Cheap Bonnie and Clyde (DVD) (Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway) (Arthur Penn) Price

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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.

The debate started here
The debate about how graphic violence in the movies affects human behavior is an old story. And that debate started in 1967 with the release of Arthur Penn's BONNIE AND CLYDE.

First to the film: Though heavily romanticized, this portrait of the two notorious Depression-era bank robbers Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow remains significant as a film for having put Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty (who produced the film) into their roles and making big names out of them. Gene Hackman and Gene Wilder also became stars in this, and Estelle Parsons snagged a Best Supporting Actress Oscar. Burnett Guffey also picked up an Oscar for his brilliant cinematography.

And now to the violence: Up until this film, most cinematic violence had been clean (the PSYCHO shower scene being an obvious exception). But the way Penn handles the violence in BONNIE AND CLYDE was totally unanticipated either by critics or audiences in 1967. It was nasty and it was bloody. Each outburst of violence in the film increases in intensity until that infamous 30-second fusillade of bullets and blood at the end. This scene caused the most debate, and obviously paved the way for THE WILD BUNCH.

But in all aspects, even the infamous bloodshed, BONNIE AND CLYDE remains a most influential movie, making antiheroes out of thieves (which was correct for the rebellious youth of 1967). The film's folkiness is underlined by the hard-driving bluegrass of Flatt and Scruggs' "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" for the chase scenes involving the Barrow gang and the law. This remains one of the touchstone films of the turbulent 1960s; and for that reason alone, it is a must-see.

More Hollywood garbage
Hollywood has a track record of turning vile, murdering cowards and criminals into folk heroes. This piece of trash is among the winners. What a load of pure hogwash. When it first came out, the critics went into ecstasy about the sexual message all through the movie, using handguns as a phallic symbol. More Freudian dribble!!! The police are the villians here while the gang are the heroes. (The scene with Denver Pyle playing Texas Ranger Frank Hamer sneaking up on the bloodthirty duo is pure bilge. If the real Capt. Hamer had had his way, B&C's crimewave wouldn't have lasted any length of time.) The real Bonnie Parker was absolute trash. She blew a policeman's head off point blank with a sawed off shotgun! And she's a HEROINE ? More like she was on HEROIN. If you think this is a "Robin Hood" tale of robbing from the rich and giving to the poor, you live in a fantasy world. The small businesses that Barrow and Parker robbed were "mom and pop" stores. And the poor certainly didn't benefit. The only redeeming part of this film is seeing these two thugs riddled by gunfire by the law. A fitting end.