The start of the movie has bonnie meet Clyde trying to steal her car, then like sane people do they go on a date together. Bonnie realizes what she has gotten herself into and can’t exactly decide if this is what she wants or not. As the movie goes on the viewer can see the main characters go further into the hole of robbing, murder and their fame. The viewer gets to see Clyde’s crazy family where everyone is a vigilante and has gone to jail along with him. The gang grew more and more successful in bank rubbering and became super famous for their crimes. As they continue through their true emotions and flaws start to show, which causes some turmoil in the group or gang. When Bonnie finally reunites with her mom; she is disappointed with her and tells not to come back or she’ll wind up dead. The firefights get worse and the gang eventually get picked of one by one leading to the capture of Bonnie and Clyde.

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This movie was one of the first to have a strong female character that literally had a killer instinct, and didn’t take no for an answer. This strong depiction of a woman was something out of the ordinary in the movies back then and inspired other companies to do the same.

The movie was a conventional movie because of the well known actors and director. This paired with the above average shooting made for a really good movie. The special effects is a little outdated, for example the driving wasn’t very realistic which is understandable. Most of the movies reviews either loved it for its creativity and over the top violence or hated it for this exact reason. I think this movie definitely needed the violence in order to successfully portray the situation they were in and the lifestyle they lived. One reviewer said that they thought Bonnie and Clyde had excess violence but when she re-watched it the violence seemed to be pretty tame and necessary in order to paint the picture.

At the time civil rights protests and movements were on the rise and this movie directly impacted these. Luke Buckmaster from BBC said “Its director, Arthur Penn, intended the shot dipicting a part of Clyde’s being blown away by a bullet to remind audiences of the JFK assassination, provides some indication of the creative mentality.” This scene definitely impacted the feelings of the crowd because of the current events.

Due to the extreme violence in the movie the rating system had to change. It had to become more liberal meaning it gave more leeway to what the film was able to show in terms of violence. Films had not seen people get shot like in this one, for example the video of Bonnie and Clyde receiving their swift death. The rain of bullets would later be used in movies about gangs like The Godfather and Scarface.

This movie was well received and got many high ratings from most critiques back when it came out. The film had a European and traditional American film making style, which helped everyone to enjoy this movie. Critiques of today still hold this movie to a hagh standard and claim that it was a innovative story that many movies took inspiration from. Although most people liked it, there were a few people who found the violence shocking and decided to bash its reputation for it. Despite the few conservative critiques hating it, the people went to the box office to see it and it made about $23 million at the box office.

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Frank Hamer the Texas ranger they captured in the film wasn’t actually accurately portrayed in the film. In the film he was captured by Clyde and humiliated by the group he rolled with. After this he sought vengeance and tracked them down eventually killing them at Gibsland, Louisiana. The actual ranger was drawn out of retirement and never interacted with them before taking their lives. Because of this his family sued the producer for defamation of character and settling out of court.

The violence and story made for a historical film that is still remembered 50 years later. The characters along with the thrilling ride the audience is taken through helped boost this movie past being just popular for a short time. The compelling true story and current events made people love and connect on a personal level to the amazing characters in Bonnie and Clyde, because of this we are studying it in film class.