Even though they were released in the same decade, A Hard Day’s Night (1964) and Bonnie and Clyde (1967), these films are as different as they come.

A Hard Day’s Night is a French New Wave film and is considered to be a B-movie.  It’s basically a film that promoted the music of The Beatles with a splash of slapstick humor. It’s filming style was very different from all of the mainstream movies that were being released in the early 1960’s. The film was released in the age of color yet, it was in black and white. It was also deemed unique for it’s editing style with all of the jump cuts and unconventional camera angles. An excerpt about the filming style from an academic journal by David E. James states, “Hard Day’s Night finale employs multiple camera locations and movement and rapid editing that together create a visual equivalent for the music’s energy” Academic Journal . Here is a clip of the scene that was mentioned:

A Hard Day’s Night was also known for it’s humor and it was almost too cheesy in my opinion.  A New York Times movie review by Bosley Crowther claims that the film’s humor “tickles the intellect and electrifies the nerves” (New York Times Review).

As for Bonnie and Clyde, a unique love story with a twist,  it had some elements of The French New Wave but, it was considered to be the film that started the New Hollywood. It follows the story of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow and all of their antics including robbing banks, stealing cars, and killing people. It was a unconventional film at the time of it’s release because of it’s combination of violence and romance.  Peter Krämer’s eBook claims that the film had more success than they were intending and it became a cultural phenomenon. There is also a lot of humor that the director, Arthur Penn, decided to throw into the film.  Bosley Crowther for the New York Times  states, “It is a cheap piece of bald-faced slapstick comedy that treats the hideous depredations of that sleazy, moronic pair as though they were as full of fun and frolic as the jazz-age cutups in Thoroughly Modern Millie” (New York Times Review). You can see what Crowther means by watching the trailer below:

Bonnie and Clyde Trailer

As I compare these two films, I can see some of the similarities between the two. First off, music plays a huge element in some of the more intense scenes in the films. In A Hard Day’s Night, whenever the band was being chased by screaming fans, there was always a Beatles track playing. In Bonnie and Clyde, whenever they were being chased by the police, there was always a fast paced, southern style song that would feature a banjo, which was a little bit comical because it would happen in almost every chase scene. I also noticed that both films are considered to be unconventional because they both feature some unique styles of jump cuts and for Bonnie and Clyde, gore. An article from Vanity Fair claims , “It had an unprecedented amount of violence for a studio film of that era” (Vanity Fair).  These two films are also both known for their style because at the time of their releases, these types of movies were not considered to be mainstream films. 

I will say that these two films did keep me interested. There were some things I really liked about each film and of course there were things that I disliked, like the ending for Bonnie and Clyde , but that is a story for another day. I can tell why these films received so much buzz at the time and I don’t think that buzz will ever die.