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Bonnie
and Clyde (1967)
In Arthur Penn's controversial, ground-breaking film:
- the film's opening with a colorful closeup of red,
luscious lips (that were being licked after lipstick had been applied)
belonging to blonde Bonnie Parker (Faye Dunaway) - a bored, beautiful,
and sexually-frustrated, Depression-era Texas cafe waitress who
was naked and narcissistically primping in front of a mirror; her
teasing and nude appearance at her bedroom window occurred as small-town
con and car thief Clyde Barrow (Warren Beatty) eyed her Mama's
car out front; she quickly dressed and descended the stairs to
join him
- the sequence of bank-robbing Clyde's first major seduction
of Bonnie, when he showed off his gun and bounced a wooden matchstick
between his teeth (shot at an upward angle as a trembling phallic
symbol), although he was later revealed to be impotent; after proving
himself by robbing the grocery store across the street, they were
formally introduced to each other as they jumped in a getaway car
together: Bonnie: "Hey, what's your name anyhow?" Clyde:
"Clyde Barrow" Bonnie: "Hi, I'm Bonnie Parker, pleased
to meet ya"; during their hurried exit, banjo music by Lester
Flatt and Earl Scruggs ("Foggy Mountain Breakdown") played
on the soundtrack; throughout the film, there were numerous sped-up
(a la Keystone Cops slapstick) bank robberies and pursuits to the sounds
of banjo music
Clyde's Seduction of Bonnie
and Their First Bank Robbery
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- the sequence of Clyde's shamed and restless confession
to Bonnie about his latent homosexuality, sexual limitations and
impotence; he told her to put aside her romantic intentions: Clyde: "I
might as well tell ya right off. I ain't much of a lover boy. But
that don't mean nothin' personal about you. I-I-I never saw no
percentage in it. Ain't nothin' wrong with me. I don't like boys." (He
bumped his head on the driver's side door.) Bonnie (sounding frustrated
and stunned): "...Your advertisin' is just dandy. Folks would never
guess you don't have a thing to sell. You'd better take me home
now. Now don't you touch me!"
- the deserted, bank-foreclosed farmhouse scene where
Bonnie was jubilantly hugged by Clyde after exhibiting her gun-shooting
prowess at an old rubber-tire-swing target; their shooting attracted
the attention of bank-displaced, evicted farmer Otis Harris and his
family, who they sympathized with; Clyde boasted:
"This here's Miss Bonnie Parker. I'm Clyde Barrow...We rob banks"
- their meeting up with dim-witted, back-country, grinning
attendant/mechanic C. W. Moss (Michael J. Pollard) at a station;
when he identified their vehicle as a "4-cylinder Ford Coup-e,"
Bonnie corrected him: "This is a STOLEN 4-cylinder Ford Coup-e" -
after introducing themselves as bank robbers, they invited him to join
them as their getaway driver: "Have you got what it takes to pull
bank jobs with us, Mr. C.W. Moss?"
- during their second bank robbery in the town of Mineola,
the robbery went awry when they couldn't find C.W.'s parallel-parked
getaway vehicle (another stolen car!) and they were delayed in leaving
town when blocked by other cars; panicked, Clyde drew first blood
when the elderly bank manager lept onto the running board of their
car and he reacted impulsively - the bullet smashed through the man's
glasses and gruesomely blew off his face, point-blank, through the
window of their car [invoking a similar image from Russian Sergei
Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin (1925)]
- the scene of the fugitives finding refuge in a movie
theatre while viewing the "We're in the Money" scene from
a 1933 Warner Bros film: Gold Diggers of 1933
- the picture-taking scene in which the gang were now
joined by Clyde's older, All-American, hearty, loud-mouthed, ex-con
brother Buck (Gene Hackman) and his reluctant, but excitable, hysteria-prone,
and flighty wife Blanche (Estelle Parsons) - Bonnie fashionably posed
with her gun
- the gang was determinedly followed and stalked by
mustachioed Texas Ranger Capt. Frank Hamer (Denver Pyle), who was
captured, handcuffed, belittled - and to specifically humiliate him,
Bonnie put her arm around the stiff-lipped and glaring Ranger and
flattened out his moustache with his own gun
- during their third bank robbery, Clyde formally introduced
the well-dressed gang with their big guns drawn as they burst into
the front doors of a small-town bank: "Good afternoon. This
is the Barrow Gang" - as their legendary prowess increased
- the sequence of a bloody ambush at Platte City, Iowa
followed by the realistic death scene in a field of Clyde's mortally-wounded
brother Buck, with wife Blanche's hysterical screaming about his
dying: ("Daddy, don't die!! Daddy!!")
- Bonnie's recitation of her legendary poem, making
them sound like Robin Hood and his gang, to spread their appeal - "The
Story of Bonnie and Clyde": ("Here's the story of Bonnie
and Clyde...Now Bonnie and Clyde are the Barrow gang. I'm sure you
all have read How they rob and steal And those who squeal Are usually
found dyin' or dead. They call them cold-hearted killers They say
they are heartless and mean But I say this with pride That I once
knew Clyde When he was honest and upright and clean...")
- afterwards, Clyde's consummation of his love for Bonnie,
when she assured him: "You did just perfect," after
which he complimented himself while chuckling: "I did, didn't
I? I mean, I really did. I never figured on that. Damn"; in
their next bedroom scene, they discussed their relationship, although
they were soon doomed to die: Bonnie: "Clyde. Why do you want
to marry me?" Clyde: "To make an honest woman out of you"
- the quick montage-succession of events during the
country backwoods, roadside ambush sequence by police, when the duo
were betrayed by father Ivan (or Malcolm) Moss (Dub Taylor), who flagged
down their car for help while faking a flat tire on his truck by
the side of the road; he spoke the last lines of the film: "I've
got a flat tire, and I ain't got no spare"
- in their final freeze-frame of life in a two-minute
violent "ballet of blood", doomed lovers Bonnie and Clyde
revealed both panic and love in their faces - with a silent glance
toward each other; their frenzied, spasming corpses writhed in slow-motion
as they were gunned down and riddled with an unprecedented number
of bullets; they were re-animated by gunfire - into involuntary dances
of death when their corpses twitched to life; they died cinematically-beautiful,
abstracted deaths to accentuate the romance of the myths and the
larger-than-life legends that surrounded them; their last moment
of 'life' occurred when Clyde rolled over gently in slow-motion and
Bonnie's arm dangled unnaturally and then stopped moving; Bonnie's
flowing blonde hair, streaked in sunlight and gently blowing in the
breeze, cascaded down in many arcs as she hung out of the car
The Infamous Ballet of Blood
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- the last fractured image was viewed as the group
of police approached the bullet-ridden car and the corpses on the
ground (off-screen); the final shot was a shattered car window
from a bullet hole - before a rapid cut to black
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Bonnie Parker's Introduction
Clyde: "We rob banks!"
C.W. Moss: "A 4-cylinder Ford Coup-e"
Bullet Damage During Botched Robbery
"We're in the Money"
Picture-Taking
Ranger Capt. Hamer (Denver Pyle)
"Good Afternoon, This is the Barrow Gang!"
Bonnie's Poem-Reading
After-Sex: "You did just perfect"
The Final Image
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