Bonnie and Clyde 1967
Penn shot Bonnie and Clyde as skirmishes, indoors and out. There’s not a flat or plain scene, though the mood is on its private switchback and the mounting sense of doom is scary and deserved. The film felt like an escaped wild animal, and in the finale you feel the beast being put down and getting laid.”
David Thomson, Have You Seen
Like Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid which followed it two years later, Bonnie and Clyde was a hugely influential film which remade a genre in the image of a new generation. Both films featured personable young stars playing mythic outlaw figures and included scenes of violent action treated with a pop culture knowingness. They were ‘cult’ films in the sense that they were made for a hip young audience but they were also massive commercial successes, heralding an American film industry where the big studios had less influence than in the past.
It’s difficult now to appreciate quite how much Bonnie and Clyde broke the rules in its day. Its sudden switch between comedy and violence, its often frenetic pace, and its graphic and bloody ending were all new experiences to audiences. Initially it didn’t do well at the box office but Pauline Kael, the critic, was amongst those who foresaw its impact. Eventually it was to create a clothes fashion trend and even inspire a hit parade pop song by Georgie Fame; whilst its virtually unknown cast, which included Faye Dunaway, Gene Hackman and Gene Wilder, all became major stars.
Making the Film
Scene 2