Bonnie and Clyde

Rating:
Summary: Damn good, rolicking, conojes-squeezin' fun!!!!
Review: Fictionalised account. You've seen the end sequence, where they get killed in the car? That's the best sequence in the film. And, of course, Gene Hackman is always good. He's in the film too. And, apparantely, Clyde was a real life homosexual, and he'd share lovers with Bonnie. (But that doesn't come across in the film.It's kind of implied. But not more than suggested--graphically or verbally.) Just a good, fun film, basically, Historically inaccurate. But good fun. Yeah, you've got to check out that baby. It's a damn good film.

Rating:
Summary: One of my favorite movies of all time!
Review: I loved this movie and story of two bank robbers. I liked the reversal of good and bad guys, it made the movie very interesting. The movie made these two unattractive southern hicks into lovable people who I could sympathize with. I was even sad when they got shot an enormous amount of times, or as my history teacher put it "they became swiss cheese". I really liked Warren Beatty too, he seemed so perfectly suited to the role. All in all, it was a great piece of 60s movie making. END

Rating:
Summary: We Rob Banks!
Review: To me, the best film of 1967 (above the other landmark film of that year, The Graduate), and one of the most startling films ever made. I think that the "modern era" of moviemaking begins with Bonnie and Clyde." It's really about a "family" of bankrobbers who owe much of their success to the press; the newspapers make it seem as if they intend to terrorize every small town that has a bank to begin with. And so the Barrow gang becomes legendary during the depression, and heroes to some because they are against the government that is taking so much away from the "little people." Although much praised, "Bonnie and Clyde" was controversial in its day, partly because of the considerable bloodshed and partly because audiences felt bad for the two criminals. As one character says, "they're just a bunch of kids!" This is one of the rare films in which the violence punctuates the story--it makes the viewing experience more powerful. Because of it, one watches much of the film in a state of apprehension.

Rating:
Summary: Stll a classic, but see it in context
Review: I remember going to the theatre as an impressionable teenager in 1967 and sitting through this movie 5 times! I think it's probably hard for younger viewers to understand why "Bonnie & Clyde" made such an impact--there were BIG debates among critics at the time. There's even a case where one of the weekly magazine critics panned it one week and changed his mind and praised it the next. Part of the furor was over how it portrayed violence and violent characters and how it mixed comedy and drama. Early in the film in one of their comically botched hold-ups, Clyde shoots a man point-blank in the face through a car window. That was incredibly shocking at the time! Nothing had been seen like that before; and it was being done by a character we'd been set-up to like. From this point in time, the movie looks pretty tame--even naive. The locations and scenic design are still outstanding--which makes the widescreen DVD all the more appreciated--although Bonnie (especially her hair) looks more a product of the 60s than the 30s. And the finely-edited "dance of death" at the end remains strangely beautiful and horrifying at the same time. (PS: And keep in mind, this is a fictionalized account; it wasn't meant to be a documentary.)

Rating:
Summary: More Hollywood garbage
Review: Hollywood has a track record of turning vile, murdering cowards and criminals into folk heroes. This piece of trash is among the winners. What a load of pure hogwash. When it first came out, the critics went into ecstasy about the sexual message all through the movie, using handguns as a phallic symbol. More Freudian dribble!!! The police are the villians here while the gang are the heroes. (The scene with Denver Pyle playing Texas Ranger Frank Hamer sneaking up on the bloodthirty duo is pure bilge. If the real Capt. Hamer had had his way, B&C's crimewave wouldn't have lasted any length of time.) The real Bonnie Parker was absolute trash. She blew a policeman's head off point blank with a sawed off shotgun! And she's a HEROINE ? More like she was on HEROIN. If you think this is a "Robin Hood" tale of robbing from the rich and giving to the poor, you live in a fantasy world. The small businesses that Barrow and Parker robbed were "mom and pop" stores. And the poor certainly didn't benefit. The only redeeming part of this film is seeing these two thugs riddled by gunfire by the law. A fitting end.