Bonnie and Clyde [P&S]

Director: Arthur Penn

Overview

Mixing violence, comedy, and romance, this landmark crime drama has the quality of a folk legend. During the Great Depression, a sexy waitress and a handsome ex-convict rob a series of banks in the American Midwest. They become popular heroes, but their crime spree eventually comes to a grisly end.

Product Details

Release Date:	12/07/2010
UPC:	0883929165452
Original Release:	1967
Rating:	R
Source:	Warner Home Video
Region Code:	1
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Mono]
Language:	English
Time:	1:51:00
Sales rank:	3,036

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

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
Martha Adcock	Bank Customer
Harry Appling	Bonnie's Uncle
Owen Bush	Policeman
Garrett Cassell	Cop
Mabel Cavitt	Bonnie's Mother
Patrick Cranshaw	Bank Teller
Frances Fisher	Bonnie's Aunt,Bonnie's Aunt
Sadie French	Bank Customer
Garry Goodgion	Billy
Clyde Howdy	Deputy
Roy Heard	Man
J.J. Lemmon, Jr.	Sheriff
Joe Spratt	Farmer
Ken Mayer	Actor
Charles Strouse	Composer

Technical Credits

Arthur Penn	Director,Director
Warren Beatty	Producer,Producer

Editorial Reviews

The turning point from Hollywood's moribund studio system to the impending youthquake of the 1970s, Arthur Penn's Bonnie and Clyde (1967) audaciously broke conventions, upset critics, and revealed a young audience's box office power. With its unstinting violence and sympathy for the glamorous, gun-toting criminals, Bonnie and Clyde sharply divided critics over whether it was strikingly innovative or reprehensibly amoral and nihilistic. The increasingly rebellious youth audience, however, embraced the doomed heroes, and both Time and Newsweek recanted their initial negative negative reviews as other critics continued to savage it. Though Warner Bros. had dumped the film, star Warren Beatty badgered the studio into a second release. Bonnie and Clyde grossed over $20 million, landing on the cover of Time as the harbinger of the "New Cinema" as Theadora Van Runkle's costumes inspired a 1930s fashion craze. Heavily influenced by the European art movies of the early 1960s, writers Robert Benton and David Newman intended to make a revisionist gangster movie in the spirit of the French New Wave, to be directed by Jean-Luc Godard or François Truffaut; the film openly sympathized with its glamorous gangsters, who became analogues of hip 1960s counter-culture protestors, and its tone veered unexpectedly between slapstick comedy and serious consequences, galling more conventional critics who wanted the film to enforce a clear morality. Faye Dunaway's strong-willed Bonnie and Beatty's impotent Clyde were hardly a traditional couple, and their gory demise in rapid-fire, slow motion montage went far beyond previous Hollywood bloodshed. Nominated for ten Oscars including Best Picture, Bonnie and Clyde won for Burnett Guffey's cinematography and Estelle Parsons as Supporting Actress. The impact of its violence and youth appeal was confirmed by the ensuing successes of The Wild Bunch and Easy Rider, while outlaw couple films from Badlands (1973) to Thelma and Louise (1991) have ensured its continuing legacy.