I wish I could get on the 'we love "Bonnie and Clyde"' bandwagon. But I cannot. I found its paint-by-numbers storytelling style boring and predictable.
Based upon the lives of depression-era criminals Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker, the film routinely shows us how they met, lived and eventually came to their undignified doom.
Certainly, the Oscar winning colour cinematography of Burnett Guffey is breathtaking, the recreation of the thirties depression era superb, an excellent musical score adds immeasurably to the film's ambiance and the acting of the supporting characters is stellar. Sadly however, that's it for me. I found Warren Beatty's Clyde Barrow was forced and unconvincing, with Faye Dunaway's Bonnie Parker less depression thirties than hippie sixties.
Unfortunately, I also did not see much in the way of on screen chemistry between the two leads. For me they were more like a couple of limp lettuce well past their best before date. Only Gene Hackman's good-old-boy brother Buck, Estelle Parsons near- hysterical wife Blanche, and most especially Michael J. Pollard's quirky C. W. Moss add any spark to their characters.
"Bonnie and Clyde" is not exactly a time waster, but do also check out Joseph H. Lewis's 1949 black and white, totally fictional cheapie "Gun Crazy" for a vastly more satisfying take on the B & C story. For this commentator it is far more interesting, with the on screen chemistry of Peggy Cummins' Laurie Starr and John Dahl's Bart Tare threatening to ignite everything around them. Indeed, total conflagration in the Lewis film may only have been avoided because the director had to sanitize his movie past the prissy Hays office.
No, "Gun Crazy" may not have the opulence or graphic violence of the Arthur Penn/WarrenBeatty (who produced) collaboration, but it makes up for it in so many other ways.
Based upon the lives of depression-era criminals Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker, the film routinely shows us how they met, lived and eventually came to their undignified doom.
Certainly, the Oscar winning colour cinematography of Burnett Guffey is breathtaking, the recreation of the thirties depression era superb, an excellent musical score adds immeasurably to the film's ambiance and the acting of the supporting characters is stellar. Sadly however, that's it for me. I found Warren Beatty's Clyde Barrow was forced and unconvincing, with Faye Dunaway's Bonnie Parker less depression thirties than hippie sixties.
Unfortunately, I also did not see much in the way of on screen chemistry between the two leads. For me they were more like a couple of limp lettuce well past their best before date. Only Gene Hackman's good-old-boy brother Buck, Estelle Parsons near- hysterical wife Blanche, and most especially Michael J. Pollard's quirky C. W. Moss add any spark to their characters.
"Bonnie and Clyde" is not exactly a time waster, but do also check out Joseph H. Lewis's 1949 black and white, totally fictional cheapie "Gun Crazy" for a vastly more satisfying take on the B & C story. For this commentator it is far more interesting, with the on screen chemistry of Peggy Cummins' Laurie Starr and John Dahl's Bart Tare threatening to ignite everything around them. Indeed, total conflagration in the Lewis film may only have been avoided because the director had to sanitize his movie past the prissy Hays office.
No, "Gun Crazy" may not have the opulence or graphic violence of the Arthur Penn/WarrenBeatty (who produced) collaboration, but it makes up for it in so many other ways.