Bonnie & Clyde

USA 1967
111 minutes
Directed by Arthur Penn
Leading players - Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway and Michael C. Pollard

Synopsis

In Arthur Penn's romanticised screen portrayal of outlaw life, Bonnie Parker (Faye Dunaway) is a bored small town waitress who comes upon Clyde Barrow (Warren Beatty) stealing her mother's car. She teams up with him and they embark on an ill-fated life as outlaws, robbing stores, filling stations and banks across the American Midwest during the Great Depression. Despite the obvious attraction to each other, their relationship is frustrated by Clyde's impotence.

The glamorous outlaws enlist a somewhat dim young mechanic, C W Moss (Michael J Pollard), to steal cars and act as a getaway driver. When Clyde's brother Buck (Gene Hackman) is released from prison he and his hysterical wife, Blanche (Oscar winner Estelle Parsons) decide to join Clyde and the Barrow Gang is complete.

Even though it is based on actual events in the lawless Great Depression in 1930s America 'Bonnie and Clyde' is not an accurate account of the lives of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow. Arthur Penn's quintessential American film is more about legend than fact.

In real life their exploits were little more than petty thefts, although they are credited with 13 murders. The legend grew from their instinct for publicity and intense media interest with newspapers of the day eagerly publishing Bonnie's verse and snapshots of the gang.

Both Jean-Luc Goddard and François Truffaut turned down the script before Beatty persuaded Warner Brothers to finance the film. Whilst the leading actor doubled up as producer, it is Arthur Penn's directorial skills that make this film one of the seminal works of the 1960s.