Bonnie and Clyde

Genre: crime drama 

With: Warren Beatty (Clyde Barrow), Faye Dunaway (Bonnie Parker), Michael J. Pollard (C.W. Moss, the mechanic), Gene Hackman (Buck Barrow), Denver Pyle (Frank Hamer), Estelle Parsons (Blanche Barrow, Buck's wife), Dub Taylor (Ivan Moss)

Director: Arthur Penn

Screenplay: David Newman and Robert Benton (with Robert Towne)

Release: 1967

Studio: Warner Bros.-Seven Arts, Tatira-Hiller

Rating: PG

MBiS score: 8.8/10

Not All It Was Cracked Up to Be

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Story-line: 1931, the Depression era. When Bonnie Parker, a waitress at an East Dallas restaurant, sees a loiterer near her mother's car, she shows neither fear nor shame. Standing naked in the window, she talks to the man and befriends him instantly. From then on Bonnie and Clyde will be partners in life... and partners in crime.

Pluses: legendary turns by Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty, a strong supporting cast, superior direction, a riveting screenplay that mixes violence, startling events and moments of heartbreak, great cinematography (Burnett Guffey) and one of the most disturbing final sequences in film history.  

Minuses: none, except for a few graphic scenes.

Comments: the old proverb ‟once a thief, always a thief” aptly applies to Bonnie and Clyde's outlaw days and Arthur Penn’s momentous motion picture recounts them in vivid, tragic detail. This dark work is a milestone in American cinema, no less.

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