Bank robbers Clyde Barrow (Warren Beatty) and Bonnie Parker (Faye Dunaway) cut a path clean across Texas, Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma. Along for the ride, and facing an increasingly uncertain and violent destiny, are Clyde’s brother Buck (Gene Hackman), Buck’s wife Blanche (Estelle Parsons), and a none-to-bright pump jockey named C.W. Moss (Michael J. Pollard).

CRITIQUE

It’s not easy to shift gears and tone throughout one narrative and have it all come together, but Bonnie and Clyde makes it look easy. This movie combines elements of drama, comedy, tragedy, and social satire into a cohesive whole, often quickly moving from one element to another over the course of any given scene. His work may have taken a serious decline over the years, but director Arthur Penn (who somehow went from directing the brilliant Night Moves to making such fare as Penn & Teller Get Killed) was firing on all cylinders here, and the movie works on virtually every level--be emotional, intellectual, visceral--that cinema can.

Working from a fantastic script by David Newman and Robert Benton (with some uncredited work by Beatty himself and a major dialogue overhaul by Robert Towne, who is credited as Special Consultant), and commanding a first-rate cast (Parsons took home an Oscar for her work), Penn crafted one of the best American films of the 1960s, one that is justifiably considered a classic.

I was born three years after Bonnie and Clyde was first released, and I didn’t see the movie in its entirety until I was in college, so it’s a little hard for me to fully comprehend the scope of its influence and impact. But I can definitely see some of its influence in subsequent releases, both in terms of style and in the very nature of the type of films that were being made.

The execs who gave the greenlight to such cinematic touchstones as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and Easy Rider were undoubtedly hoping to tap into the same market that made this film such a huge box office success, and there’s no way the world would have been graced by such drive-in classics as Big Bad Mama (arguably the best of this movie’s bastard offspring) and Boxcar Bertha (the existence of which is excused only because it gave Scorsese the clout to make Mean Streets).

As far as the language of cinema goes, I know Sam Peckinpah went to his grave claiming he wasn’t influenced by this movie when it came to developing the style of montage editing he utilized so well during the second half of his career, but it’s hard to look at the climax of Bonnie and Clyde and not draw a direct line to the beginning and ending of The Wild Bunch.

Maybe Peckinpah was telling truth; it could be a coincidence, or it could be that both he and Penn simply took what Kurosawa had been doing for the better part of a decade and adopted/adapted it for their own needs. Whatever the case, it’s highly unlikely that the past four decades of cinema would have been the same without this movie.

The controversy stirred up by the movie’s depiction of violence became legendary. At the time it may have seemed needlessly gratuitous and tasteless to some, although it’s never struck me as being either. But it is unflinching, showing violence as sudden, unexpected and messy, and most often incontrovertible in its impact and consequences. I have a feeling that’s what really upset people, not all of the fake blood pouring forth from those squibs. You feel it when someone in this movie is wounded or killed, and that still has a greater, more unsettling effect than any gory, exploitative massacre carried out by a cartoonish boogeyman.           

For me, two things keep the movie from being an unqualified success. One is the performance of Mabel Cavitt, who appears (unbilled) as Bonnie’s longsuffering mother. Cavitt, a school teacher recruited for the role after being spotted near one of the shooting locations, is not in the movie for very long, but it only takes her a couple of lines to reveal she’s not an actress. Given just how strong everyone else in the cast is, she’s like a piece of granite in the middle of a pile of diamonds.

The movie’s other misstep involves Clyde’s sexual dysfunction, more specifically the ultimate resolution of this part of the plot. I understand the function of the scene, but I think it lays things on a little too thick (the only things missing are billowing curtains and a sappy love song), not working in even an ironic way.

But so what if the movie doesn’t achieve perfection? Given that most movies don’t achieve even this level of quality, I almost hate to even nitpick about this one. (The fact that it features supporting performances by both Dub Taylor--who else could possibly play Pollard’s father?--and an unbilled Patrick Cranshaw makes me feel even worse about looking for nits to pick.) Most so-called classics don’t live up to their reputations. Bonnie and Clyde, I’m pleased to say, does.

THE VIDEO

Given the movie’s age and the manner in which it was filmed, the 1.85:1/1080p transfer offers the best visual experience you could hope for, well representing the Oscar-winning work of cinematographer Burnett Guffey. The grain structure remains consistent throughout, although once sequence (the family reunion) is very grainy, but this is due to the intentionally diffused photography employed for the scene.

The source elements were obviously in excellent condition; specks, scratches, and dirt are nowhere to be found, although some very minor fading is evident in a small number of shots. When compared to previous releases, depth and detail have been greatly improved (close-ups often look fantastic), and the earth tones that dominate the color palette are richer and more stable. Kudos to the folks at Warner for another excellent catalog remaster.

THE AUDIO

Don’t expect any such revelations from the audio, as the Dolby Digital 1.0 track appears to be the same featured on the old standard-def disc. According to reports from Warner execs, the original audio elements for the movie couldn’t be located (they were either destroyed or lost, with the latter being the more likely scenario), therefore no remastering could be performed.

Therefore, what you’ll find here is pretty much what you’d expect; dialogue can be creaky and tinny, gunshots have no heft or impact, and there’s a brassy quality to effects and music. No other audio tracks are included; English, French, Spanish, and Korean subtitles are available.

THE EXTRAS

Love and Death: The True Story of Bonnie and Clyde (44 minutes) is a History Channel documentary that provides a far more factual account of the life and times of the Barrow gang. It’s average at best as these things go, but it’s still nice to have it to provide contrast and context.

Revolution! The Making of Bonnie and Clyde (60 minutes) is a very good three-part look at the making of the movie. As you might expect, the sections cover the origins of the film, production (casting, shooting, etc.), and the film’s release/impact/legacy. Penn, Beatty, Dunaway, etc. appear in new interviews, as do Curtin Hanson, who at the time was working as a magazine photographer and shot some on-set photos, and Morgan Fairchild, who was Dunaway’s stand-in during filming (and looks like she hasn’t aged a day since 1982).  

Two deleted scenes (12 minutes) are also included. One involves the planning of a bank robbery, while the other is a character-driven bit with Bonnie and C.W. The audio elements for these scenes could not be located (as with the audio elements for the film itself, it’s likely they’re gone forever), so the scenes are subtitled.

Several Warren Beatty Wardrobe Tests (8 minutes) offer exactly what you’d expect.

Closing out the disc-based extras are the film’s teaser and theatrical trailers.

This disc marks the inaugural release in Warner’s new line of collectible book-like packages. Rather than being housed in the standard blue case, this Blu-ray disc is tucked in the back of a faux hardcover book, which also contains a booklet that features production photos, poster art, vintage press materials, and bios/filmographies for Beatty, Dunaway, Hackman, and Penn. It’s a nice bit of work, and Warner reportedly plans to release nine more similar packages over the course of the next twelve months.

FINAL THOUGHT