I opted that the dividing line between these two posts would be 1970.
But there is no magic light switch that flipped and suddenly Hollywood movies seemed more modern. In the late 1960's, there were films pushing against the constraints of the Motion Picture Production Code (aka the Hays Code).
In 1967, one of those movies was Bonnie and Clyde.
During the Great Depression, Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker of Texas meet when Clyde tries to steal Bonnie's mother's car. Bonnie, who is bored by her job as a waitress, is intrigued by Clyde and decides to take up with him and become his partner in crime. They pull off some holdups, but their amateur efforts, while exciting, are not very lucrative. Bonnie and Clyde turn from small-time heists to bank robbing.
The duo are joined by Clyde's older brother Buck and his wife, Blanche, a preacher's daughter as well as a dim-witted gas station attendant, C.W. Moss. Bonnie isn't happy sharing Clyde with this gang. Bonnie sees Blanche as a liability, all whiny and anxious.
The gang's reckless robbery run across the American south and west turns Bonnie and Clyde into folk heroes.
The authorities do not share the perspective including one Texas Ranger by the name of Frank Hamer.
Hamer gets the drop on the gang but then they turn the tables and get the drop on him. They take photos of the handcuffed Hamer as Bonnie slithers and slides provocatively over him. They add to his humiliation by leaving him in a boat in the middle of a pond.
This is a mistake.
Busting the Bonnie and Clyde gang is now personal for Mr. Hamer.
The thrill ride of bank robberies goes on but the thrill is undermined with an ambush by the police goes awry, leaving Buck shot in the head and it kills him and Blanche's injuries causes her to lose her sight in one eye.
Half crazed from pain, trauma, guilt, anxiety and more, Blanche babbles to Frank Hamer which gives him the clues to finally track down Bonnie and Clyde once and for all.
Bonnie and Clyde think they've found a safe (albeit temporary) shelter but they are being led into a trap set by Frank Hamer.
I would say "spoiler warning" for what happens next but what happens next is one of the most famous scenes in American cinema. If you haven't actually seen the scene from the movie itself, you've seen any number of homages or parodies.
What happens next....
Bonnie and Clyde are caught on a country roadside in a volley of machine gun fire, a slow motion ballet of blood and death as a multitude of bullets cleave the air as Bonnie Parker and Clyde Darrow convulse under the onslaught, their bodies shredded and ravaged by an incessant wave of rapid fire bullets.
This is not an arrest. This is an execution.
This bloody violent scene is where American cinema finally grew up. This scene has been described as "one of the bloodiest death scenes in cinematic history".
When I finally sat down to watch Bonnie and Clyde in full for the first time about a year ago, I had already seen that ending. What I wasn't prepared for was how that ending kind of sneaks up on you.
It's like watching Titanic and getting caught up in the romance of Jack and Rose along with all the accompanying soap opera shenanigans when you suddenly realize, "Oh shit! There's an iceberg!"
Clyde and Bonnie are on a wild ride that seems like it will never end. Like they say, "it's all fun and games until someone loses an eye" and with Buck and Blanche gone, it's clear that Clyde and Bonnie are running out of time and luck and some other 3rd thing that keeps the ride going.
In other words, "Oh shit! There's an iceberg!"
The "It's That Person Who Was In That Thing" Department.
- Poor Eugene Grizzard gets abducted by the Bonnie and Clyde gang and if he looks a lot like Gene Wilder, well, that's because it is and in his first film appearance ever.
- Blanche is played by Estelle Parsons and just from her voice, you will recognize her as George Costanza's mother on Seinfeld.
- Frank Hamer is Denver Pyle, patriarch of the Darling Clan on The Andy Griffith Show and Uncle Jesse from The Dukes of Hazzard.
The natural performances of Warren Beatty as Clyde and Faye Dunaway as Bonnie make this film work and distinguishes it from all that came before and set the stage for films to come. Bonnie and Clyde presents sex and violence in way that we will come to know in the future from the Cohen brothers, Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino. While made in 1967, Bonnie and Clyde has the look and feel of a movie made in 1997.
It may come as no surprise that there is a disconnect between the events of the movie and what happened in real life. For example, Clyde Darrow is a charming rogue in Bonnie and Clyde but in real life, he was described as a brutish thug with a hair trigger temper.
But as a movie, Bonnie and Clyde is a lot of fun to watch. And it is all a lot of fun.
Until someone loses an eye.
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