Thoughts on the Movie
The 1967 movie Bonnie and Clyde is a classic film and justifiably so. It’s a great movie about a couple of bank robbers who happened to be named Bonnie and Clyde, but it’s not a great movie about Bonnie and Clyde, if that makes sense. A lot of adaptations are more reflective of the time period they were created in than the time period they are depicting, and that is especially true with this movie. It doesn’t shed much light on the reality of the 1930s, but it perfectly captures the attitudes and aesthetics of the late 1960s, though it does mercifully avoid obviously 1960s fashions and hairstyle. The result is a movie that is relentlessly entertaining and stylish.
This movie definitely takes the glamorous outlaws approach, and this Bonnie and Clyde (as depicted by Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty) are incredibly glamorous in their sharp 1930s fashions and cool 1930s cars. There are some hints about the misery of the Great Depression, but their main incentive for their crime spree is sheer boredom with everyday life.
Overall, there are little moments throughout that are accurate–an occasional Easter egg for the historically-minded–but the overall characterizations are not accurate. For instance, Clyde limps because he chopped off some of his toes to get out of prison work details, which is accurate, but there is no mention of the devastating injuries that left Bonnie a near-invalid after a car crash. It is also true that they had a penchant for kidnapping law enforcement officers and driving around with them for awhile before releasing them unharmed, but they never once kidnapped and humiliated the fearsome former Texas Ranger who ultimately led the cops who killed them. And it is true that the Barrow gang loved to take pictures of themselves clowning around and that Bonnie liked to write poetry, but it isn’t true that they then sent their pictures and poems to the press. (The movie does get their desire for fame right, though.)
That’s not to say that the performances are not wonderful–Beatty and Dunaway are great. They both have charisma and chemistry with each other and manage to be likable, despite doing some really unlikable things. They just aren’t the real Bonnie and Clyde, who were considerably less glamorous.
My favorite performance in the movie has to be Gene Hackman as Clyde’s freewheeling brother Buck, who finds himself drawn into his younger sibling’s misdeeds and has a corny joke for all occasions. In fact, my favorite moments in the movie are the domestic ones where Bonnie and Clyde have to endure Buck’s obnoxious wife, and petty jealousies and rivalries are the order of the day. There’s also a great bit part from another Gene–Gene Wilder–as a civilian who finds himself kidnapped and joyriding with the Barrow gang.
It’s a fun movie (and rightly considered one of the most influential of its time). I hadn’t seen it in years before re-watching it recently, but I was surprised how memorable so many of the scenes were. I generally have a poor memory of things I haven’t watched in so long, but there were numerous scenes and characters that had stayed in my mind for years. But as with pretty much any Hollywood production, don’t look for history here. The real story of Bonnie and Clyde was a lot grimmer and far too complex to fit into a feature-length film.
The verdict: The book wins this hands-down. It’s an exhaustive but highly readable and fair account of two of America’s most famous criminals. However, that’s not to say that the movie isn’t also good. It is a wonderfully entertaining film–just don’t mistake it as history.
As always, if you’re interested in either of these items, just follow this link to our online library catalog.
Who is your favorite nonfiction writer? What’s your favorite movie about a famous person? Which Depression-era outlaw do you find most interesting? Tell us in the comments!
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