Bonne and Clyde (1967)
The Bailout Era has not yet produced a pair of bank-robbing folk heroes like Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, but there’s still time. This romanticized saga of the real-life Depression-era outlaws whose crime spree was motivated as much by a fear of ordinariness as by poverty is now recognized as the first shot of the New Hollywood; the creative revolution that brought us sophisticated, substantive movies from Martin Scorcese, Francis Ford Coppola, Roman Polanski, and Robert Altman, among others, until Star Wars convinced studios it was better business to aim everything at kids.
From its opening frames, Bonnie and Clyde captivates, effortlessly combining romance with crime thriller with road movie with social critique. The chemistry between producer-star Warren Beatty and star-being-born Faye Dunaway palpably sizzles. To miss it, you’d have to be a Warner Bros. executive. Jack Warner famously hated the picture, dumping it into the second-rate theatres in the dog days of summer. Six months later, after a wave of critical raves and 10 Oscar nominations, Warners rereleased the film to worldwide success, ushering in a decade-long creative renaissance that Hollywood hasn’t come close to replicating since.
SPOILER: They die. SPOILER: Beatty’s character suffers from impotence for most of the film. SPOILER: Rosebud is the sled. You can’t spoil a classic. (Aug. 2.)
This piece appeared in yesterday’s Examiner, with fewer photos.
