Bonnie and Clyde

It is weird to think that a movie like Bonnie and Clyde would have been unacceptable if it had been put into theaters even a couple years earlier. The type of violence that shocked audiences when they first saw it in 1967 and caused critics to rate the movie R is common now in just about every PG-13 action movie nowadays. Although the shootouts depicted in Bonnie and Clyde are very violent, most people would consider them tame compared to what is presented action movies to audiences now. Nowadays, it is not uncommon to see people get torn up by bullets or get shot and scream in agony while blood sprays everywhere. It is odd to think that there was a first time that some audiences experienced that.

Bonnie and Clyde - 8
Clyde Barrows Death Scene
Two undercovers getting shot up in 21 Jump Street

Even comedies, meant to make the audience laugh not excited have scenes much more violent than Bonnie and Clyde. 21 Jump Street, a classic comedy movie has a bloody shootout scene. At point, as shown in the second picture above, two characters get riddled with bullets the same way Bonnie and Clyde do at the ending of the movie. In a much bloodier fashion though.  A scene such as the one in that one would not have been acceptable for the general masses at the time Bonnie and Clyde came out. Even the most violent scene of Bonnie and Clyde only shows light gore for a split second. The screenshot shown above, shows a moment where Clyde is riddled with bullets and part of his brain is shot out. It sounds gruesome but it is a blink and you will miss it moment. Directly after it cuts back to Clyde and Bonnie getting hit with bullets, although with minimal blood, and the two of them flopping around a bit until they are both dead. In comparison, the two gunned down in the scene from 21 Jump Street shows one of the two getting viciously shot through his neck and then the two getting riddled with bullets in a similar fashion to Bonnie and Clyde. In this scene though blood spurs everywhere and the movie shows the two characters on the floor dying, bleeding out and struggling to breathe. This sort of graphic scene would have absolutely appalled audiences had it been released 50 years before but when 21 Jump Street came out in 2012, it was accepted as regular action scene in a comedy.

When Bonnie and Clyde first came out, the box office even showed how tentative the American audience was. The movie flopped at first and only gained traction after a couple weeks. The film got incredibly popular after audiences had gotten acclimated to the idea of that much violence displayed in a movie. Not only did the movie change how the public viewed on screen violence, it changed the whole industry. A year after the movie came out, the Motion Picture Association of America introduced a new classification system in response to the movie. This system is in place still even today.

It is impressive this movie succeeded in such tumultuous time. Perhaps that is why it actually succeeded. At the time this movie came out, anti war protests were raging all around the country with much of the countries youth tired of the real life violence they were being forced to participate in. Maybe the reason why people appreciated this movie, was because it gave the freedom to view violence as a form of entertainment on the movie screen. If citizens were required to suffer through the real horrors of war, they should be free to see it as entertainment should they choose to enjoy it.

Bonnie and Clyde is a movie that divided audiences as well as critics. Critics such as Roger Ebert loved the movie and gave it a lot of praise. Ebert called it “…pretty clearly the best American film of the year.” However, some publications such as Time Magazine and Variety made their dislike for the move very clear in their reviews. By the next year though, opinions had shifted quite positively for Bonnie and Clyde. Many people changed their minds about the movie including Time Magazine who put them on their cover and included an article praising the movie.

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The new positive Time Magazine article

 

This movie paved the way and made many future classics possible. The number of classic movies featuring violence much more extreme than Bonnie and Clyde is great but had this movie not come out when it did who knows if we would have gotten classic movies such as Scarface, any of the Quentin Tarantino movies (especially Kill Bill), or Battle Royal. Although it was risky for the time to include such scenes as they did, it was a risk that changed the entire industry going forward and cemented the movie in history.

 

4 Comments

  1. Steele-Wetterer says:

    I do say that the film is much similar to what I have written. I do agree with the context written. I have learned almost the same thing about the same film that was written. I have leaned that the context is different then what I have written I my post.

  2. Soonph-Phansofa says:

    I agree that violence scenes in movies are now commonplace, but were rare in the 60s. You made a good point of how violence scenes are even shown in comedy movies nowadays. You mentioned how Time Magazine showed their distaste for the movie, but changed their opinion only a year later. It’s cool to learn how the media could change their opinions about a movie after hearing many other reviews.

  3. Barry-Matsushita says:

    Hey Luke, I like how you compared scenes Bonnie and Clyde to a more modern film that more people have probably seen such as 21 Jump Street. I learned that the public was not accustomed to violence in movies at the time of Bonnie and Clydes’ release. However, this portrays an important shift in films, moving towards more fast-paced action American-style films.

  4. Ashton-Brooks says:

    Hi Luke!
    You pointed out a lot of the differences between Bonnie and Clyde compared to PG-13 films of today’s era. This is so huge to acknowledge, because of the hypocrisy in the film industry during the ’60s, compared to now. I think that’s super important to remember for a wide number of reasons. The first one being, that violence was kind of looked down upon, but today violence is such a norm that childish violence can be seen in kids’ movies. Not anything super violent, but mild violence is prevalent in kids’ films as well.

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