starring Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, Gene Hackman
directed by Arthur Penn
111 minutes
Clyde Barrow (Warren Beatty) and Bonnie Parker (Faye Dunaway) meet by chance. He tries to impress her by showing her the gun he is carrying. She says he's too chicken to use it. He accepts the challenge and robs a grocery store. This begins a crime spree.
C.W. Moss, a gas station attendant. Buck Darrow (Gene Hackman), Clyde's older brother, and Estelle, Buck's wife join the gang which the newspapers dub Darrow Gang.
Bonnie, Clyde, and friends have fun shooting up and robbing banks and other businesses. The long arm of the law eventually catches up to them, most notably in the form of a Texas Ranger who has plenty of help from local law enforcement.
Thoughts
All five actors who played members of the Darrow gang were nominated for Academy Awards for acting but Estelle Parsons who played the part of Blanche Darrow, was the only one to win. The film was nominated for Best Picture and Arthur Penn was nominated for Best Director but neither won the award. The only other Academy Award that the movie won was for Best Cinematography.
This is the last of the films from 1967 that was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture that I had yet to see. The only other one that I have seen in the past 20 years is In the Heat of the Night (1967). I saw The Graduate (1967) in 2002, it was a Netflix rental. I know that I have seen Doctor Dolittle (1967) and Guess Who's Coming To Dinner? (1967) but I can't recall exactly when I saw them. If I had to guess it was probably during the 1980s.
This was my first time watching this film. I can see how at the time it was released it might have had wide appeal or at least been more groundbreaking. I tried to keep an open mind but honestly this movie did not speak to me. It was a little too chaotic and excessively violent to suit my tastes. It did little to nothing to make the Darrow gang or their crime spree seem appealing to me.
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