FILM
Bonnie and Clyde directed by Arthur Penn at the Brattle Theatre February 14 at 4:00 and 7:45 pm
For the current college-age generation, watching "Bonnie and Clyde" is a little bit like traveling back in time. It features Faye Dunaway, Warren Beatty, Gene Hackman and Gene Wilder, long members of the Hollywood annals of stardom, in one of their debut performances. It also provides the escapistoutlaw inspiration for some contemporary faves like "Thelma and Louise" and "A Perfect World." But the outlaw-chase film is at its very best with "Bonnie and Clyde."
The film is masterful in all its tactics: use of theme, imagery, camera angle and metaphor. What better way to situate the story of romantic outlaws than to contrast their vivacity with the stark barrenness of the Depression and Dust Bowl 1930's. The initial fire that sweeps up Bonnie Parker (Faye Dunaway) and Clyde Barrow (Warren Beatty) is cooled when they run into early troubles at the start of their escapades. The first bank they try to rob together has gone bankrupt. They stop at a local person's farmstead and finding that the bank has foreclosed upon it, they use the sign for target practice.
Their zig-zag escapades from the Midwest to the Southwest make "Bonnie and Clyde" an adventure flick in the style of a pioneer Western. As Clyde and Bonnie travel, they move farther and farther from civilization and its attendant rules. In their travels they pick up C.W. Post (Michael J. Pollard), a gas station attendant, Clyde's brother-in-law, Buck (Gene Hackman), and his wife Blanche (Estelle Parsons), a nag and complainer who puts a damper on the group's free-wheeling fun. She is a constant reminder of the boredom and drudgery of the world that Bonnie and Clyde are trying to flee.
The group have their admirers as well as their despisers (the law, justice, order and the very sheepish-looking sheriffs, who are being outsmarted.) Once, when pulling off a bank heist, Clyde spares the savings of an old man, who has just made a withdrawal. When later interviewed by the police, the man proclaims: "Well, they did right by me. Me and the misses will be at their funeral."
But when Bonnie gets homesick and stops in to see her mother, she gets a very different reaction. In a surreal set of scenes that are clouded with an overexposed haze, the mother quickly turns away after kissing her daughter and somberly says, "Goodbye, you better keep on running." It's each to his own, just like in the days of the wild, wild West when rugged individualism was the name of the game.
The screen chemistry between Dunaway and Beatty is achieved by both their excellent character portrayals and the cinematography. At the beginning, Bonnie pounds on the window out of sheer boredom. Her call is immediately answered with a view of Clyde, who is contemplating stealing her mother's car. When their glance meet through the window, the moment seals their fate. Quick shots of Bonnie's deft strokes as she flawlessly applies her lipstick, Clyde's cocksure grin as he displays his gun to prove his claim as a bankrobber, and the target practice, where Clyde teaches Bonnie to shoot through a tire swing are only the beginning of the sexual imagery that punctuates the film.
The dynamic o the travelling Barrow robber gang is also a fantastic exploration in love, friendship and trust. The trust that keeps the group going and the deceit that is their ultimate demise is a reminder that youth, and excitement (and ultimately any moment) are never everlasting. The viewer realizes the partnership between Bonnie and Clyde is only as strong as fortuitous circumstance allows. "Bonnie and Clyde" bears this "carpe-diem" message in a most vibrant, electric way.
"Bonnie and Clyde" is playing at the Brattle on Valentine's Day but don't let that fool you into thinking that it is a sappy, tender love story. It is not. This classic is a comic-tragic-chase-adventure story that will appeal to any February 14th moviegoer.
