Blog #6

Bonnie & Clyde (1967)

Directed by Arthur Penn

The film, Bonnie & Clyde, directed by Arthur Penn portrays the erratic relationship between two criminals who travel cross country together robbing banks and killing civilians. This film captures a lot of new material we haven’t studied previously. For example, the director uses many techniques from the French New Wave era of film. Specifically, natural lighting, shooting on location, and discontinuity editing techniques. Throughout the entire film we follow Bonnie and Clyde all through the south. Arthur Penn displays many tracking shots, following the main characters through their adventures. There are real life corn fields, lots of deserted land and glimpses of forests and lakes to create the realism effect. The choppiness between scenes is effective, especially when theres a shoot out or robbery in place.

Another newer aspect we haven’t seen or studied yet is action and crime. To me this seems like an early action film, due to the portrayal of violence, action, blood and killings. There are also a lot of sound effects used to emphasize a gun going off or the car speeding away. Sometimes the sound effects were too cheesy, but then again this is from 1967. Lastly, a new technique displayed was a green screen. When Bonnie and Clyde were escaping their robberies they would hop in a car, and the green screen would display a long road ahead, noticeably shaken and unrealistic to viewers. This might have been the dawn of using green screens for special effects purposes.

Transitioning to the characters, I want to focus on Bonnie. Before she becomes Clyde’s sidekick, Bonnie is a small town waitress who seems bored and stuck in her traditional ways. Clyde is thrilling, fun and exciting to her; immediately attracting her to him. In the beginning of their journey together, Clyde acts as though Bonnie isn’t strong enough to defend or be apart of their team. This can relate back to her being a woman and the stereotypes associated with females. Not many criminals are female and back then, women would be caught dead breaking the harsh gender roles implemented in the south. Bonnie becomes more confident throughout the film in regards to her approach within crime. Her relationship with Clyde is consistently rocky and she questions that, but when it came to her criminal activity, she learned to flourish.