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

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