The Classics: Bonnie and Clyde

People seem to never get tired of gangster flicks. Bank robbers, gun-totting killers, they've been the rage since the inception of the film industry, and still to this day we get gangster flicks made by the bucket load, though Bonnie and Clyde is not your usual gangster flick.

Within Bonnie and Clyde, there is something more that many other gangster films do not have. The film turns these straight-up criminals - the ultimate anti-heroes who kill, cheat, and steal to live - into loving and endearing characters that this is simply their way of life, their profession, like a person dressing up and going to work. They don't kill unless they have to for survival of their way of life, and even when they do kill, they feel remorse. Not only that, the romance between Bonnie and Clyde is believable and is actually, in my own opinion, one of the finer onscreen romances of all-time.

At the beginning of the film, Clyde comes sweeping into the small Texan town in which Bonnie lives working as a waitress, and Clyde after an attempt to steal Bonnie's mom's car, ultimately charms Bonnie with his criminal ways and convinces her to run off with him. In all actuality, this is the only part of the film in which I do not like, the whole opening sequence feeling awfully contrived, but the rest of the film really kicks off from there and doesn't stop. Bonnie grows from the small town girl into a swift and charming gangster with a heart of gold, just like Clyde. In a way them and their gang are similar to a modern day Robin Hood and his Merry Men. Sure they steal and kill, but they do it to not only survive, but is evidenced when Clyde meets a man whose house was foreclosed upon by the local bank, he proceeds to try and rob the bank.

The film is the one credited for making both Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway stars as Clyde and Bonnie respectively, and they are both deserving of credit, in particular Dunaway who kind of acts as the anchor to the whole emotional component of the film. Bonnie very often feels sadness for leaving her life with her mother behind in Texas, and it is that emotion she feels and her desire to just slow down and live a normal life with Clyde, which Dunaway conveys beautifully to the audience.

While Bonnie and Clyde may not be the finest gangster film ever made, it is one of the more unique ones ever made and is a classic through and through that is worth watching for any fan of film.

I give Bonnie and Clyde an A!