Bonnie and Clyde is a mixed genre film of true crime, drama and romance and it was released in 1967, It was directed by Arthur Penn and produced by Warren Beatty, distributed by Warner Bros. It starred Faye Dunaway as Bonnie Parker and Warren Beatty as Clyde Barrow.
The film, based in 1934, follows two young and in love adults Bonnie Parker, a waitress, and Clyde Barrow, a criminal who was just got out of prison and tells a story of what brings them together when they meet by chance in West Dallas, Texas. Bonnie is intrigued with Clyde's criminal past and his bravado in talking about it. Clyde sees in Bonnie 'someone sympatico to his goals in life' and they decide to join forces to become partners in crime, 'holding up whatever establishments, mainly banks, to make money and to have fun'. 'They're young... they're in love... and they kill people'. (IMDb)
Key features of Bonnie and Clyde include youth rebellion and youth counterculture, an issue that was present at the time of the film was the Vietnam war. This issue was strong in the minds of many people, it brought upon many civil rights movements and the emergence of a sexual and more rebellious youth, in comes Bonnie and Clyde.
Arthur Penn cleverly uses the destruction brought on by Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow with their Tommy Guns to 'convey the violence that was happening with the American
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Youths in the Vietnam War.' Penn is able to bring over messages from the true crime story set in the 30's, experiencing the Great Depression, to the 60's, in order to present the issues that were happening in America at the time of the film. He created the allusion of Bonnie and Clyde being gunned down in their youth to the youths that were American soldiers going over to Vietnam to fight a war that many American's were against, and it was a war that many young American men, of a very close age to Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, were being gunned down and murdered. This connection was made by those Americans who viewed the film and had many feelings towards the issue. "The Vietnam War and disintegration of civil society that accompanied it helped put the subject of violence on the national agenda in an urgent and ominous way." (Prince,127-47.) Penn was able to take what he saw happening in America and make a crime based story that was set in a different time and place and blend the issue into his film. The scene in the film where Bonnie reunites with her mother and family is important because it 'foreshadows the doomed future for Bonnie as well as the rest of the Barrow gang.' (Lu, Jenny) In this scene, 'the environment becomes dream like', portraying a sense of a phony environment, it shows that things aren't as simple as Bonnie sitting down with her family anymore, things have changed, just like America has changed. In this scene a bittersweet feeling develops due to multiple long camera shots as well as it being slow paced in comparison to the rest of the film. Bonnie and Clyde’s decision to take a dangerous and violent journey of crime in a time of great depression connotes that there will be no happy ending, that ultimately it will end in upset for the both of them. Authorities always come out on top. This is also shown where Clyde's first kill involves shooting a man in the eye and this is referenced at the end by Clyde's sunglasses having one lense blacked out, as if he only has one eye. This is when Clyde's doom became imminent. The opening scenes are lighthearted and strangely exciting, once you have learnt about the dangerous love story of Bonnie and Clyde. It started with 'Clyde's bravado' after Bonnie catches him trying to steal her mother's car, Although this should act as a repellent against Clyde, teenage rebellion was all the range, so was the freedom of sexuality. Instantly, Bonnie knows that Clyde is the means of her escape from this boring place. What he essentially supplies for her, for the hero-worshipping gang member C.W. Moss (Pollard) and for the eager newspaper readers who are waiting for something exciting and thrilling to read about, is the possibility of glamour and excitement in lives of drab poverty. "We're the Barrow Gang," Clyde says, introducing them at the beginning of a bank robbery, this way they'd be sure to be recognised and remembered, making it more exciting. One of the movie's most significant scenes comes as Clyde lends his gun to a deprived black man so he could shoot at a bank's foreclosure sign, which shows that for a movie that's "only" about a couple of outlaws, it hits on several other larger themes. Such as gender roles, class struggles and fractured families. 'There's also a socialist, anti-bank streak which was depicted when the gun was unloaded into the foreclosure sign.' In the 1960s, everything suddenly became sexualised due to sexual freedom and women and youth coming into their own. Penn plays on this social revolution and uses crime and sex as methods of achieving escape, in which the youth culture can relate to. In terms of Bonnie; we can see straight away from her nude introduction, to her suggestive drinking of the soda bottle and delicate, angelic like grasping of Clyde’s phallic weapon, that she likes to present herself as an insanely sexualised character. She is attracted to the criminality and dangerous nature of Clyde and sees it as a way to get out of her boring life in West Texas, even if she has to run from the law to do it. Here, the crime provides a means by which to escape the mundane and slow burning life and finally do something exciting and rebellious. Penn saw Bonnie as “a woman with an enormous appetite that was going ungratified - an appetite for identity, for sex, for contact with someone who brings with him an air of the exotic, something outside her tiny little town and tiny little job as a waitress” (Macnab, 58-9). Similarly to Bonnie and Clyde, Cool Hand Luke, released the same year as Bonnie and Clyde (1967) also presented themes of youth counterculture, rebellion and sexualised violence. In the 1960s, there was a prisoners' rights movement which aimed to give prisoners the rights they were denied. This applies to the counterculture of the 1960s in which "Cool Hand Luke" refused to conform to the socially acceptable conduct, as many other youths in that decade because youth rebellion was at an all time high. A man in the 60s, socially was supposed to get married and have children, but Luke couldn’t do that as he was in prison, as he resorted to crime just like Bonnie and Clyde. In American cinema, especially from the 1960s into the early 1970s, crime and sexuality were used to express a desire to rebel, to escape the economic and social insecurities and the urge to be independent, both Cool Hand Luke and Bonnie and Clyde portrayed this message, even though it often didn’t have a good ending, with Luke being shot in the neck by the authorities after being on the run and Bonnie and Clyde also being gunned down by the authorities. This symbolizes that youth counterculture rebellion is not appreciated in society and they will be shot down whenever possible to avoid an uprising. 'Cool Hand Luke. Hell, he's a natural-born world-shaker.' Youths related to this just like they related to the Greasers in the 50's, crime was becoming sexy. One of the scenes that is most recognisable in cinematographic history for graphic violence takes place when Bonnie and Clyde are gunned down in the overly-dramatic fashion at the end of the film. The couple is ambushed and ricochet with bullets as they drive down a road to their safe house, they stop for a man in order to help him, making the audience feel somewhat sorry for what they knew was about to happen. Both characters are shot many times and Bonnie shrieks as the bullets rip into her, Clyde rolls around on the floor and the dirt flies up in the air, the birds screech up into the sky and when the fire ends, the tragic story of Bonnie and Clyde came to an end. This scene is where violence in Hollywood became defined. Penn set the stage for the new genre of action and violent films as what happened in this scene had since been thought of as taboo. This scene strongly symbolized American youth being cut down by gunfire in their prime in the 60’s, in link to the Vietnam war. The final scene was explicitly using the 'french new wave style of cinema' (Lennon, Elaine).
The use of several jump cuts and the use of close ups quickly present the characters’ fear and acknowledgment of death and allows them to share one last gaze into each other’s eyes before they're gunned down. This technique allowed the emotion to sink in, in relation to Carl Plantiga's scene of empathy theory, we're made to feel somewhat sad for the criminal couple because their adventure has come to an end, even though they're criminals, they are relatable due to them wanting a bit of excitement during the great
depression. Bonnie's costuming throughout the whole of the film is sexualised with her low cut V neck tops that barely leaves anything to the imagination. Although she's wearing long skirts, her sexuality still shows through. Bonnie simultaneously embodies the feminine stereotypes and departs from it, because she is her own woman and this is evident especially considering that at the time of the film a sexual revolution really was happening, The film brings forth this idea of male and female equality, due to the wave of feminism happening at that time. For example, when Clyde shows Bonnie how to handle a gun, he helps her gain phallic power. Bonnie and Clyde is a film that presents the audience with a lot of the issues that were happening at the time of creation, Penn had created a definitive film of the 60s that appealed to all different audiences for all different reasons, whether that be the youth counterculture who relate to the excitement of crime and the disobeying of authority, or the authority who relate to the bringing down of folk devils. This film has a lot of messages and it became a landmark film. It had certain technical characteristics such as quick cuts, zooms, stylized photography, abrupt changes in mood and so on. Bonnie and Clyde is one of the first major American film to borrow its story and tone from the New Wave, It is a film to be remembered.
John Brown was a radical who believed he was led by god to evoke a war on pro-slavery activists and slave owners in order to diminish slavery. At the age of 59 Brown set out to put a team of anti-slavery abolitionist and free black men together, call them an army and execute his plan. However only 21 people enlisted mainly whites, 13, no slaves or free blacks joined. As surprising as this was to Brown it surprises me too. I wonder if the blacks were scared. Why didn’t they jump at every opportunity and chance to free those oppressed by the inhumane of slavery? Maybe they had their own plans to victory in the works. Brown still pursued his plan and went fourth with his 21 men. Although a follower of Christ, John believed the only way to overthrow
Bang! Pow! Bullets are raining down on the infamous Bonnie and Clyde. It is a standoff with the local police department. Bonnie and Clyde are in trouble again; robbing a liquor store of their cigarettes and their liquor. It seems as if Bonnie and Clyde were the greatest pair of criminals in history.
One major one that sticks out is discrimination. That was by far the most influential social problem in the movie. Everything revolved around discrimination in the movie. Not only was the main character a minority, due to his skin color, he was also mentally disabled. The opening scene is of him walking down the street in his down, and everyone veers away from him with looks of disgust. He never harmed anyone, ever, but people saw him as different, and therefore threatening. Also, later on in the movie, Radio was discriminated against by a new, local cop. It was Christmas time in the movie, and Radio had received many, many gifts from townspeople. He had decided that he didn 't need all of them, so he had loaded up a shopping cart, and was hand-delivering them to everyones porch step. The cop drove by, and noticed this ‘suspicious
To KIll A Mockingbird was written by Harper Lee in the 1950’s. She based this book of her own home town. Two characters in the book are Boo Radley and Mayella Ewell and they are very different people. Although the book does not tell us much about Boo, the end reveals a caring and thoughtful guy. Mayella on the other hand, is racist and “white trash”. Mayella and Boo are also similar because they are both not liked much in Maycomb.
Bonnie and Parker and Clyde Barrow were robbers,murderers,but were still Texas heroes as people still say. They were the unstoppable crime making machines. Stealing cars,robbing banks,what worse could they possibly do. They were the town gossip. What bank they robbed one night or what jail they escaped.
Three additional children followed Clyde’s birth, and the families financial difficulties worsened as the price for cotton bounced up and down. After some years the Barrow’s found it impossible to provide for their children and sent them to live with relatives in east Texas. At one relatives home Clyde developed two interests that remained with him to the end of hid life: a passion for music, and an obsession with guns. Even as Clyde drove along the lane in Louisiana to his death, he carried a saxophone and reams of sheet music, as well as an arsenal of firearms. Clyde loved and named his guns, and regarded them as tokens of his power.
“If it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends of justice, and mingle my blood further with the blood of my children and with the blood of millions in this slave country whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel, and unjust enactments-I submit; so let it be done.” Imagine this man as a person who decided to make a change in the world and fight for what is right. John Brown was one of the major abolitionists and had the audacity to achieve his many accomplishments. This paper will cover his early life, life as an abolitionist, later life with events that lead to his death, his last speech, including how it impacted many others, and how Harriet Tubman and John Brown were alike/not alike.
Bonnie Parker was born on the first day of October in 1910, in Rowena, Texas. Bonnie was an excellent student and the second of three children. An avid fan of Romance and Confession magazines, she wasn't the typical stereotype of a killer, much less a serial murderer. Standing at four foot ten inches, she married Roy Thornton. She got a tattoo on the inside of her thigh of two hearts with their names intertwined. But a year later they split up. She then went to visit a friend in West Dallas, were she came to meet Clyde Barrow.
With the end of prohibition, crime had become socially acceptable, and although Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were part of one of the most infamous crime groups in American history, there is an undeniable element of romanticization in their story. As a society, our fascination with this duo stems from the mystery of their lives, the time period they came out of, and the rationale behind the crimes they committed.
Bonnie Parker grew up with a normal childhood went to school every day was an above average student. She was born in Rowena Texas on October 10, 1910. Her father Charles Parker was a brick layer, but he died when bonnie was only four. After her father’s death the family moved in with her grandparents by Dallas Texas. She met Roy Thornton and soon after they got married, but Thornton got in trouble with the law and sentenced to five years in prison leaving bonnie on her own. She had a waitress job but was unhappy after Roy left. Until went to visit a friend in West Dallas where she then met Clyde Barrow. Clyde was born March 24, 1909 in Telico Texas. Clyde Barrow’s father was Henry Barrow who was a share cropper. He was one of eight children in the family. Clyde’s academics was anything but consistent. When his father quit farming the family moved to West Dallas which was were his dad opened a service shop. Clyde started high school but that was short lived he dropped out of school. Bonnie and Clyde met in West Dallas at a mutual friend’s house .Bonnie’s life prior to their crime spree was completely normal for a teenage high school student job at a café, showing no signs of becoming a notorious robber. Clyde on the other hand was the complete opposite. After dropping out of high school he went out with his brother selling stole...
In both films, the main characters are all rebelling against common things that audiences can relate to. In Rebel Without a Cause, Jim Stark is rebelling against his parents because he is upset with the fact that his father will not stand up to his mother. His girlfriend, Judy, is also rebelling against her parents, but for a different reason. Her father refuses to give her any affection because she is too “grown up.” Jim’s friend, Plato, is rebelling against his parents because they have abandoned him. These three characters rebel in many ways. Jim and Judy both smoke because they were told not to. Plato shot and killed puppies to get attention. Jim and Judy are both involved in a gang because it is “wrong.” Jim and Judy both pay a visit to jail: Jim because he is drunk and Judy because she ran away from home. In Bonnie and Clyde, Clyde Barrow is rebelling against the law and the common way of making a living. He rebels by robbing banks. Bonnie also rebels against the law and her old life working as a poor waitress in a small town. She rebels by helping Clyde rob banks. C. W. Moss rebels against his overbearing father. Buck Barrow rebels against the law, but his wife is never too keen on the whole rebellion thing. Clyde, Bonnie, C. W., and Buck all rebel by robbing banks and stores, stealing cars, and killing. C. W. also rebels by getting a tattoo on his chest because he knows that his father will not approve of it. The theme of rebellion can be seen in both films by showing what the characters rebel against and how they rebel.
The films protagonists Kit Caruthers (Martin Sheen) and Holly (Sissy Spacek) are loosely based on the real life adolescent criminals Charles Starkweather and his girlfriend Caril Ann Fugate. Starkweather and Fugate become infamous after their murder spree through Nebraska and Wyoming in the 1950’s, however the story of two young fugitives in love is not one that is unfamiliar with audiences; the most notable is Arthur Penn’s Bonnie and Clyde (1967). The character of Kit also bears a resemblance to Jim Stark, James Dean’s character i...
A man accidentally cuts two fingers and he had to choose between one of the two fingers because the hospital told him he could only afford to buy for one finger,similar example are shown throughout the film to affect the audience’s emotions with tragic true stories. Old people are shown in the film being kicked out of hospitals because the hospitals know they can pay them, this shows the sick old people being helpless. A little girl dies in a story shown to the audience by Moore to show how bad the system is, the little girl gets sick and her health insurance company tells her mother that she couldn’t go to the closest hospital because it wasn’t covered by Kaiser and instead was forced by Kaiser insurance to go across town to an approved Kaiser hospital, this is a big emotional low in the film for the audience’s emotional, it makes the audience have empathy for the dead child.
Phillips, John Neal. Running with Bonnie and Clyde the Ten Fast Years of Ralph Fults.
“By 1930, Clyde was incarcerated in the Eastham Prison farm on a 14-year term for automobile theft and robbery. Known as the “Murder House” or “the Bloody Ham,” Eastham was notorious for its tough working and living conditions, as well as guards who would beat inmates with trace chains and perform random spot killings, all of which was substantiated by the Texas state legislatures and the Osborne Association on U.S. Prisons which ranked the Texas prison system as the most worst in the nation in 1935. During his time at Eastham, Clyde transformed from petty criminal to emotionless killer when he murdered Ed Crowder, a man who had been sexually assaulting himself since he entered the prison. Clyde’s drive in life wasn't to become a famous bank robber, as he sometimes labeled, it was to take revenge on Eastham.” (80 Years Later, Retracing the Real Life of Bonnie and Clyde) This shows Clyde’s character and the kind of experience he's had to become the criminal he was. Clyde had only killed the man and committed all the bank robberies for revenge, more than using the money for his own pleasure. Another evidence that Bonnie and Clyde were good people, was how “Bonnie had never shot anyone but herself, though injured and wounded several times by officers, during her two year run with Clyde.” This clearly shows Bonnie’s