Bonnie and Clyde:

Based on a true story, the film Bonnie and Clyde is about a couple that went into a life of crime because they thought it would pay better. Bonnie, who'd worked as a waitress fulltime at a seedy restaurant was drawn to a life of crime and robbing banks, because it promised her a more exciting life than she presently had. Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow go on a bank-robbing spree, robbing banks and gunning people down in cold blood, and even picking some other people, such as C. W. Moss, who's the son of a gas-station/grocery store owner, who becomes a permanent member of their gang, and gets himself almost disowned by his father, who read the paper and saw what happened. The party also picks up an undertaker and his wife by stealing their car, and then abandoning them on an isolated dirt road and going on their way. Eventually, they meet up with the brother of Clyde Barrow and his wife, they live together in the same house for awhile, and the spree continues. Things come to a bad end, unfortunately; The police try to catch up to the gang, and there's a huge shoot-out at the house. Clyde's brother becomes permanently crippled, his wife, Blanche, is permanently blinded in one eye, and, Bonnie ends up with a broken arm. Clyde fled his dying, crippled brother, and, one day, Bonnie and Clyde, too, meet their match. The police find them, open fire on them, and the film ends with their grisly deaths by gunfire filmed in slow motion.

Faye Dunaway does a wonderful job of playing Bonnie Parker, the coffeeshop waitress turned bank-robber, and the man who plays Clyde does a great job at his part, too. Gene Hackman also does a wonderful job of playing Clyde Barrow's brother, and so do the rest of the actors who play in the film
Bonnie and Clyde. This is a good, well-made movie, though not for the faint of heart.

Bonnie and Clyde is a well made movie but it paints the true heroes as bad men. It was the Texas Rangers that were the real heroes and the grisley scene at the end only made them look bad. I have relatives that were Texas Rangers much earlier than this period and they are and were men to respect and admire.

I liked "Bonnie & Clyde" very much. It had it's first run in San Antonio at the Broadway Theatre. Here's a nice publicity still from B&C:



Bonnie & Clyde was my first look at Faye Dunaway. She was BEAUTIFUL in 1967!

Admin wrote:Bonnie and Clyde is a well made movie but it paints the true heroes as bad men. It was the Texas Rangers that were the real heroes and the grisley scene at the end only made them look bad. I have relatives that were Texas Rangers much earlier than this period and they are and were men to respect and admire.

Good points, Admin. Thanks.

Bonnie and Clyde was a good movie, and Faye Dunaway was not only quite beautiful back then, but a wonderful actress, too. Faye Dunaway was just right for the role of Bonnie Parker, both in looks and in personality.

Although I didn't get to see Bonnie and Clyde when it first came out, I did see it only afew short years later, and enjoyed it immensely.

MPol wrote:

Good points, Admin. Thanks.

MPol, no critism of you, it's just Hollywood. It loves to play up the bad guys, because that sells tickets. For every movie that takes the lawman's side "FBI", etc. There are hundreds of films that glorify the bad guy. Sex and evil sells, saints, angels are bombs, unless it's Travolta playing a drinking, smoking "Michael". I do think my namesake did a good job playing a good guy in High Noon.

Admin wrote:

MPol wrote:

Good points, Admin. Thanks.

MPol, no critism of you, it's just Hollywood. It loves to play up the bad guys, because that sells tickets. For every movie that takes the lawman's side "FBI", etc. There are hundreds of films that glorify the bad guy. Sex and evil sells, saints, angels are bombs, unless it's Travolta playing a drinking, smoking "Michael". I do think my namesake did a good job playing a good guy in High Noon.

Thanks for your input, Gary. You've made some excellent points there. It's true that Hollywood does ofte play up the bad guys. it's amazing that so many people (myself included, at times) enjoy seeing movies about bigtime gangsters that, in real life, would want to see thrown into the slammer for good, or even executed. This fascination with that kind of thing is deeply woven into the American psyche. I admittedly like action films, although, if they're gratuitously violent and gory, then that's a turn-off for me. One thing is certain, though; I'm willing to watch a certain amount of gore and violence, and listen to a certain amount of "blue" language (which I'm no stranger to, btw), as long as they're an integral part of the story, or if there's a point to be made. Movies that're too slow, on the other hand, don't interest me much, nor, for some reason, with the exception of Charlie Chaplin films, have I ever been able to get into the typical "make-em laugh" movies. I guess that's just me, however.

What's particularly troubling for me, however, is that, nowadays, a lot of movies seem quite overdone, with gratuitous violence, gore and explicit sex, and too many things exploding on the screens. Many of the older movies, especially the ones made prior to 1970, were not only much better photographed, but had much more style, substance, a real story behind them, and really caught a person's eye, ears, minds and hearts. Nowadays, that's not the case with most films, which is why I gravitate to more of the older films.

All the actors in Bonnie and Clyde were well cast. Michael J Pollard, Estelle Parsons, Gene Hackman, Denver Pyle, and even Dub Taylor were all memorable.

Faye, Gene, and Warren Beatty really broke out after that film.

Another favorite Faye Dunaway role was in "Little Big Man" I especially liked the bathtub scene.

You're spot on about that.