D:Â Arthur Penn
Warner Bros./Tatira-Hill (Warren Beatty)
USA 🇺🇸 1967
111 mins
Â
Crime/Biopic
Â
W:Â David Newman & Robert
Benton
DP:Â Burnett Guffey
Ed: Dede Allen
Mus: Charles Strouse
PD: Dean Tavoularis
Cos: Theadora Van Runkle
Â
Warren Beatty (Clyde Barrow), Faye
Dunaway (Bonnie Parker), Michael J. Pollard (C. W. Moss), Gene Hackman (Buck Barrow), Estelle Parsons (Blanche), Denver Pyle
(Frank Hamer), Dub Taylor (Ivan Moss), Gene Wilder (Eugene Grizzard)
Â
A romanticised biopic of the most infamous and
notorious criminal partnerships of the 20th century, almost glorifying the duo as Robin Hood-types and omits certain characteristics (Clyde's homosexual tendencies, for example) but keeps
the bare bones of the pair and their gang's misdeeds reasonably faithful.
All the performances are excellent (Beatty, Dunaway
& Pollard have rarely been better) and Arthur Penn inventively directs, mixing the styles of a 1930's crime picture with comic slapstick of the same era (but in a tasteful
way).
Critically mailed on it's original release for
gratuitous violence (pale in comparison to today's standard), the movie remains an important and influencial piece of American cinema.