film #5

Bonnie and Clyde

This is my first time writing here in a very long time; posts will probably be rather short as I'm warming up the old review instincts. Also it's really very important that the reviews feel natural (even if they come off lazy)… to get back in the habit I can't allow myself to feel like I'm poring through homework. Anyway, a quick and disconnected review:

tremendously sexual, from the first scene onward. Beatty is spectacularly charismatic. Dunaway, very hot. They're outlaws, but the law is worse- the scenes when they're among the common folks are all pretty striking. Like the men shooting out the sign. Or allowing the farmer to keep his money at the bank. Or the Hooverville. "I ain't against him… I ain't against him"- Beatty lamenting the grocer who tried to kill him when he robbed the store. Striking moment.

The brotherly awkwardness strikes me as painfully true. Shouting, "Whoo! We're gonna have a good time!" and then drifting into silence. The sort of social anxiety scene that other movies are probably Only about. I despise Blanche Barrow. It's funny reading her wikipedia biography after the movie- "they made me look like a screaming horse's ass." Yep! Can't believe She was the one to win an Oscar from this. So, so hateable. GENE WILDER! Incredibly funny. Everything he says is perfectly hilarious. Pathetic and anxious and nerdy and furious. Brilliant.

I wonder if Bonnie was as weak and emotional as she seems in this film? There are multiple scenes where she's pouting or storming off. Lots of bickering between her and Blanche in this film. But apparently that's what it was like- not necessarily that their real life characters had that specific dynamic, but it was certainly tense and frustrating between the five of them, living in close quarters on the run. Whenever Beatty flips out- at Hamer for instance, when he knocks him into the water- it's always pretty intriguing. That raw, passionate fury- you get the sense that not everything's right with this guy… it's the part of him that makes him a criminal instead of a President.

I wonder how C.W. feels about the deal that ultimately gets struck. Hard to read his face as he watches them drive away to meet their fate.

Apparently this is a very historically important film, and I believe it, I can see it… the astonishing sexual energy, the violence, the anti-government vibe- but also fatalistic. It's definitely a reflection of its time, the turbulence, dusty, sexualized outlaw culture of the late 1960s. Entertaining, intense. Good action sequences. Good movie.