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Bonnie and Clyde (film)
Encyclopedia
The film was originally offered to François Truffaut
, the best-known director of the New Wave movement, who made contributions to the script. He passed on the project to make Fahrenheit 451
. The producers approached Jean-Luc Godard
next. Some sources claim Godard didn't trust Hollywood and refused; others allege he planned to change Bonnie and Clyde to teenagers and relocate the story to Japan, prompting the film's investors to force him off the project. After attending a screening of the completed film, Godard was asked what he thought of the film and reportedly replied, "Great! Now let's go make Bonnie and Clyde."
When Warren Beatty was on board as producer only, his sister Shirley MacLaine
was a strong possibility to play Bonnie. But when Beatty decided to play Clyde, he wanted a different actress. Other actresses considered for the role were Jane Fonda
, Tuesday Weld
, Ann-Margret
, Leslie Caron
, Carol Lynley
and Sue Lyon
. Cher
auditioned for the part, while Warren Beatty begged Natalie Wood
to play the role. Wood declined the role to concentrate more on her therapy at the time, and acknowledged that working with Beatty before was "difficult."
The film is forthright in its handling of sexuality. When Clyde brandishes his gun to display his manhood, Bonnie suggestively strokes the phallic symbol. Like the 1950 film Gun Crazy
, Bonnie and Clyde portrays crime as alluring and intertwined with sex. Because Clyde is impotent, his attempts to physically woo Bonnie are frustrating and anti-climactic.
Bonnie and Clyde was one of the first films to feature extensive use of squibs
— small explosive charges, often mounted with bags of stage blood
, that are detonated inside an actor's clothes to simulate bullet hits. Released in an era where shootings were generally depicted as bloodless and painless, the Bonnie and Clyde death scene was one of the first in mainstream American cinema to be depicted with graphic realism.
Beatty had originally wanted the film to be shot in black and white, but Warner Bros. rejected this idea.
" by Flatt and Scruggs was introduced to a worldwide audience as a result of its frequent use in the movie. Its use is anachronistic, however: the bluegrass
-style of music dates from the mid-1940s rather than the 1930s. Long out of print in vinyl and cassette formats, the film soundtrack album was finally released on CD in 2009.
The film considerably simplifies the lives of Bonnie and Clyde
, which included other gang members, repeated jailings, other murders and a horrific auto accident that left Parker burned and a near invalid. One of the film's major characters, "C.W. Moss", is a composite of two members of the Barrow Gang: William Daniel "W.D." Jones
and Henry Methvin
.
The Gene Wilder-Evans Evans sequence is based on the kidnappings of the undertaker H.D. Darby and his acquaintance Sophia Stone, near Ruston, Louisiana
on April 27, 1933. In the film, Velma and Eugene are romantically involved; Stone and Darby were not.
The film strays farthest from fact in its portrayal of the Texas Ranger
Frank Hamer
(played by Denver Pyle
) as a vengeful bungler who had been captured, humiliated, and released by Bonnie and Clyde. Hamer was already a legendary Texas Ranger when he was coaxed out of semi-retirement to hunt down the duo; he had never seen them before he and his posse ambushed and killed them near Gibsland, Louisiana
on May 23, 1934. In 1968, Hamer's widow and son sued the movie producers for defamation of character over his portrayal. They were awarded an out-of-court settlement in 1971.
The film portrays an unarmed and unsuspecting Clyde walking away from the car to investigate the broken down truck when he was ambushed. It suggests that Bonnie, still in their car, may also have been unarmed. Both remained in the vehicle and had weapons at the ready in the front seat; the back seat contained a dozen guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition. Neither outlaw got out of the car alive.
The couple's notoriety in 1933 came from photos found by police as undeveloped film in a hastily abandoned hideout in Joplin, Missouri
. In one, Bonnie holds a gun in her hand and a cigar between her teeth. Its publication nationwide typed her as a dramatic gun moll. The film portrays the taking of this playful photo. It implies the gang sent photos — and poetry — to the press, but this is untrue. The police found most of the gang's items in the Joplin cache. Bonnie's final poem, read aloud by her in the movie, was only publicized posthumously from her mother.
The only two members of the Barrow Gang who were alive at the time of the film's release were Blanche Barrow
and W. D. Jones
. While Blanche Barrow approved the depiction of her in the original version of the script, she objected to the later re-writes. At the film's release, she complained loudly about Estelle Parsons's
portrayal of her, saying, "That film made me look like a screaming horse's ass!"
In 1968, W.D. Jones outlined his time with the Barrows in a Playboy magazine article. That same year, he filed a lawsuit against Warner Brothers-Seven Arts, claiming that the film Bonnie and Clyde "maligned and brought shame and disrepute" on him and damaged his character by implying that he was complicit in the betrayal of his old partners. He repeated what he had said at his arrest in 1933, that far from being a willing member of the gang, he had tried to escape several times. There is no record that his petition was ever heard by a court.
The movie was partly filmed in and around Dallas, Texas
, in some cases using locations of banks that Bonnie and Clyde were reputed to have robbed at gunpoint.
The poem that Bonnie Parker is reading as the police raid their Joplin hideout is “The Story of 'Suicide Sal',” one of only three poems by Parker known to exist. The others are “The Street Girl” and “The Trail’s End,” better known today as “The Story of Bonnie and Clyde,” which she is shown reading aloud later in the film.
At first Warner Brothers did not promote Bonnie and Clyde for general release. Warren Beatty
, Bonnie and Clydes producer and star, complained to Warner Brothers that if the company was willing to go to so much trouble for Reflections in a Golden Eye (they had changed the coloration scheme), which was getting poor reviews, their neglect of his film, which was getting excellent press, suggested a conflict of interest; he threatened to sue the company. Warner Brothers gave Beatty's film a general release. It eventually became a major box office success.
had so little faith in the film that, in a then-unprecedented move, they offered its first-time producer Warren Beatty 40% of the gross instead of a minimal fee. The movie went on to gross over $70 million worldwide by 1973. This made him a wealthy man and free to take on projects he wanted to do.
The film was controversial on its original release for its supposed glorification of murderers
, and for its level of graphic violence, which was unprecedented at the time. Bosley Crowther
of The New York Times
was so appalled that he began to campaign against the increasing brutality of American films. Dave Kaufman of Variety
criticized the film for uneven direction and for portraying Bonnie and Clyde as bumbling fools. Joe Morgenstern
for Newsweek
initially panned the film as a "squalid shoot-'em-up-up for the moron trade." After seeing the film a second time and noticing the enthusiastic audience, he wrote a second article saying he had misjudged it and praising the film. Warner Brothers took advantage of this, marketing the film as having made a major critic change his mind about its virtues.
Roger Ebert
gave Bonnie and Clyde a largely positive review, giving it four stars out of a possible four. He called the film "a milestone in the history of American movies, a work of truth and brilliance." More than 30 years later, he added the film to his "Great Movies" list. Film critics Dave Kehr
and James Berardinelli
have also praised the film in the years since.
The fierce debate about the film is discussed at length in For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism
. This 2009 documentary film chronicles what occurred as a result: the New York Times fired Bosley Crowther because his negative review seemed so out of touch with the public, and Pauline Kael
, who wrote a lengthy freelance essay in The New Yorker
in praise of the film, became the magazine's new staff critic.
won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
for her portrayal of Blanche Barrow
, and Burnett Guffey
won an Academy Award for Best Cinematography
.
The film was also nominated for:
's Gun Crazy
, a 1950 film noir about a bank-robbing couple (also based loosely on the real Bonnie and Clyde), as a major influence on this film. Forty years after its premiere, Bonnie and Clyde has been cited as a major influence for such disparate films as The Wild Bunch
, The Godfather
, The Departed
, and Natural Born Killers
. Bonnie and Clyde were also the subject of a popular 1967 French pop song performed by Serge Gainsbourg
and Brigitte Bardot
. Some aspects of the Bollywood
movie Bunty aur Babli
are inspired by this movie.
A new, musical stage version of this iconic movie is scheduled to premiere on Broadway
in November, 2011 at the Gerald Schoenfeld
Theatre.
It will star Laura Osnes
and Jeremy Jordan, with book by Ivan Menchell, music by Frank Wildhorn
, lyrics by Don Black
, all under the direction of Jeff Calhoun.
François Truffaut
François Roland Truffaut was an influential film critic and filmmaker and one of the founders of the French New Wave. In a film career lasting over a quarter of a century, he remains an icon of the French film industry. He was also a screenwriter, producer, and actor working on over twenty-five...
, the best-known director of the New Wave movement, who made contributions to the script. He passed on the project to make Fahrenheit 451
Fahrenheit 451 (1966 film)
Fahrenheit 451 is a 1966 film directed by François Truffaut, in his first colour film as well as his only English-language film. It is based on the novel of the same name by Ray Bradbury....
. The producers approached Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard is a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter and film critic. He is often identified with the 1960s French film movement, French Nouvelle Vague, or "New Wave"....
next. Some sources claim Godard didn't trust Hollywood and refused; others allege he planned to change Bonnie and Clyde to teenagers and relocate the story to Japan, prompting the film's investors to force him off the project. After attending a screening of the completed film, Godard was asked what he thought of the film and reportedly replied, "Great! Now let's go make Bonnie and Clyde."
When Warren Beatty was on board as producer only, his sister Shirley MacLaine
Shirley MacLaine
Shirley MacLaine is an American film and theater actress, singer, dancer, activist and author, well-known for her beliefs in new age spirituality and reincarnation. She has written a large number of autobiographical works, many dealing with her spiritual beliefs as well as her Hollywood career...
was a strong possibility to play Bonnie. But when Beatty decided to play Clyde, he wanted a different actress. Other actresses considered for the role were Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda is an American actress, writer, political activist, former fashion model, and fitness guru. She rose to fame in the 1960s with films such as Barbarella and Cat Ballou. She has won two Academy Awards and received several other movie awards and nominations during more than 50 years as an...
, Tuesday Weld
Tuesday Weld
Tuesday Weld is an American actress.Weld began her acting career as a child, and progressed to more mature roles during the late 1950s. She won a Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Female Newcomer in 1960...
, Ann-Margret
Ann-Margret
Ann-Margret Olsson is a Swedish-American actress, singer and dancer whose professional name is Ann-Margret. She became famous for her starring roles in Bye Bye Birdie, Viva Las Vegas, The Cincinnati Kid, Carnal Knowledge, and Tommy...
, Leslie Caron
Leslie Caron
Leslie Claire Margaret Caron is a French film actress and dancer, who appeared in 45 films between 1951 and 2003. In 2006, her performance in Law and Order: Special Victims Unit won her an Emmy for guest actress in a drama series...
, Carol Lynley
Carol Lynley
Carol Lynley is an American actress and former child model.-Life and career:Lynley was born Carole Ann Jones in New York City, the daughter of Frances , a waitress, and Cyril Jones. Her father was Irish and her mother, a native of New England, was of English, Scottish, Welsh, German, and Native...
and Sue Lyon
Sue Lyon
- Lolita :Sue Lyon was 14 years old when she was cast in the role of Dolores "Lolita" Haze, the sexually charged adolescent and the object of an older man's obsessions in Stanley Kubrick's 1962 film, Lolita. She was chosen for the role partly because her curvy figure suggested an older adolescent...
. Cher
Cher
Cher is an American recording artist, television personality, actress, director, record producer and philanthropist. Referred to as the Goddess of Pop, she has won an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, three Golden Globes and a Cannes Film Festival Award among others for her work in...
auditioned for the part, while Warren Beatty begged Natalie Wood
Natalie Wood
Natalie Wood, born Natalia Nikolaevna Zacharenko was an American film and television actress. After first working in films as a child, Wood became a successful Hollywood star as a young adult, receiving three Academy Award nominations before she was 25 years old.Wood began acting in movies at the...
to play the role. Wood declined the role to concentrate more on her therapy at the time, and acknowledged that working with Beatty before was "difficult."
The film is forthright in its handling of sexuality. When Clyde brandishes his gun to display his manhood, Bonnie suggestively strokes the phallic symbol. Like the 1950 film Gun Crazy
Gun Crazy
Gun Crazy is a 1950 film noir feature film starring Peggy Cummins and John Dall in a story about the crime-spree of a gun-toting husband and wife. The film was directed by Joseph H. Lewis, and produced by Frank King and Maurice King...
, Bonnie and Clyde portrays crime as alluring and intertwined with sex. Because Clyde is impotent, his attempts to physically woo Bonnie are frustrating and anti-climactic.
Bonnie and Clyde was one of the first films to feature extensive use of squibs
Squib (explosive)
A squib is a miniature explosive device used in a wide range of industries, from special effects to military applications. It resembles a tiny stick of dynamite, both in appearance and construction, although with considerably less explosive power...
— small explosive charges, often mounted with bags of stage blood
Stage Blood
Stage Blood was a comedy by Charles Ludlam that spoofed Shakespeare's Hamlet, as well as the third-rate touring company who are performing it. The cast was headed by Ridiculous Theatrical Company veterans Black-Eyed Susan, Lola Pashalinski, Bill Vehr, Jack Mallory, John D. Brockmeyer and Ludlam...
, that are detonated inside an actor's clothes to simulate bullet hits. Released in an era where shootings were generally depicted as bloodless and painless, the Bonnie and Clyde death scene was one of the first in mainstream American cinema to be depicted with graphic realism.
Beatty had originally wanted the film to be shot in black and white, but Warner Bros. rejected this idea.
Music
The instrumental banjo piece "Foggy Mountain BreakdownFoggy Mountain Breakdown
"Foggy Mountain Breakdown" is a bluegrass music instrumental by the bluegrass artists Flatt and Scruggs. It is a standard in the bluegrass repertoire. Banjo players consider the ability to deliver a convincing rendition of this piece the mark of an intermediate-level banjo player...
" by Flatt and Scruggs was introduced to a worldwide audience as a result of its frequent use in the movie. Its use is anachronistic, however: the bluegrass
Bluegrass music
Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music, and a sub-genre of country music. It has mixed roots in Scottish, English, Welsh and Irish traditional music...
-style of music dates from the mid-1940s rather than the 1930s. Long out of print in vinyl and cassette formats, the film soundtrack album was finally released on CD in 2009.
Historical accuracy
Bonnie and Clyde
Bonnie Elizabeth Parker and Clyde Chestnut Barrow were well-known outlaws, robbers, and criminals who traveled the Central United States with their gang during the Great Depression. Their exploits captured the attention of the American public during the "public enemy era" between 1931 and 1934...
, which included other gang members, repeated jailings, other murders and a horrific auto accident that left Parker burned and a near invalid. One of the film's major characters, "C.W. Moss", is a composite of two members of the Barrow Gang: William Daniel "W.D." Jones
W. D. Jones
William Daniel Jones was a member of the Barrow Gang, whose spree throughout the southern Midwest in the early years of the Great Depression became part of American criminal folklore. Jones ran with Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker for eight and a half months, from Christmas Eve 1932 to early...
and Henry Methvin
Henry Methvin
Henry Methvin was an American criminal, bank robber and Depression-era outlaw. He is best remembered as the final member of Bonnie and Clyde's gang and whose father, Ivan Methvin, helped arrange their deaths at the hands of a posse headed by Texas lawman Frank Hamer in 1934...
.
The Gene Wilder-Evans Evans sequence is based on the kidnappings of the undertaker H.D. Darby and his acquaintance Sophia Stone, near Ruston, Louisiana
Ruston, Louisiana
Ruston is a city in and the parish seat of Lincoln Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 20,546 at the 2000 census. Ruston is near the eastern border of the Ark-La-Tex and is the home of Louisiana Tech University. Its economy caters to its college population...
on April 27, 1933. In the film, Velma and Eugene are romantically involved; Stone and Darby were not.
The film strays farthest from fact in its portrayal of the Texas Ranger
Texas Ranger Division
The Texas Ranger Division, commonly called the Texas Rangers, is a law enforcement agency with statewide jurisdiction in Texas, and is based in Austin, Texas...
Frank Hamer
Frank Hamer
Francis Augustus Hamer was a Texas Ranger, known in popular culture for his involvement in tracking down and killing the criminal duo Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow in 1934...
(played by Denver Pyle
Denver Pyle
Denver Dell Pyle was an American film and television actor. He is best remembered for playing Uncle Jesse in The Dukes of Hazzard .-Early life:...
) as a vengeful bungler who had been captured, humiliated, and released by Bonnie and Clyde. Hamer was already a legendary Texas Ranger when he was coaxed out of semi-retirement to hunt down the duo; he had never seen them before he and his posse ambushed and killed them near Gibsland, Louisiana
Gibsland, Louisiana
Gibsland is a town in Bienville Parish, Louisiana, United States. Conveniently near Interstate 20 and less than an hour from both Shreveport and Monroe, Louisiana, Gibsland offers small town living with access to urban amenities...
on May 23, 1934. In 1968, Hamer's widow and son sued the movie producers for defamation of character over his portrayal. They were awarded an out-of-court settlement in 1971.
The film portrays an unarmed and unsuspecting Clyde walking away from the car to investigate the broken down truck when he was ambushed. It suggests that Bonnie, still in their car, may also have been unarmed. Both remained in the vehicle and had weapons at the ready in the front seat; the back seat contained a dozen guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition. Neither outlaw got out of the car alive.
The couple's notoriety in 1933 came from photos found by police as undeveloped film in a hastily abandoned hideout in Joplin, Missouri
Joplin, Missouri
Joplin is a city in southern Jasper County and northern Newton County in the southwestern corner of the US state of Missouri. Joplin is the largest city in Jasper County, though it is not the county seat. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 50,150...
. In one, Bonnie holds a gun in her hand and a cigar between her teeth. Its publication nationwide typed her as a dramatic gun moll. The film portrays the taking of this playful photo. It implies the gang sent photos — and poetry — to the press, but this is untrue. The police found most of the gang's items in the Joplin cache. Bonnie's final poem, read aloud by her in the movie, was only publicized posthumously from her mother.
The only two members of the Barrow Gang who were alive at the time of the film's release were Blanche Barrow
Blanche Barrow
Bennie Iva "Blanche" Frasure was the wife of Marvin "Buck" Barrow and the sister-in-law of Clyde Barrow. Buck and Blanche were part of the Barrow Gang from late March 1933 until their capture on July 24, 1933.-Early life:Blanche Barrow was born in Garvin, Oklahoma...
and W. D. Jones
W. D. Jones
William Daniel Jones was a member of the Barrow Gang, whose spree throughout the southern Midwest in the early years of the Great Depression became part of American criminal folklore. Jones ran with Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker for eight and a half months, from Christmas Eve 1932 to early...
. While Blanche Barrow approved the depiction of her in the original version of the script, she objected to the later re-writes. At the film's release, she complained loudly about Estelle Parsons's
Estelle Parsons
Estelle Margaret Parsons is an American theatre, film and television actress and occasional theatrical director.After studying law, Parsons became a singer before deciding to pursue a career in acting. She worked for the television program Today and made her stage debut in 1961...
portrayal of her, saying, "That film made me look like a screaming horse's ass!"
In 1968, W.D. Jones outlined his time with the Barrows in a Playboy magazine article. That same year, he filed a lawsuit against Warner Brothers-Seven Arts, claiming that the film Bonnie and Clyde "maligned and brought shame and disrepute" on him and damaged his character by implying that he was complicit in the betrayal of his old partners. He repeated what he had said at his arrest in 1933, that far from being a willing member of the gang, he had tried to escape several times. There is no record that his petition was ever heard by a court.
The movie was partly filmed in and around Dallas, Texas
Dallas, Texas
Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...
, in some cases using locations of banks that Bonnie and Clyde were reputed to have robbed at gunpoint.
The poem that Bonnie Parker is reading as the police raid their Joplin hideout is “The Story of 'Suicide Sal',” one of only three poems by Parker known to exist. The others are “The Street Girl” and “The Trail’s End,” better known today as “The Story of Bonnie and Clyde,” which she is shown reading aloud later in the film.
At first Warner Brothers did not promote Bonnie and Clyde for general release. Warren Beatty
Warren Beatty
Warren Beatty born March 30, 1937) is an American actor, producer, screenwriter and director. He has received a total of fourteen Academy Award nominations, winning one for Best Director in 1982. He has also won four Golden Globe Awards including the Cecil B. DeMille Award.-Early life and...
, Bonnie and Clydes producer and star, complained to Warner Brothers that if the company was willing to go to so much trouble for Reflections in a Golden Eye (they had changed the coloration scheme), which was getting poor reviews, their neglect of his film, which was getting excellent press, suggested a conflict of interest; he threatened to sue the company. Warner Brothers gave Beatty's film a general release. It eventually became a major box office success.
Reception
Warner Bros.-Seven ArtsWarner Bros.-Seven Arts
Warner Bros.-Seven Arts was formed in 1967 and became defunct in 1970, when Seven Arts Productions acquired Jack Warner's controlling interest in Warner Bros. for $32 million and merged with it. The deal also included Warner Bros. Records, Reprise Records and the B&W Looney Tunes library...
had so little faith in the film that, in a then-unprecedented move, they offered its first-time producer Warren Beatty 40% of the gross instead of a minimal fee. The movie went on to gross over $70 million worldwide by 1973. This made him a wealthy man and free to take on projects he wanted to do.
The film was controversial on its original release for its supposed glorification of murderers
Aestheticization of violence
The aestheticization of violence in high culture art or mass media is the depiction of or references to violence in what Indiana University film studies professor Margaret Bruder calls a "stylistically excessive," "significant and sustained way." When violence is depicted in this fashion in films,...
, and for its level of graphic violence, which was unprecedented at the time. Bosley Crowther
Bosley Crowther
Bosley Crowther was a journalist and author who was film critic for The New York Times for 27 years. His reviews and articles helped shape the careers of actors, directors and screenwriters, though his reviews, at times, were unnecessarily mean...
of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
was so appalled that he began to campaign against the increasing brutality of American films. Dave Kaufman of Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
criticized the film for uneven direction and for portraying Bonnie and Clyde as bumbling fools. Joe Morgenstern
Joe Morgenstern
Joe Morgenstern is a Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic for The Wall Street Journal.-Career:Morgenstern graduated from Lehigh University in 1953. His first journalism experience was as news clerk at the New York Times...
for Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
initially panned the film as a "squalid shoot-'em-up-up for the moron trade." After seeing the film a second time and noticing the enthusiastic audience, he wrote a second article saying he had misjudged it and praising the film. Warner Brothers took advantage of this, marketing the film as having made a major critic change his mind about its virtues.
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
gave Bonnie and Clyde a largely positive review, giving it four stars out of a possible four. He called the film "a milestone in the history of American movies, a work of truth and brilliance." More than 30 years later, he added the film to his "Great Movies" list. Film critics Dave Kehr
Dave Kehr
Dave Kehr is an American film critic. A critic at the Chicago Reader and the Chicago Tribune for many years, he writes a weekly column for The New York Times on DVD releases, in addition to contributing occasional pieces on individual films or filmmakers.-Early life and education:Dave Kehr did...
and James Berardinelli
James Berardinelli
James Berardinelli is an American online film critic.-Personal life:Berardinelli was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey and spent his early childhood in Morristown, New Jersey. At the age of nine years, he relocated to the township of Cherry Hill, New Jersey...
have also praised the film in the years since.
The fierce debate about the film is discussed at length in For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism
For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism
For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism is a 2009 documentary film dramatizing a hundred years of American film criticism through film clips, historic photographs, and on-camera interviews with many of today’s important reviewers, mostly print but also Internet...
. This 2009 documentary film chronicles what occurred as a result: the New York Times fired Bosley Crowther because his negative review seemed so out of touch with the public, and Pauline Kael
Pauline Kael
Pauline Kael was an American film critic who wrote for The New Yorker magazine from 1968 to 1991. Earlier in her career, her work appeared in City Lights, McCall's and The New Republic....
, who wrote a lengthy freelance essay in The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
in praise of the film, became the magazine's new staff critic.
Academy Awards
Estelle ParsonsEstelle Parsons
Estelle Margaret Parsons is an American theatre, film and television actress and occasional theatrical director.After studying law, Parsons became a singer before deciding to pursue a career in acting. She worked for the television program Today and made her stage debut in 1961...
won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...
for her portrayal of Blanche Barrow
Blanche Barrow
Bennie Iva "Blanche" Frasure was the wife of Marvin "Buck" Barrow and the sister-in-law of Clyde Barrow. Buck and Blanche were part of the Barrow Gang from late March 1933 until their capture on July 24, 1933.-Early life:Blanche Barrow was born in Garvin, Oklahoma...
, and Burnett Guffey
Burnett Guffey
Burnett Guffey, A.S.C. was an American cinematographer.He won two Academy Awards: From Here to Eternity and Bonnie and Clyde .-Career:...
won an Academy Award for Best Cinematography
Academy Award for Best Cinematography
The Academy Award for Best Cinematography is an Academy Award awarded each year to a cinematographer for work in one particular motion picture.-History:...
.
The film was also nominated for:
- Best Picture
- Best Director - Arthur PennArthur PennArthur Hiller Penn was an American film director and producer with a career as a theater director as well. Penn amassed a critically acclaimed body of work throughout the 1960s and 1970s.-Early years:...
- Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen - David NewmanDavid Newman (filmmaker)David Newman was an American filmmaker. From the late 1960s through the early 1980s he frequently collaborated with Robert Benton. He was married to fellow writer Leslie Newman, with whom he had two children, until the time of his death...
and Robert BentonRobert BentonRobert Douglas Benton is an American screenwriter and film director.Benton was born in Waxahachie, Texas, the son of Dorothy and Ellery Douglass Benton, a telephone company employee. He attended the University of Texas and Columbia University. Benton has won numerous awards for both writing and... - Best Actor in a Leading Role - Warren BeattyWarren BeattyWarren Beatty born March 30, 1937) is an American actor, producer, screenwriter and director. He has received a total of fourteen Academy Award nominations, winning one for Best Director in 1982. He has also won four Golden Globe Awards including the Cecil B. DeMille Award.-Early life and...
- Best Actress in a Leading Role - Faye DunawayFaye DunawayFaye Dunaway is an American actress.Dunaway won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Network after receiving previous nominations for the critically acclaimed films Bonnie and Clyde and Chinatown...
- Best Actor in a Supporting RoleAcademy Award for Best Supporting ActorPerformance by an Actor in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...
- Michael J. PollardMichael J. Pollard- Early life :Born Michael John Pollack, Jr. in Passaic, New Jersey, he is the son of Sonia and Michael John Pollack. He attended the Montclair Academy and the Actors Studio.- Career :... - Best Actor in a Supporting RoleAcademy Award for Best Supporting ActorPerformance by an Actor in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...
- Gene HackmanGene HackmanEugene Allen "Gene" Hackman is an American actor and novelist.Nominated for five Academy Awards, winning two, Hackman has also won three Golden Globes and two BAFTAs in a career that spanned five decades. He first came to fame in 1967 with his performance as Buck Barrow in Bonnie and Clyde... - Best Costume Design - Theadora Van RunkleTheadora Van RunkleTheadora Van Runkle was an American costume designer. The first films she designed costumes for was Bonnie and Clyde , The Thomas Crown Affair and The Arrangement . Theodora Van Runkle designed the gown Faye Dunaway wore to the 1968 Oscars...
Others
- In 1992, Bonnie and Clyde was selected for preservation in the United States National Film RegistryNational Film RegistryThe National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Board's selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The Board, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992, 1996, 2005, and again in October 2008...
by the Library of CongressLibrary of CongressThe Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." - 1998 - American Film Institute's 100 Years... 100 Movies - #27
- 2001 - AFI's 100 Years... 100 ThrillsAFI's 100 Years... 100 ThrillsPart of the AFI 100 Years… series, AFI's 100 Years…100 Thrills is a list of the top 100 heart-pounding movies in American cinema. The list was unveiled by the American Film Institute on June 12, 2001, during a CBS special hosted by Harrison Ford....
- #13 - 2002 - AFI's 100 Years... 100 PassionsAFI's 100 Years... 100 PassionsPart of the AFI 100 Years… series, AFI's 100 Years…100 Passions is a list of the top 100 greatest love stories in American cinema. The list was unveiled by the American Film Institute on June 11, 2002, in a CBS television special hosted by American film and TV actress Candice Bergen.-The...
- #65 - 2003 - AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and VillainsAFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and VillainsAFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains is a list of the 100 greatest screen characters chosen by American Film Institute in June 2003. It is part of the AFI 100 Years… series. The series was first presented in a CBS special hosted by Arnold Schwarzenegger...
- Clyde Barrow & Bonnie Parker - #32 Villains
- 2005 - AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie QuotesAFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie QuotesPart of the AFI 100 Years... series, AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes is a list of the top 100 movie quotations in American cinema. The American Film Institute revealed the list on June 21, 2005, in a three-hour television program on CBS...
- #41- "We rob banks."- #41
- 2007 - AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) - #42
- 2008 - AFI's 10 Top 10AFI's 10 Top 10AFI's 10 Top 10 honors the ten greatest American films in ten classic film genres. Presented by the American Film Institute , the lists were unveiled on a television special broadcast by CBS on June 17, 2008....
- gangster film - #5
Influence
Some critics cite Joseph H. LewisJoseph H. Lewis
Joseph H. Lewis was an American B-movie film director whose stylish flourishes came to be appreciated by auteur theory-espousing film critics in the years following his retirement in 1966...
's Gun Crazy
Gun Crazy
Gun Crazy is a 1950 film noir feature film starring Peggy Cummins and John Dall in a story about the crime-spree of a gun-toting husband and wife. The film was directed by Joseph H. Lewis, and produced by Frank King and Maurice King...
, a 1950 film noir about a bank-robbing couple (also based loosely on the real Bonnie and Clyde), as a major influence on this film. Forty years after its premiere, Bonnie and Clyde has been cited as a major influence for such disparate films as The Wild Bunch
The Wild Bunch
The Wild Bunch is a 1969 American Western film directed by Sam Peckinpah about an aging outlaw gang on the Texas-Mexico border, trying to exist in the changing "modern" world of 1913...
, The Godfather
The Godfather
The Godfather is a 1972 American epic crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, based on the 1969 novel by Mario Puzo. With a screenplay by Puzo, Coppola and an uncredited Robert Towne, the film stars Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Sterling Hayden, John Marley, Richard...
, The Departed
The Departed
The Departed is a 2006 American crime thriller film, fashioned as a remake of the 2002 Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs. The film was directed by Martin Scorsese and written by William Monahan...
, and Natural Born Killers
Natural Born Killers
Natural Born Killers is a 1994 crime/black comedy film directed by Oliver Stone about two victims of traumatic childhoods who became lovers and psychopathic serial killers, and are irresponsibly glorified by the mass media...
. Bonnie and Clyde were also the subject of a popular 1967 French pop song performed by Serge Gainsbourg
Serge Gainsbourg
Serge Gainsbourg, born Lucien Ginsburg was a French singer-songwriter, actor and director. Gainsbourg's extremely varied musical style and individuality make him difficult to categorize...
and Brigitte Bardot
Brigitte Bardot
Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot is a French former fashion model, actress, singer and animal rights activist. She was one of the best-known sex-symbols of the 1960s.In her early life, Bardot was an aspiring ballet dancer...
. Some aspects of the Bollywood
Bollywood
Bollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai , Maharashtra, India. The term is often incorrectly used to refer to the whole of Indian cinema; it is only a part of the total Indian film industry, which includes other production centers producing...
movie Bunty aur Babli
Bunty Aur Babli
Bunty Aur Babli , released in 2005, is an Indian Bollywood film directed by Shaad Ali and starring Amitabh Bachchan, Rani Mukerji and Abhishek Bachchan. It was the first film to feature both Amitabh Bachchan and his son Abhishek Bachchan, and featured guest appearances by Aishwarya Rai and Tania...
are inspired by this movie.
A new, musical stage version of this iconic movie is scheduled to premiere on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
in November, 2011 at the Gerald Schoenfeld
Gerald Schoenfeld
Gerald Schoenfeld was chairman of the Shubert Organization from 1972 until his death....
Theatre.
It will star Laura Osnes
Laura Osnes
Laura Ann Osnes is an American stage actress, and the winner of the role of "Sandy" on the televised Grease: You're the One that I Want! competition. She played Sandy in the 2007 Broadway run of Grease, which opened August 19, 2007, starring alongside the other winner, Max Crumm, who played the...
and Jeremy Jordan, with book by Ivan Menchell, music by Frank Wildhorn
Frank Wildhorn
Frank Wildhorn is an American composer known for both his musicals and popular songs. He is most known for his musical Jekyll & Hyde, which ran four years on Broadway, and for writing the #1 International Hit song "Where Do Broken Hearts Go?" for Whitney Houston.-Early years:Wildhorn was born in...
, lyrics by Don Black
Don Black
Don Black may refer to:* Don Black , racialist campaigner* Don Black , English lyricist* Don Black , baseball player for the Cleveland Indians and Philadelphia Athletics...
, all under the direction of Jeff Calhoun.
External links
- Bosley Crowther’s original review, the New York Times, 14 April 1967, and his follow-up of 3 September 1967.
- Stephen HunterStephen HunterStephen Hunter is an American novelist, essayist, and Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic.-Life and career:Stephen Hunter was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and grew up in Evanston, Illinois. His father was Charles Francis Hunter, a Northwestern University speech professor who was killed in 1975....
, in CommentaryCommentary (magazine)Commentary is a monthly American magazine on politics, Judaism, social and cultural issues. It was founded by the American Jewish Committee in 1945. By 1960 its editor was Norman Podhoretz, a liberal at the time who moved sharply to the right in the 1970s and 1980s becoming a strong voice for the...
, on the film's infidelity to historical truth about Barrow, Parker and Hamer. - Literature on Bonnie and Clyde