Rent Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

More style than substance in this very good Bonnie & Clyde classic - Bonnie and Clyde review by Philip in Paradiso

The film tells the story of Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker, usually known as 'Bonnie and Clyde', who became notorious in the early 1930s, in the USA. The movie starts, during the Great Depression, as Clyde Barrow (Warren Beatty) and Bonnie Parker (Faye Dunaway) meet, when Clyde tries to steal a car that belongs to Bonnie's mother. Bonnie is stuck in a small town in Texas, where she works as a waitress. She is bored with her life and feels she has no future. She is intrigued by Clyde and instantly attracted to him, with his good looks and easy charm. Clyde tells her that he has been to jail, that he is a criminal, and shows her the gun he carries. Bonnie is fascinated with this glimpse into another world. She decides to become his partner in crime. This is the beginning of the story, which chronicles the misdeeds of what becomes the Bonnie and Clyde gang.

The film was criticised, when it came out, for glamorizing violence, which is shown graphically in the movie - something that was new at the time. Also, the storyline strays away from historical accuracy on more than one occasion (see the Wikipedia article on the film, which discusses this in detail). Overall, it is a very good film, which gives us an insight into the motivations of Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker - the latter being a more complex character than the former. Still, the story is more style than substance, with the 2 glamorous actors in the lead focusing much of the attention. But this is, after all, how the Bonnie and Clyde gang has always been portrayed.

Masterpiece - Bonnie and Clyde review by GI

America has a big tradition of creating heroes and myths out of their outlaws - Jesse James, Billy the Kid, John Dillinger etc - often portraying them as the victims of oppression who find a courageous yet fatal means to overcome the times they live in. Bonnie & Clyde are two such criminals, a pair of rampaging killers who roamed the southern states during the Great Depression robbing banks and stores and murdering as they went. This film is one of the first that began a New Wave in American cinema depicting these 'heroes' as dangerously flawed and started to question the image of the screen hero. This film movement opened the doors in the 70s for directors like Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola and even Steven Spielberg. Warren Beatty plays small time crook Clyde Barrow who impresses bored waitress Bonnie Parker (Faye Dunaway) with his boasts of being a robber. Lured by the excitement they begin to travel around committing poorly planned and small robberies and eventually form a bigger gang with Clyde's brother Buck (Gene Hackman). Graduating to bank heists and pulling off some daring getaways from police ambushes they soon find their carefree attitude results in tragedy. With Beatty portraying Clyde as impotent, with blood spurting and slow motion violence this film broke new ground and it feels like a much more modern film when viewed today. It's certainly an important and influential American film, with a dark humour, fast action and a gripping story. If you like a good crime film then this is absolutely fantastic and if you've never seen it I highly recommend it.