Murderers in Love

The Tale of Bonnie and Clyde

There have been every kind of love story made; the prince that saves the princess from the tower, the cowboy that rides off with the woman off into the sunset, the two people from feuding families.  Bonnie and Clyde is a crime romance film based on the Barrow Gang, a gang of infamous 1930s  bank robbers that were led by romantic couple Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow and there adventures in the gang as a couple.

The movie opens up with Bonnie meeting Clyde when she catches him trying to carjack her mom’s car.   From there, they add C.W. moss to their gang as a getaway driver. There is a robbery with a slow getaway that results in a man being killed. Clyde’s brother, Buck, and Buck’s wife, Blanche, meet up with Bonnie Clyde and C.W. After a shootout with the police happens in the house they’re staying at, Buck and Blanche join the gang.  They hold a police officer hostage that tries to arrest them but ultimately release him.  For the remainder of the film, the gang robs banks and gets into shootouts with the police, the first of which results in Buck getting mortally injured and Blanche gets injured causing her to lose her sight. After spending some time with C.W’s father, he rats out Bonnie and Clyde and the film ends with them getting killed police in a drive-by shooting.

One of the problems I had with the film was the characters weren’t relatable or likable. These characters would kill and torment people and the only emotion they’d feel was worry over the fear that they might be arrested. The exception to this was Clyde who seemingly felt pride with how he was getting away with these crimes, saying, “And [the police] ain’t gonna catch us, cause I’m even better at running than I am at robbing banks.” If the film was fictional and not based on real criminals, I feel that it would have been a little more likable since people wouldn’t have been really killed over this and by glorifying these characters it is an insult to the families of the victims of those killed by the barrow gang. In the New Yorker article, “Bonnie and Clyde,“ the writer states, ” In 1967, the movie-makers know that the audience wants to believe—maybe even prefers to believe—that Bonnie and Clyde were guilty of crimes, all right, but that they were innocent in general; that is, naïve and ignorant compared with us. ” (Kael, 1967) The movie fails to paint these characters as the evil criminals that they are and instead paints them as everyday people just looking for a little adventure in life to try and make them relatable when in reality they were horrible people. A really prevalent example of the writers trying to  make these characters seem sympathetic was shown in this scene.

The director, Arthur Penn, argued that these characters were not that horrible because of this scene in this interview. He explains that because the characters were going through economic struggles, they were somewhat justified in their crimes.

Clyde tries to help these people feel better about themselves since they are currently struggling financially due to The Great Depression. By showing Clyde helping these depressed people feel better, the writers try to make him seem like a sympathetic anti-hero. This contradicts the whole idea that these people are selfish and don’t really care about anyone but themselves. They don’t care about who they hurt or kill as long as they succeed in robbing banks.

The trailer for this film continues to make the issues seem a lot lighter than they should be treated.

The characters names are shown in fun, vibrant colors to portray the adventurous tone that the producers for the film are trying to create when it should be treated more darker since it is handling darker subjects; although this might be because having color was fairly new to films and therefore the producers were probably a little too excited that they could use it.

I feel that this film was a very conventional film. The plot was very easy to follow with a repeated pattern of the characters robbing banks and getting in shootouts for the entirety of the movie. In addition, the cast was pretty well known with the exception of Gene Wilder who had his acting debut in this movie and wasn’t as well known yet. It does have some unconventional themes however by having villainous main characters.

Overall I would say I liked the film. While I wasn’t a fan of how it was making light of all the murders the gang committed, it had some good humor such as when they tried to rob a bank only to find out that the bank had closed three weeks ago. I do wish however that the main characters weren’t relatable as I feel that goes against the idea that they are bad people. While I understand that the director felt they were sympathetic, I feel that it is more important for films to convey things the way they really are.