Luis A. Lei
Eng 102
Professor Lee Goldberg
Mixture at its best!
Bonnie and Clyde is a movie that is nothing like a movie. It does not have a
definable genre expect for “masterpiece” and does not have characters living a heroic and
apparently immortal life in the classical sense of Hollywood blockbusters. It is not filmed
in an adrenaline rush that shortens a two hours film into something that feels like a
minute of flashy stimulus, and neither does it portray an ending that surrenders to the
viewer’s desire and pleasure. It is a movie that confirms its presence vigorously, capable
of surviving the test of time and the variety of tastes. It is one of those few weird films
that actually leave you thinking and reflecting once you walk out of the room. Arthur
Penn finds the perfect mix of violence, comedy, romance, drama and suspense to keep us
all marveled from start to finish.
When asked about what would be the best place and activity for a first date, few
girls would have for answer armed robbery in a grocery store. Despite the apparent
violent and immoral aspect of such an activity, the movie uses this scene as a way for
Bonnie to confirm Clyde’s words when he introduces himself as an ex-convicted. It is
portrayed almost as a comedic romance, in which two youthful kids are challenging and
flirting with each other, unaware of the seriousness of their actions. Touching Clyde’s
shining gun for the first time, Bonnie breaks her mesmerized look and says provocatively:
“I bet you wouldn't have the gumption to use it”. Realizing that telling her about his
criminal history, the chopped toes and showing a gun was not enough to impress her,
Clyde walks into the grocery and emerges with the proof of his masculinity. They then
run away in a stolen car, and while starting the engine they both introduce to each other,
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Luis A. Lei
Eng 102
Professor Lee Goldberg
with Bonnie finally letting her guard down. The jubilant smile on both faces and the
music that follows are the ignition of a movie that will have progressively less comedy as
the story advances towards its end.
Clyde finds himself trapped in a dramatic and violent whirlwind that grows out of
his control. “He tried to kill me. Why'd he try to kill me? I didn't want to hurt him”. After
a man tries to smash a meat-cleaver onto him, it is obvious what an innocent and narrow
view he has about the business he carries on. It is not until he takes the first of many lives
that he wakes up to the real danger of the situation they are in. “Now, so far, nobody
knows who you are but they know who I am and they'll be after me and anybody who's
with. And that's murder. Now it's going to get. I can't get out, but right now you still can.
I want you to say the word to me and I'll put you on that bus back to your mama because
you mean a lot to me, and I ain't going to make you run with me.” He urges Bonnie to
leave, yet feels relieved when she refuses. This is the first time their relationship is put
out to test, and will be the last time he offers her a way out.
As Bonnie and Clyde start to feel the consequences of their choices, the drama of
a life on the run, away from family and friends, increases consistently tense. The bond
that keeps them together is put onto test again, this time with its weaknesses and
fragilities coming to the surface. “How'd you like to go walking into the dining room of
the Adolphus Hotel in Dallas wearing a nice silk dress and have everybody waiting on
you?” Bonnie realizes that the promised lifestyle is never going to happen, and reality
settles in with an overwhelming force. She also lets her sexual frustration out: “The only
special thing about you is your peculiar ideas about love-making which is no love-
making at all”. That added to the constant interference by the presence of Buck and
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Luis A. Lei
Eng 102
Professor Lee Goldberg
Blanche, Clyde’s attitude of siding with them, and the accumulated fear and tiredness,
result in Bonnie trying to escape from him. As the cloud cuts the sun from the cornfield,
Clyde cuts life away from Bonnie. The failure of this attempt finally seals their fate
together.
The anxiety over their impending doom reaches a peak and then evaporates into
thin air when they meet with Bonnie’s mama. “I don't have no mama. No family either.
You know, when we started out I thought we were really going somewhere. But this is it.
We're just going, huh?” After what seemed to be their symbolic funeral Bonnie accepts
her destiny, and finally relaxes a little. With Buck dead and Blanche into custody, the
suspense reaches its climax. Rather than asking ourselves what will happen to these two,
we wonder when it is going to finally happen. Violent scenes come one after the other,
restlessly hunting the fugitives. Holding our breath until the very last scenes, we witness
how the highly anticipated events turn out. The considered by some as a “flat” ending
does nothing but to trigger a flashback in our mind about the life of the two bodies
dancing at the rhythm of the bullets. The sudden cut followed by a black screen reminds
us about the humbling nature of death, and the lack of glory in it. People die, and the
natural protein compounds we are made of will go back to the earth. Death is simply
death, and there is not much to see in there. It is in what people do in life where we will
find the best stories, the glories and tragedies, dramas and comedies.
While considered confusing and unnecessarily complex for simple minds,
“Bonnie and Clyde” would merely be an idealized version of a mouse-cat-like chase
without this carefully crafted screenplay. Some may praise how it is in the vanguard of
the violent films of the time; others may only appreciate another aspect of it. The fact is
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Luis A. Lei
Eng 102
Professor Lee Goldberg
that there is a little for everybody’s taste. Penn accomplishes what only few can do; set
the pace for future films and transform a movie into a legend. More than forty years after
its making, this combination of comedy, drama, action, violence, romance and suspense
has allowed the film to retain far more of its original beauty than that of Faye Dunaway’s.
“Bonnie and Clyde” is, in short, mixture at its best.
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