BONNIE AND CLYDE

 Varieties of film and filmmaking

(Hollywood 1930-1990 comparative) 

PRE-SCREENING NOTE

• Bonnie and Clyde (Arthur Penn 1967)
• Genre: crime drama - based on real events and characters 
• Begins - still photography, suggesting documentary 
• like approach / realism
• Stars and stardom: Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway. 
• Beatty also influences the script. 
• Picking up a biopic and running it through cinema. 
• Protagonists are the villains. 

NEW DEPARTURE IN HOLLYWOOD

• Thematically
• Chronologically
• Evident that controversial subject-matter would not have passed the high censorious standards of the Hays Code.  (Now reformed as the Moving Picture Association of America in 1964). 

CONTROVERSIAL ELEMENTS

• Taboos - sexually.
• Clyde and Bonnie run off together (not married).
• Opening sequence, Bonnie seen as a sexual woman, close ups. 
• Violence - often thought to be the most violent closing sequence in Hollywood. 

CONTEXTS

• Production contexts - New Hollywood; new departure with younger generation of actors (some backlash towards the control of the old system / the studios). 
• Cultural and social context - Heart of 1960s; San Fransisco and the LGBT movement, Pacifism, Vietnam, Civil rights, Liberal politics, youth culture. 
• Feminist movement. 

RACISM

• The concession to civil rights which we see within the film's narrative reflects the mood and politics of the 1960's rather than the lack of civil rights in the 1930's. 
• In one sequence - a black man is given the opportunity to show his anger and pain - this emerges as a symbolic gesture. 

1930 GREAT DEPRESSION 

• Bonnie is ideal when we first meet her - in the south.
• Barren - hitting agricultural communities.
• N.B - Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men 
• Repossession of homes.

INITIAL COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS 

• Exploration of gender issues and sexuality.
• Clyde's impotence, his feminine sensitivity in contrast to Bonnie's masculine attributes, her daring approach to crime and her attitude to Clyde, her confidence. 
• Note: film produced in the mid -1960's thus influenced by the mores of its more liberal times, but the narrative reflects event which took place in the 1930's. 

In many respects - both films break taboos around sexuality and gender, but...

Some like it hot - uses disguise and comedy to represent and explore gender and sexuality. 

The 8 years in which separate the two films do make a difference in these aspects. 

They emerge as films which hugely reflect the social and production contexts of their era. 

HISTORICAL CONTEXTS:

The concession to civil rights

Younger generation of actors

Feminist movement regarding the time of production reflected within the film

Youth culture (Beatles, London Hard Days Night)

New blood of directors

Hays code repealed - sexual and violent content 

Pride movement - Stonewall 

NARRATIVE:

Biopic documentary style beginning with a selection of images. 

In spite of the counter-cultural context, the linear narrative is very representative of Hollywood. 

A lot of movement and travel within the movie, a philosophical idea for the linear narrative. The whole reasoning of the film is to faithfully express the story of Bonnie and Clyde. 

TIME LINE:

1. Bonnies frustration of boredom in her bedroom, many close ups of Bonnie, she is naked. Sexualises her character. 

2. Bonnie and Clyde drive away together in a stolen car. 

3. Man tries to kill Clyde with meat cleaver, tries to rob a food shop. After, tries to rob a bank but there is nothing there, Great Depression. 

4. Meet CW Moss at petrol station, he steals money from the cash desk and proves his worth as a criminal. 

5. They all try to rob another bank, Moss parks the car instead of waiting. Police arrive, Clyde kills a man. They go to the cinema after, "Im in the money". 

6. Bonnie and Clyde are awkward in the bedroom, "Im not a lover boy". Personality clash. 

7. Go to brothers house, get shot at by the police. Escape successfully. On their way they mock a Texas ranger and put him on a boat. 

8. Bombarded by police, Blanch and Buck get shot, Buck dies. Moss, Bonnie and Clyde escape to Moss's Father's house. 

9. Bonnie and Clyde go for a shopping trip. 

10. On their way bak they were set up by Moss's father and brutally killed by machine guns. 

REPRESENTATIONS:

Women

- The second wave of the feminist movement. 

- Betty Frieden "The Feminine Mystique" (1963). 

- Bonnie is purposefully the opposite of Blanch, she is the present generation instead of the older. 

- Bonnie is an invigorated person, does not comply to how society wants her to be. 

- Bonnie presents masculine characteristics, criminality and shooting guns. Although they share an equal role in the leadership of the relationship, she enjoys the aggression and adrenaline of violence. 

- Fascinated by violence. 

- Agents of her own actions. 

- She has "gumption" and she is fearless, fascinated by the gun. 

- Pacifism and equality. 

- Bonnie is both sexual and feminine at the same time. 

- Clyde is offended by Bonnie's sexual advancement. 

- He is the opposite of a "stud" - reference to male prowess with women. 

- The role requires a male actor who can play a male character without being threatened by a commentary about their sexual identity and confidence - Beatty pulls it off and represents a gentle, sensitive masculinity which makes us empathise. 

- When Bonnie accuses him of advertising something he doesn't have "your advertising is all dandy" - he is really offended, arguing hat he wants the best for her without sexually exploiting her.

Using ideas from our first consideration of representational issues in the film, identify and explain how these inform our understanding of the film.  

1967 was truly the heart of the second feminist movement, the protests for equality, liberalism and pacifism. Arthur Penn most certainly implements these production contexts into the intense and sexual character of Bonnie Parker, a young women unsatisfied with her "quality of life", desperate for an adventurous escape from her midst of boredom. Firstly, Bonnie is an invigorated person, she would rather not comply to how society wants her to be, perhaps the first meeting of Clyde provides her a sense of relief and distraction of her since conformed lifestyle. Bonnie is quick to jump on the band wagon with Clyde, stealing her mothers car, immediately Bonnie represents the opposite of "feminine expectations" of the 30's, to be so quick and accepting into the world of injustice was simply unheard of within women at the time. As the film continues, I noticed how Bonnie presents rather masculine attributes and risky characteristics. Bonnie has an intense fascination into rebellion and criminality, prevalent within the younger generation of the 1960's, this counter-types the representation of women in the films time period, her eagerness for rebellion overrides her "feminine decency" and instead replaces it. Furthermore, she especially shows interest into guns and aggression; when Bonnie and Clyde meet Clyde's brother and wife they decide to take some photos, Bonnie makes the choice of putting a cigar in her mouth and hold a machine gun in a masculine pose. Clearly she displays a fascination into violence, symbolising her independence and fearlessnes. Perhaps Penn directs this in order to be representative of the increasing of feminine empowerment, that women may be independent and can rely on their own strength for their well-being.