Bonnie And Clyde Movie Essay

Chris Shea

Professor Deborah Spillman

CINE 201

03/03/16

Editing and Cuts in Bonnie and Clyde

In the 1967 Warner Bros. film Bonnie and Clyde, there are two very important shots and scenes which lead to the resolution at the very end of the film (Bonnie and Clyde’s ultimate death). These two shots and scenes mainly serve as foreshadowing of this untimely end to the movie’s two main characters (not necessarily protagonists).

The first of these scenes takes place where the Barrow gang is parked next to a lake as Clyde is out of the car. Multiple cross-shots are exchanged between the Clyde-less Barrow gang having a good time in the car and the Texas sheriff quietly approaching this car with his gun drawn. This goes on for 30 seconds in silence until Clyde yells “Sheriff!” and he apprehends

the Ranger.
The next few minutes of this scene are comprised of the Barrow gang heckling this handcuffed sheriff and taking pictures with him right behind the gang’s car.

But the most important point of this scene doesn’t come until later when Bonnie kisses him on the lips. The sheriff does not take too kindly to this action by Bonnie and he spits at her in the face.

I do not believe the sheriff cared too much about the Barrow gang that much until this very moment. At first he believed catching the Barrow gang was just a part of his job as a sheriff. But after Bonnie clearly showed social and sexual dominance over the handcuffed sheriff, he could not take this abuse anymore. Now his masculinity as a sheriff is in question. He is now forced to take this pursuit of the Barrow gang personally, for himself and his masculinity.

Another very important scene in the 1967 Warner Bros. film Bonnie and Clyde comes much later in the film. This one is more of a very quick shot than an actual scene however. It takes place in the street, where a citizen is trying to cross the road. A car quickly passes by this citizen to reveal a rater menacing appearance of the same sheriff the Barrow gang heckled in

Missouri.
The scene may seem a bit weird at first, but it actually serves a major function in the film’s plot: foreshadowing. Before this scene, CW Moss and his father Malcom are discussing CW’s involvement with the Barrow gang and Malcom is being very violent. But during this exchange, Malcom makes a point saying about working out a deal with the cops in exchange for a reduced sentence for CW. And then CW follows up this point by saying that nobody catches Bonnie and Clyde.
Connecting this exchange between Malcom and CW with this surreal cut in the street, it makes a substantial case for foreshadowing. The ultimate message this is trying to portray is that the citizens (Malcom) are going to be the ones to play cops in this case, it will be a citizen that will ultimately bring Bonnie and Clyde to justice.
And that is what happens in the final scene. Malcom is pulled over on the side of the road and waves down Bonnie and Clyde. The duo pulls over to say hello, and they ultimately encounter their final demise by being mowed down by cops who were waiting behind the bushes and in another truck. This was a real ‘wolf-in-sheep’s-clothing’ moment in this film; an unexpected yet fitting end to the robbery rampage of Bonnie and Clyde and the Barrow gang.