470. Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

Running Time: 112 minutes
Directed By: Arthur Penn
Written By: David Newman, Robert Benton
Main Cast: Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, Gene Hackman, Michael J. Pollard, Estelle Parsons

LOOKOUT FOR THE BARROW GANG!

For those of you with a sturdy memory, you'll remember that prior to my hiatus I made the announcement that this set of 100 films would be thick with movies from the decade of the 60s. Well we're sticking to those guidelines and "Bonnie and Clyde" fits right in. Since my Netflix will be on hold until tomorrow, I was once again forced into the waiting arms of my DVD shelf and it's worth noting that this film was not brought into the DVD collection by me, but rather my wife. Let's see what I think of her purchase.

The plot is basically a biography of the escapades of Bonnie Parker (Dunaway) and Clyde Barrow (Beatty). The film starts out by showing us the humdrum life of Ms. Parker as she prepares for another day as a waitress at a local truck stop. On her way to work she notices a man trying to break into her mother's car and calls him on it. It's, of course, Clyde and the two strike up a conversation. Bonnie is more excited by the fact that Clyde was about to commit grand theft auto and becomes even more excited when she learns that Clyde has just been paroled from prison and is a known thief. Although at first she doesn't believe Clyde, he promptly proves his thievery skills by holding up a grocery store. Later, Clyde convinces Bonnie to come on the road with him, where they'll be bandits, eluding the law, robbing banks and living high on the hog, because after all, in Clyde's eyes Bonnie deserves the best. Eventually they add to their gang of two, by recruiting service station attendant C.W. Moss (Pollard), Clyde's brother Buck (Hackman) and his wife Blanche (Parsons). The quintet make national headlines and are hunted by every sheriff and policeman within a reasonable radius.

SPOILER ALERT!

This was a film that I really had mixed feelings about, so lets take a look at the good, before we focus in on the bad. For starters, I would say that all of the actors involved did a good job, with Gene Hackman and Estelle Parsons getting my personal nod of approval for best performances of the entire film. Estelle Parsons was just so damn annoying and batty that you couldn't help but get a little kick out of her and Gene Hackman is someone that I've always been a fan of and this film was a fine example of his greatness. Beatty and Dunaway did fine too, with Dunaway actually being quite terrific and perfect for the role of Bonnie. She looked stunning as she paraded around in her signature cloth hat, with bright red lipstick and 60s style regalia. The other really memorable and pretty much perfect thing about this film is the end, when Bonnie and Clyde are ultimately hunted down and murdered and the scene is exquisite, using quick cuts to different angles to build the tension and make it clear to us, the audience, that something is about to go down. When the bullets finally start flying, it's as if death staged a brutal ballet and it was gruesome and gorgeous, all at the same time.

What I didn't care for about this film, was basically everything else. It's not really that I didn't like it, it's just that I didn't care for it one way or another. The whole film seemed to really give me that *meh* feeling and it's as if what I was watching wasn't really all that special at all. For a film about thieves and criminals and a gang of misfits on the run from the law, we really don't see THAT MUCH thieving or running. For the most part we just kind of hang out with the Barrow gang and observe them and at times it gets a little boring. Granted, we do see some chase scenes and a few heist scenes, but they never last long and it's no time before we're watching the gang interact some more, Bonnie screaming at Blanche or Buck and Clyde fooling around. The bottom line is that while there is nothing really BAD on display here, I'd say there's also nothing very stellar either (save for the ending and certain performances).

RATING: 6.5/10 Not good, not bad, but rather, lingering somewhere in that middle ground.

MOVIES WATCHED: 330
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 671

October 12, 2011 7:18pm