1967’s Bonnie and Clyde, directed by Arthur Penn, uses a Great Depression era setting to convey anti-authoritarian themes of social class struggles, feminism, and a generational disconnect as well as critiquing consumer based culture. The cinematography, editing, and sound design uniquely complement these themes and adds to the overall mood of the film.
The subversive ideology of the film can be read through various film theories. Primarily a Marxist film, Bonnie and Clyde explicitly sides with the poor and under privileged. Clyde has a disdain for banks, choosing them as his primary target for robberies. Banks are seen as an evil institution, taking advantage of the common man. When introducing himself to C.W. Moss, Clyde states, “We rob banks, nothing wrong with that.”
The poor, common man is depicted in a similar fashion as the soviet proletariat. Clyde refuses to take a bystanders money during one of his robberies, insisting that the man pocket it himself. While stealing a car from Gene and Velma, he is friendly towards them up. He buys them food and takes them along for the ride, telling them that they are, “just folks, just like us.” While Bonnie and Clyde have a hatred for authority such as police, they depend on the poor to protect them during their getaways. They even stop at a shanty town and the inhabitants are very charitable, providing water and respect to the outlaw gang.
While the lower class is presented as good, the older generation is seen as either monstrous or void of usefulness. C.W.’s father is abusive both verbally and physically, throwing objects as well as insults at C.W. at every opportunity. He even rats out Bonnie and Clyde to Captain Hamer, betraying their trust in him and coordinating their deaths. Bonnie’s mother is seen as weak and slow witted. After visiting with Mrs. Parker, Bonnie writes her off as useless, telling Clyde “She’s just an old woman now.”
The film is also a work of feminism, portraying the female characters as dominant over their male counterparts. Prior to their first robbery, Bonnie is calm and collected in comparison to Clyde’s nervous small talk. The character of Blanche seems meek and passive at first, but she clearly wears the pants in her relationship with Buck, even ensuring that she gets her fair share of the loot from robberies. Both female characters are so headstrong that they often clash throughout the film, battling for alpha-female status.
Clyde’s impotency not only reinforces the feminist nature of Bonnie and Clyde, but also allows for a Freudian reading of the film. Unable to dominate sexually, he uses his gun as a proxy for his manhood. His ability to protect Bonnie with his gun makes up for his inability to satisfy her sexually. It isn’t until he feels immortalized by her published poem that he can overcome his lack of prowess. Bonnie is also psychologically scarred as the film progresses. She becomes more and more obsessed and frightened of death, even kicking their new friend Gene out of the car when she learns he is an undertaker.
These themes add up to a pessimistic view of the world. Consumerism and fame seeking have driven ordinary, decent people to acts of graphic violence and an unfulfilled life on the run. Logos of brand such as Coca-Cola adorn most buildings in town and getting a picture in the paper is the highlight of existence. The only escape from the world seems to be death. The bleakness of this world is highlighted by the cinematography of the film.
The movie is primarily shot naturalistically, with straight forward angles and lighting that give off a realistic feel. The color palate of the film adds to the realism. Earth tones such as green, brown, and beige are used for set dressing and costumes. The lighting is bright and sunny for exteriors, while the interiors are more darkly lit and shadowy. The interior shadows cast by the draped and boarded windows shows the realism of the gang in hiding. The crisp photography and sharp focus give the film a down to earth feel.
The color red is also seen throughout as a signifier of death. Before Clyde shoots the bank employee during his getaway, a red car is shown. There is a red chair and roses inside the gang’s rented Missouri house just prior to a shoot-out resulting in several police deaths. Buck wears a hat with a red band around it, foreshadowing his fatal gun wound to the head.
Several types of camera movement are used, adding to the energetic feel of the world. Many of Bonnie and Clyde’s conversations are filmed with a tracking shot and the getaways combine crane shots, pans, wide shots, and close ups. There is a mixture of both objective and subjective shots. When Clyde enters the first bank he intends to rob, we see the bank from his point of view, humorously realizing that the bank has closed at the same time he does. The film opens with an extreme objective close up of Bonnie’s lips before it zooms out and she turns around to look into the mirror, becoming a subjective shot from her point of view as she gazes at herself.
The variety of camera movements and shots are enhanced by the editing. The robbery and getaway scenes have an intense feel due to the quick cuts of crane shots, car close-ups, tracking shots, and interior close-ups of the gang inside the getaway vehicle. The more calm scenes use shots longer in length; combining the establishing, medium, close-up classic Hollywood editing format.
Straight cuts are used within a scene with dissolves used for scene transitions. Each sequence begins and ends with a fade, such as the end of Bonnie and Clyde’s introduction and after the whole gang has been gathered. The film ends with a cut to black.
The rhythm of Bonnie and Clyde is made up of a mixture of the two types of scenes. There is a dialogue heavy, slower paced build-up to crime followed by a fast paced crime and getaway, which leads the characters back into a slower paced hide out scene. This is repeated three or four times throughout. The mood of the film is always tense even in the quieter scenes due to the anticipation of the gang being discovered.
There are several scenes that use interesting edits. C.W.’s father is shown exiting an ice cream parlor after conversing with an unknown man. He stops in a medium shot outside the parlor when a truck passes in front of him, obscuring the view. When the truck passes, Capt. Hamer is in his place, revealing him as the mystery man. It is a neat way to hide an edit and serves as a pseudo-graphic match.
The final scene of the film has a calm dread that builds to Bonnie and Clyde realizing they have been trapped. The edits then speed up, with four quick subjective shots of the couple making eye contact with each other and saying goodbye with their eyes. The massacre is loud and violent, with several cuts back and forth between the guns in the bushes and the outlaws being riddled with bullets. The scene then goes silent with the exception of the sound of wind as the two dead bodies settle in slow motion.
When Bonnie writes her poem, she then reads it out loud to Clyde inside their car during a rainstorm. The scene cuts to Captain Hamer reading it from a published newspaper clipping as Bonnie’s voice-over continues to narrate the poem. The scene then transitions from a close-up of Capt. Hamer’s clipping to another copy of the newspaper being held by Bonnie while on a picnic with Clyde, her voice finally finishing the narration. It is a cool use of a graphic match with the newspaper as well as sound that goes from diegetic to non-diegetic and back to diegetic without a pause in the reading of the poem.
With the exception of that scene, the dialogue in the film is diegetic and naturalistic. It is mostly character based as opposed to plot driven exposition. The characters speak their minds in a plain spoken manner, adding to their depiction as salt of the earth types. The characters coded as “bad”, such as Captain Hamer, Moss Senior and Bonnie’s mother, have dialogue and delivery that reinforce this. Both of the men appear trustworthy to Bonnie, Clyde, and Blanche during their face to face conversations and use the gentle façade to gain their trust. Mrs. Parker speaks slowly and doesn’t seem to be all there in the head, implying that senility comes with age.
Sound effects comprise the majority of the films soundtrack. The soundscape is layered with a combination of background noise, sounds of nature, and the higher volume sounds of cars and guns. The outdoor scenes are enhanced by the sounds of wind rustling leaves, birds chirping, and footsteps on dirt roads. The gun fire during shootouts is noticeably louder in volume, giving the scenes a chaotic feel.
The score in the film is sparse, made up primarily of the banjo music of Flatt and Scruggs. There are a few other instances of music, such as during the dreamy Ma Parker scene and over the opening credits. The use of the banjo music acts as a leit motif, accompanying the many getaways from crime. Its berserk string picking accompanies the frantic escape of the gang from each robbery and close call with the police. Only after the death of Bonnie and Clyde does the banjo slow to a more peaceful pace as the credits roll, signaling that our main characters no longer have to be on the run from a world that regards them as outsiders.
In Bonnie and Clyde, Arthur Penn blends the narrative style of the International Art Cinema with the traits of classic Hollywood. This fusion produces a films that serves as a prime example of the themes and motifs that establish Arthur Penn as one of the first auteurs of the New Hollywood cinema. The film also establishes the screen personas that most of its cast continue to perfect over the course of their careers.
Rejecting the conventional three act structure, Bonnie and Clyde instead relies on a narrative structure that is episodic and filled with character based scenes rather than event based. Although there is plenty of action, the film is more interested in the interplay between the Barrow gang than it is in documenting their careers as thieves. This International Art Cinema influenced narrative structure is one example of how the film breaks with the tradition of classic Hollywood cinema, but the break is not a complete one.
Clyde Barrow, like most Hollywood heroes, is a white male. He is handsome and confident, but is not simplified as “good”. He is both a thief and murderer, traits that break with tradition. The antagonists are also in conflict with how Hollywood has traditionally depicted “villains”. Here, the primary antagonists are Captain Hamer, a Texas Ranger in pursuit of the Barrow gang and Mr. Moss, gang member C.W.’s father. The antagonists are both white males who are representative of the American values of old, anything but foreign. The conflict between the protagonists and antagonists is not simplified, but complex. The protagonists rob banks and commit murders, while the antagonists seek to uphold the law. Instead of their actions, it is the motivations of the characters (looking out for the poor vs. monetary reward) that defines them as protagonist and antagonist.
The women in Bonnie and Clyde are not typical love interests, passive and inconsequential. Bonnie is stronger than Clyde, calling the shots and establishing herself as the de facto leader of the gang. Even though Blanche is emotionally fragile, she is also the decision maker in her relationship with Buck and is the only member of the group who is not afraid to stand up to Bonnie and question her leadership role. It is the men in the film who tend to be more passive, adopting the role traditionally given to women in classic Hollywood cinema.
While the characters represent a break with tradition, Bonnie and Clyde’s style stays true to it. The film has an omniscient objective point of view. No single character is the focal point of every scene and the camera is able to observe any character or event. The editing style is hidden by cuts on action, graphic matches, and other tricks of continuity editing. The visuals are primarily plain and realist, with the exception of the hazy expressionism used for the scene when the gang visits with Bonnie’s family. The narrative is linear, free of any flashbacks or framing devices. Although the film ends abruptly and violently, all loose ends are still tied up. Bonnie and Clyde are killed and the surviving members of the gang, Blanche and C.W. are assumed to have returned to life with their respective fathers.
The marriage of modernist characters in a classic style is presented within the Gangster genre, taking the conventions of the genre and deconstructing some of them slightly. Like the Warner Bros. gangster films of the 1930’s, Bonnie and Clyde presents a dystopian society beat down by the depression, but the typical urban setting is instead moved to the rural south. The iconography of the gangster film is still intact; including guns, car chases, hide outs, and bank robberies. Instead of detailing the Horatio Alger like rise of a gangster, the Barrow gang seem to never get rich. They are constantly on the run and barely breaking even, not able to enjoy the spoils of their crimes. The film does uphold the most important aspect of the gangster film: The death of the antihero protagonists, allowing the audience to be free of complicity while still rooting for them.
Similar to the revisionist westerns of the same time, the gangster film is updated to reflect the cultural changes of its time of production. Whereas the gangster film was once a reflection of the prohibition era, it now has characters who seem alienated from society and authority. This seems to be a direct correlation to counter cultural ideals of the late sixties.
Taking place during the baroque phase of the gangster genre, Bonnie and Clyde tends to deconstruct the genre more than other gangster films of it period. It is in stark contrast with a film like The Godfather, which maintains more of the generic conventions, including an ethnic protagonist, the Italian Corleone. The typical fast talking jargon of the gangsters is replaced by a slower southern drawl, softening the rough edges that marks the depiction of most gangsters.
Bonnie and Clyde also serves as an example of Arthur Penn as auteur. Although he is not as synonymous with the New Hollywood era as other filmmakers, his films have reflected similar themes which suggest the work of an auteur. Like his deconstruction of the gangster film, Penn uses other genres to reflect the counterculture. He updated the western with Little Big Man, presenting the Native American as protagonist. Penn also directed Alice’s Restaurant, a pseudo-musical based on star Arlo Guthrie’s life. These films, along with his earlier film, The Miracle Worker, seem to present characters who don’t or can’t connect to the mainstream society. This theme is central to his work and is on full display in Bonnie and Clyde.
Although the film’s central author is director Penn, the cast’s contribution cannot be overstated. Each member of the Barrow gang is a reflection of the personality of the actor portraying him or her and the chemistry between the five leads is a primary driving force in the film’s success. Penn casts the film with a mixture of movie stars (Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway) and character actors (Michael Pollard, Estelle Parsons). Gene Hackman can even be described as both movie star character actor, portraying leads and supporting roles throughout his career.
One of the most interesting aspects of the cast is how their star personas seems to come directly from this film. Warren Beatty is the only actor in the cast known prior to Bonnie and Clyde. As Clyde, he perfects the weak willed charmer who uses his good looks to mask his ineffectual nature. This character type is revisited by Beatty again and again throughout his career. The remaining cast members establish their personas with the film. Faye Dunaway uses a cold, commanding exterior to mask her inner fears and insecurities. She uses the same qualities to establish herself as one of the most respected actresses of the 1970’s in films such as Chinatown and Network. Gene Hackman’s Buck introduces viewers to his unique ability to use his folksy persona as a way to cover up the darker nature hidden underneath. Michael Pollard’s baby faced naivety as cover for violent perversity has given him a career longevity, specializing in low budget horror. Finally, Parson’s aged her shrill and opinionated performance as Blanche into her signature role as Roseanne Barr’s mother on television’s Roseanne.
The characters that comprise the Barrow gang are all dynamic; relying on each other for survival, but ultimately failing to survive. The betrayal of Bonnie and Clyde by C.W. and Blanche reflects not only the way the characters interact and change throughout the film, but also another key theme of the gangster film: Loyalty and betrayal. Blanche and C.W. both betray Bonnie and Clyde as a way to ensure their own safety from the law. By the end of the film, Bonnie and Clyde are the only two characters who have remained loyal, which ends up costing them their lives.
The unique episodic narrative, Penn’s signature themes and the cast’s charismatic performances coupled with an updating of the gangster genre has allowed Bonnie and Clyde to be timeless, perhaps more so than the real life crime spree the film is based on.
There are several scenes that use interesting edits. C.W.’s father is shown exiting an ice cream parlor after conversing with an unknown man. He stops in a medium shot outside the parlor when a truck passes in front of him, obscuring the view. When the truck passes, Capt. Hamer is in his place, revealing him as the mystery man. It is a neat way to hide an edit and serves as a pseudo-graphic match.
When Bonnie writes her poem, she then reads it out loud to Clyde inside their car during a rainstorm. The scene cuts to Captain Hamer reading it from a published newspaper clipping as Bonnie’s voice-over continues to narrate the poem. The scene then transitions from a close-up of Capt. Hamer’s clipping to another copy of the newspaper being held by Bonnie while on a picnic with Clyde, her voice finally finishing the narration. It is a cool use of a graphic match with the newspaper as well as sound that goes from diegetic to non-diegetic and back to diegetic without a pause in the reading of the poem.
With the exception of that scene, the dialogue in the film is diegetic and naturalistic. It is mostly character based as opposed to plot driven exposition. The characters speak their minds in a plain spoken manner, adding to their depiction as salt of the earth types. The characters coded as “bad”, such as Captain Hamer, Moss Senior and Bonnie’s mother, have dialogue and delivery that reinforce this. Both of the men appear trustworthy to Bonnie, Clyde, and Blanche during their face to face conversations and use the gentle façade to gain their trust. Mrs. Parker speaks slowly and doesn’t seem to be all there in the head, implying that senility comes with age.
Sound effects comprise the majority of the films soundtrack. The soundscape is layered with a combination of background noise, sounds of nature, and the higher volume sounds of cars and guns. The outdoor scenes are enhanced by the sounds of wind rustling leaves, birds chirping, and footsteps on dirt roads. The gun fire during shootouts is noticeably louder in volume, giving the scenes a chaotic feel.
The score in the film is sparse, made up primarily of the banjo music of Flatt and Scruggs. There are a few other instances of music, such as during the dreamy Ma Parker scene and over the opening credits. The use of the banjo music acts as a leit motif, accompanying the many getaways from crime. Its berserk string picking accompanies the frantic escape of the gang from each robbery and close call with the police. Only after the death of Bonnie and Clyde does the banjo slow to a more peaceful pace as the credits roll, signaling that our main characters no longer have to be on the run from a world that regards them as outsiders.
In Bonnie and Clyde, Arthur Penn blends the narrative style of the International Art Cinema with the traits of classic Hollywood. This fusion produces a films that serves as a prime example of the themes and motifs that establish Arthur Penn as one of the first auteurs of the New Hollywood cinema. The film also establishes the screen personas that most of its cast continue to perfect over the course of their careers.
Clyde Barrow, like most Hollywood heroes, is a white male. He is handsome and confident, but is not simplified as “good”. He is both a thief and murderer, traits that break with tradition. The antagonists are also in conflict with how Hollywood has traditionally depicted “villains”. Here, the primary antagonists are Captain Hamer, a Texas Ranger in pursuit of the Barrow gang and Mr. Moss, gang member C.W.’s father. The antagonists are both white males who are representative of the American values of old, anything but foreign. The conflict between the protagonists and antagonists is not simplified, but complex. The protagonists rob banks and commit murders, while the antagonists seek to uphold the law. Instead of their actions, it is the motivations of the characters (looking out for the poor vs. monetary reward) that defines them as protagonist and antagonist.
The women in Bonnie and Clyde are not typical love interests, passive and inconsequential. Bonnie is stronger than Clyde, calling the shots and establishing herself as the de facto leader of the gang. Even though Blanche is emotionally fragile, she is also the decision maker in her relationship with Buck and is the only member of the group who is not afraid to stand up to Bonnie and question her leadership role. It is the men in the film who tend to be more passive, adopting the role traditionally given to women in classic Hollywood cinema.
While the characters represent a break with tradition, Bonnie and Clyde’s style stays true to it. The film has an omniscient objective point of view. No single character is the focal point of every scene and the camera is able to observe any character or event. The editing style is hidden by cuts on action, graphic matches, and other tricks of continuity editing. The visuals are primarily plain and realist, with the exception of the hazy expressionism used for the scene when the gang visits with Bonnie’s family. The narrative is linear, free of any flashbacks or framing devices. Although the film ends abruptly and violently, all loose ends are still tied up. Bonnie and Clyde are killed and the surviving members of the gang, Blanche and C.W. are assumed to have returned to life with their respective fathers.
The marriage of modernist characters in a classic style is presented within the Gangster genre, taking the conventions of the genre and deconstructing some of them slightly. Like the Warner Bros. gangster films of the 1930’s, Bonnie and Clyde presents a dystopian society beat down by the depression, but the typical urban setting is instead moved to the rural south. The iconography of the gangster film is still intact; including guns, car chases, hide outs, and bank robberies. Instead of detailing the Horatio Alger like rise of a gangster, the Barrow gang seem to never get rich. They are constantly on the run and barely breaking even, not able to enjoy the spoils of their crimes. The film does uphold the most important aspect of the gangster film: The death of the antihero protagonists, allowing the audience to be free of complicity while still rooting for them.
Similar to the revisionist westerns of the same time, the gangster film is updated to reflect the cultural changes of its time of production. Whereas the gangster film was once a reflection of the prohibition era, it now has characters who seem alienated from society and authority. This seems to be a direct correlation to counter cultural ideals of the late sixties.
Taking place during the baroque phase of the gangster genre, Bonnie and Clyde tends to deconstruct the genre more than other gangster films of it period. It is in stark contrast with a film like The Godfather, which maintains more of the generic conventions, including an ethnic protagonist, the Italian Corleone. The typical fast talking jargon of the gangsters is replaced by a slower southern drawl, softening the rough edges that marks the depiction of most gangsters.
Bonnie and Clyde also serves as an example of Arthur Penn as auteur. Although he is not as synonymous with the New Hollywood era as other filmmakers, his films have reflected similar themes which suggest the work of an auteur. Like his deconstruction of the gangster film, Penn uses other genres to reflect the counterculture. He updated the western with Little Big Man, presenting the Native American as protagonist. Penn also directed Alice’s Restaurant, a pseudo-musical based on star Arlo Guthrie’s life. These films, along with his earlier film, The Miracle Worker, seem to present characters who don’t or can’t connect to the mainstream society. This theme is central to his work and is on full display in Bonnie and Clyde.
Although the film’s central author is director Penn, the cast’s contribution cannot be overstated. Each member of the Barrow gang is a reflection of the personality of the actor portraying him or her and the chemistry between the five leads is a primary driving force in the film’s success. Penn casts the film with a mixture of movie stars (Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway) and character actors (Michael Pollard, Estelle Parsons). Gene Hackman can even be described as both movie star character actor, portraying leads and supporting roles throughout his career.
One of the most interesting aspects of the cast is how their star personas seems to come directly from this film. Warren Beatty is the only actor in the cast known prior to Bonnie and Clyde. As Clyde, he perfects the weak willed charmer who uses his good looks to mask his ineffectual nature. This character type is revisited by Beatty again and again throughout his career. The remaining cast members establish their personas with the film. Faye Dunaway uses a cold, commanding exterior to mask her inner fears and insecurities. She uses the same qualities to establish herself as one of the most respected actresses of the 1970’s in films such as Chinatown and Network. Gene Hackman’s Buck introduces viewers to his unique ability to use his folksy persona as a way to cover up the darker nature hidden underneath. Michael Pollard’s baby faced naivety as cover for violent perversity has given him a career longevity, specializing in low budget horror. Finally, Parson’s aged her shrill and opinionated performance as Blanche into her signature role as Roseanne Barr’s mother on television’s Roseanne.
The unique episodic narrative, Penn’s signature themes and the cast’s charismatic performances coupled with an updating of the gangster genre has allowed Bonnie and Clyde to be timeless, perhaps more so than the real life crime spree the film is based on.