Bonnie and Clyde film was released in 1967, is an American biographical crime film directed by Arthur Penn and starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway as the title characters Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker.

The film tells a modify story of the real Bonnie and Clyde. In the middle of the Great Depression, Clyde Barrow (Warren Beatty) and Bonnie Parker (Faye Dunaway) meet when Clyde tries to steal Bonnie’s mother’s car. Bonnie, who is bored by her job as a waitress, is intrigued by Clyde, and decides to take up with him and become his partner in crime. They pull off some holdups, but their amateur efforts, while exciting, are not very lucrative.

How does the need to make money from movies affect what movies get made? In almost all the films, money is everything. Bonnie and Clyde’s movie is based on a real life story. These two characters where famous back in day’s, some people used to love them and others not that much. They were compared with Robin Hood, because they were gentile with the poors and they only rob the rich or those who considered bad. The tragic story of Bonnie and Clyde became so famous that many people defended them and believed that the death of both had been unfair, comparing them with the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet.

Seeing what the public thought about this couple, the producers decided to make some changes to the real story, they create a story that the public was going to love and sold it to them, being a total success.

So, going back to the initial question, How does the need to make money from movies affect what movies get made? The need of money defines all, in this case, based on the expectations of the public is how they made all. They gave the public what they wanted.

Although we see Bonnie using a gun constantly in the film, in real life, Bonnie didn’t used a guns. Historic data says that she never used a gun and unlike the movie, in real life, Bonnie did not participate in most of the robberies.

While I was reading articles from the movie and before watching it, I found an interesting opinion of an academic resource written by J. Hoberman.

He said:                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           “Bonnie and Clyde encouraged laughing at sadism and murder [but] eventually repels you, and makes you angry or ashamed at having had your emotions manipulated”

The first time I read it, I thought I would agree, but after watching the movie I realized that I differed with his opinion. While i was watching the film I laughed and had a good time, I never felt embarrassed for laughing at sadism and comedy and I did not feel that my emotions had been manipulated.

After analyze for a while, the why of my reaction I came to the conclusion that the difference between both opinions (mine and Hobberman) is due to the time.  He wrote this article in 1998, 20 years ago.

The films change with the passage of time and with it, their style too. We live in a time where seeing deaths and explicit killings is not a big deal, we are accustomed to violence in the movies that we do not get a great impression. But years ago, this was not so, the violence was more moderate and not as explicit as it is today.

The film made Bonnie and Clyde more famous, making people interested in their lives.

Part of the controversy over the death of Bonnie and Clyde centers on the fact that today, in the United States, the police give the detainee the possibility to surrender peacefully before firing even in extremely dangerous situations unless there is a threat of immediate death. In this respect, the Supreme Court commented in the case of Tennessee versus Garner in 1985 that:

“The fourth article prohibits the use of force to prevent a flight of a suspect unless the flight, in the opinion of the officer, involves a danger of death or injury to the officer or his own.”

The New Waves movement emerged at the end of the 1950s. The term was first used by a group of French film critics and cinephiles associated with the magazine Cahiers du cinéma in the late 1950s and 1960s. Bonnie and Clyde’s film is influenced by this movement.

Personally, I really enjoyed the film, I laughed and had a nice moment. I learned new things that happened in history and I learned to see things or at least understand a perspective different from mine.

I enjoyed the acting of almost everybody, the only character that I didn’t tolerate was Blanche Barrows, she was super irritating. But I have to give credits to the actress, her performance was very good.

Hey, boy! What are you doing stealing my mother’s car?

They will fall together someday, together they will bury them. And although some regret it, many will celebrate it. For Bonnie and Clyde the end will have arrived