This has been in my queue for a couple of years. The fact that I just got around to it at the same time the horrible-looking mini-series is upon us is complete coincidence.Bonnie Parker (Faye Dunaway) is a bored Texas girl during the Depression. She meets handsome, charming, if a little dumb, Clyde Barrow (Warren Beatty) and sees him as her ticket to greatness. Together, they go on to be some of the most fearsome bank robbers America has ever seen. Joined by their mechanic, C. W. Moss (Michael J. Pollard), Clyde's brother Buck (Gene Hackman), and his wife Blanche (Estelle Parsons), the Barrows Gang cuts a swath of devastation across Texas, Oklahoma, Iowa, and Louisiana.
This was an incredibly stylish version of the warmer side of the Bonnie and Clyde folklore, the one that paints them as more Robin Hood-like than sociopathic spree killers. Here, they're railing against the injustice of the Depression, targeting the banks that took people's homes and served as a metaphor for losing everything. They were the spirit of the people made manifest, complete with Clyde's impotence and reliance on family, and Bonnie's frustrated scratching and clawing for a place of her own as an equal. She despises Blanche for wanting nothing more than to be a housewife, for lacking ambition. (Plus, Blanche is a shrieking harpy of a woman.)
This movie is widely considered a classic and for good reason. The tone stays light throughout but the darker elements lurk just beneath the surface.
No comments:
Post a Comment