (while C.W. manages to get their getaway far stuck in a too-tight parking space) goes off almost without a hitch; but when Clyde shoots a pursuing cop in the face and his head explodes all over their back windshield, the fun stuff is over. They're wanted criminals being chased from Arkansas to Oklahoma and back to Louisiana. As their notoriety spreads, so does their audacity. In one of the funniest scenes in the film, they capture a sheriff who was about to sneak up on them and handcuff him while Clyde snaps pictures of Bonnie holding a gun on him. But their fame comes at a terrible price; they're wanted outcasts, alienated even from their own. When Clyde meets Bonnie's mother and tells her they'd like to live within three miles of her, Mrs. Parker tells her daughter, "You try to live three miles from me, and you won't live long, honey."

From the scene where Buck expires in a hail of police bullets to the slow dance on the killing ground in Louisiana, the film takes on a somber tone in stark comparison to the lighthearted opening sequences. Once the cascading violence has turned brutal, the movie becomes darker and more foreboding as well. But as bad as they are, we can't help but like them. Maybe that's the difference between Hollywood and real life. One wonders how many people who came across Bonnie and Clyde actually liked this pair?

The tension between Bonnie and Clyde helps keep the movie on edge. Arthur Penn's superb direction, assisted by knockout performances from the cast, helps keep the movie on a razor edge balanced between laughter and revulsion. Warren Beatty was never better than in his title role as Clyde Barrow, and Faye Dunaway makes a perfect Bonnie to his Clyde. Michael J. Pollard is winning as the doofus C.W. Moss and Gene Hackman is wonderful as Buck, torn between his loyalty to his brother and his love for his ditzy wife. But Estelle Parsons, as that ditzy wife, almost runs off with the film; her hysterics during the shootout between Clyde's gang and the cops has the viewers in equal hysterics rolling in the aisles. The cinematography is great; we feel all the heat, dust, and emptiness of Depression-era America, and the foot-stompin' banjo music by Flatts and Scruggs helps anchor the movie to its time and place. "Bonnie and Clyde" has become an American classic, one of the best films to come out of the 1960's.

If it weren't for Faye Dunaway's oft-hammy portrayal of Bonnie Parker as a Dust Bowl Fashionista, this would be the perfect film....of any genre. Producer/Star Beatty and director Penn work with an understated, elegant script, beautiful cinematography, dead-on soundtrack, masterful editing and a sublime supporting cast to create this complex ballet of art & drama.

Beatty is at his most physically beautiful and inwardly complicated best as Clyde Barrow. It's a performance that will remain as timeless as the quality of this picture.

After watching and studying each screen performance by Faye Dunaway, I have to conclude, this is the best one, even better than Chinatown, Network, Eyes of Laura Mars, Barfly, and that other one we won't mention. Miss Dunaway plays and captures Bonnie Parker perfectly, renegade, desperate, scared, tough, hard-edged, innocent, bold, vulnerable, in love, everything, all wrapped up into one. She really pulls it off. There's not a scene where she's not each one. She stands out brilliantly, even with a stellar, far more experienced cast in what was only her third movie. Third movie! True talent, folks. That's called true talent.

'Bonnie and Clyde' was a good movie. The final scene was awesome and way ahead of its time. Violent though.

Bonnie and Clyde changed the course of American filmmaking; I often compare it in my mind to Thelma and Louise - you can look at both of those films as milestones and sort of chart your life around them: before Bonnie and Clyde, after Thelma and Louise...
Such violence and bloodletting hadn't been seen on screen before, but there was art behind it, not mindless gore. A film classic as soon as it was released, the movie takes place during the Great Depression with the impossibly young Faye Dunnaway as Bonnie and Warren Beatty as Clyde (handsome, swashbuckling, ? impotent), the brains behind the gang. Also along for the ride, so to speak, are Gene Hackman as Clyde's brother, his wife Blanche (played by Estelle Parsons) who is skittish as a squirrel on a freeway and really should have stayed home baking rhubarb crisp, and, best of all, almost stealing every scene in which he appears, Michael J. Pollard as CW Moss.
If by some chance you haven't seen it before, see it now. If you've already seen it, even if you've seen it several times, see it again. It doesn't get stale.

After watching The French Connection, I decided to check out some more movies with Gene Hackman in them. I found this movie in the late 60's called Bonnie and Clyde. Hmmn, that sounds familiar. Anyway, the movie has a pretty conventional story. Thief and waitress fall in love, rob banks, and eventually get killed. There. I just ruined the movie for you. However, there are some good plot twists and action sequencs that really helped the movie.

Warren Beaty does a great job as Clyde, and Faye Dunaway was perfect, and she's really hot. (I recently saw her in the remake of The Thomas Crown Affair. She's still hot.) Gene Hackman was a purely lovable charecter, and Estelle Parsons, while she did a great job, needs to shut up. Her charecter is an annoying hag. Oh yeah, Michael J. Pollard was excellent as well too. He's very underrated, and I hope to find some more of his movies.

All the main actors got their big break on this movie. Warren Beaty later did Mccabe and Mrs. Miller, Faye Dunaway later did two excellent movies, Chinatown and Network, Michael J. Pollard did Melvin and Howard, Dick Tracy, and The Wild Angels, Gene Hackman did French Connection, Scarecrow, The Conversation, etc., Estelle Parsons later did Rachael, Rachael and I Never Sang For My Father, and of course, Gene Wilder did a lot of great Mel Brooks movies. So, they all got their first fame on this movie.

Speaking of the movie, it's really good, but it's not on the same level as some other movies I've reviewed. It's got humor, drama, social commentary, and a great bloody ending, that's true, but I just didn't like it as much as other gangster movies. (Mean Streets, of course, is the best gangster movie ever, and the best movie of all time.) I give the movie kudos for revolutionizing cinema, but I didn't really think the story was original. Then again, I've seen the ripoffs of this movie, so maybe that's why I thought it was just a good movie. It's not on my top 10, but it's still quite good. Nice ending. (note the sarcasm)

Criminals became a whole lot more glamorous with the release of Arthur Penn's "Bonnie and Clyde." They were now slim and fit and not hunchbacked or overweight. They had beautiful faces that were not marred by scars or eye-patches. This was Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway looking their best and being as bad as they could.

Clyde Barrow (Beatty) rescues Bonnie Parker (Dunaway) from her uneventful life back home and promptly plunges her into a life of crime. In a country where despair has become a way of life thanks to the Depression, the bank robbers become heroes to the common folk who have been victimized by the instruments of capitalism. Relying on their wits and a touch of good fortune, the young lovers evade the law while basking in their newfound fame but their luck eventually runs out and they meet their end in a hail of bullets.

"Bonnie and Clyde" is infamous for introducing a new level of graphic violence to cinema by way of its final shoot-out. However, that one aspect of the film tends to overshadow its other accomplishments. The moral ambiguity running throughout the film distinctly separated it from the "white-hats-and-black-hats" characterizations of past Hollywood heroes and villains. This problematic approach to morality was a byproduct of the upheaval society itself was undergoing in the late-Sixties as it was discovering how difficult it was to distinguish between the good guys and the bad guys in the real world. The film also went to great pains to appear as realistic as possible. Difficult themes in film were often satirized or exaggerated to soften its impact on the audience, but Penn created such an authentic feel to "Bonnie and Clyde" that the line between fantasy and reality became uncomfortably blurred. Throw in solid supporting work by Estelle Parsons, Gene Hackman, Michael J. Pollard, and Gene Wilder to complement the film's other aforementioned accomplishments and what you have is milestone work whose impact on the medium has been far-reaching.