Something new that surprised me was the opening credits of the film. It isn’t like anything we have seen in the previous films. Seeing it felt like an opening to a documentary. The other films like “Casablanca” had openings which had orchestral songs. Other films like “Citizen Kane” had like a title card then started with the opening scene. The opening credits included pictures of Bonnie and Clyde and also some information about them too. Later on, in the film we see both of them recreating famous pictures that real Bonnie and Clyde took. It wasn’t a lot of information but enough to set up a basic backstory. Another thing the film did different which was inspired by the French New Wave is shooting on location. The film wasn’t made to be accepted by Hollywood’s established standards. It sought to break rules with showing the lives of criminals and by not hiding the awful things they did.
I can see how this film was controversial. It’s a biographical film that some may argue glorifies violence and criminals. It broke a lot of conventions of old Hollywood in regard to showing violence and sex. If violence was going to be done in the previous films then it was going to be done off screen or not as bad as we saw in this film. I really wasn’t expecting the first onscreen kill to be as graphic as it was when Clyde shot the banker in the face near the beginning of the film. It is fast and sudden but it quickly established how violent the film was going to be. The ending wasn’t the most brutal thing I’ve seen but probably the most brutal audiences back then saw. Also, weirdly enough the Barrow gang in some instances were protected by the poor. It makes sense since they robbed banks which have displaced many from their homes during the Great Depression.
Bonnie is a very different female character compared to other female characters in the previous films we saw. I think she is a stylish character like Lisa but does not have the typical personality of an old Hollywood female character. Bonnie isn’t “proper” and elegant, but the lack of those characters made her iconic. She does care about her mother, Clyde and her friends but she has no qualms robbing and attacking the police. She didn’t show a lot of remorse when cops ended up being killed. Bonnie is a violent criminal, but she chose to break the mold of a traditional young woman.
To some maybe the ending was inconclusive or abruptly cut. It reminded me of the ending of The Sopranos because both endings scenes were suddenly cut to end, leaving audiences confused. It was a fitting ending because Bonnie and Clyde’s life was suddenly cut short by a rain of bullets.
Maria Alvarez's Film Blog 