Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

User Rating:

8.1/10   

Director:

Arthur Penn

Writers:

David Newman (written by) &
Robert Benton (written by)

Release Date:

13 August 1967 (USA)

Genre:

Biography | Crime | Drama | Romance | Thriller

Tagline:

"The strangest damned gang you ever heard of. They're young. They're in love. They rob banks."

Plot:

A somewhat romantized account of the career of the notoriously violent bank robbing couple and their gang.

Plot Keywords:

Robbery | Crime Spree | Bonnie And Clyde | Violence | Newspaper

Awards:

Won 2 Oscars. Another 17 wins & 22 nominations

Cast

Warren Beatty	...	Clyde Barrow
Faye Dunaway	...	Bonnie Parker
Michael J. Pollard	...	C.W. Moss
Gene Hackman	...	Buck Barrow
Estelle Parsons	...	Blanche
Denver Pyle	...	Frank Hamer
Dub Taylor	...	Ivan Moss
Evans Evans	...	Velma Davis
Gene Wilder	...	Eugene Grizzard

MPAA:

Rated R for violence.

Runtime:

112 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Canada:A (Nova Scotia) (original rating) | Brazil:14 | Norway:16 (1968) (cut) | Norway:(Banned) (1967 - 1968) | West Germany:16 (re-rating) | West Germany:18 (original rating) | USA:Approved (certificate #21395) (original rating) | USA:M (re-rating) (1969) | USA:R (re-rating) (2007) | Canada:14A (Manitoba) (re-rating) (2008) | Canada:AA (Ontario) | Canada:PG (Manitoba) (original rating) | UK:15 (re-rating: 2008) | New Zealand:M | Canada:14A (Nova Scotia) (re-rating) (2008) | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Finland:K-16 | Ireland:18 | Italy:VM18 | Norway:15 (re-rating) | Portugal:M/16 | Singapore:PG | Sweden:15 | UK:18 (video rating) | UK:X (original rating) | Iceland:16

Filming Locations:

Dallas, Texas, USA

Company:

Tatira-Hiller Productions

Trivia:

The film has a dynamic soundtrack that gets much louder during the gunfights. The British premiere of the film was notable because the projectionist previewed the film and thought the volume changes were a mistake, so he made careful notes for when to turn it up and when to turn it down so that the volume was "corrected."

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: In the very first scene when Bonnie is flailing around her bedroom, there is an obvious jump in film just as she begins to beat the bed frame with her fist.

Quotes:

Bonnie's Mother: You know Clyde, I read about you all in the papers, and I just get scared.
Clyde Barrow: Now Ms. Parker, don't you believe what you read in all them newspapers. That's the law talkin' there. They want us to look big so they gonna look big when they catch us. And they ain't gonna catch us. 'Cause I'm even better at runnin' than I am at robbin' banks...
[...]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Big Nothing (2006)

Soundtrack:

Foggie Mountain Breakdown

A masterpiece that dares to be excessive!

'Bonnie and Clyde' is not a film about two real people famous for so many bank robberies and murders across the big country... It shows a new kind of fury in which people could be harm by weapons... The film, however, manages to carry the impression that these two youngsters took great pleasure in robbing banks and stores... It also suggests that it was very easy for them to fool the law—as certainly occurred in real life... Though merited punishment caught up with them, audiences laughed at their remarkable deeds and wanted them to get away...

In 'Bonnie and Clyde,' Penn created an emotional state, an image of the 1930s filtered through his 1960s sensibility... The sense of this period reflects Penn's vision of how the 1930s Depression-era truly was, and for all the crazy style and banjo score, this vision is greatly private...

What is also personal about 'Bonnie and Clyde' and constitutes its incomparable quality, is its unusual mixture of humor and fear, its poetry of violation of the law as something that is gaiety and playfulness...

'Bonnie and Clyde' is both true and abstract... It is a gangster movie and a comedy-romance... It is an amusing film that turns bloody, a love affair that ends with tragedy...

A modification between pleasure and catastrophic events is important to the essential aim of the film... In their second bank robbery, a daring and joyful action goes morosely embittered when Clyde is forced to kill an executive in the bank, and real blood pours out from his body...

Bonnie and Clyde take self-gratification posing for photographs with their prisoners… But when surrounded by detectives in a motel, they turn into vindictive bandits struggling for their lives... C. W. Moss, specially, brings to mind Baby Face Nelson, when he murders policemen with a blazing machine gun...

One of the stimulating moments in the film happens when Clyde chases Bonnie through a yellow corn field, while a cloud transverses the sun and slowly shadows the landscape... Here the characteristic quality of the Texas countryside and the vague aspect of the story are beautifully communicated......

Penn's masterpiece nominated for ten Academy Awards, including Best Picture, won two Oscars, one for Best Actress in a Supporting Role and another for Best Cinematography...