(1967) 5 Lucia Bozzola The turning point from Hollywood's moribund studio system to the impending youthquake of the 1970s, Arthur Penn's Bonnie and Clyde (1967) audaciously broke conventions, upset critics, and revealed a young audience's box office power. With its unstinting violence and sympathy for the glamorous, gun-toting criminals, Bonnie and Clyde sharply divided critics over whether it was strikingly innovative or reprehensibly amoral and nihilistic. The increasingly rebellious youth audience, however, embraced the doomed heroes, and both Time and Newsweek recanted their initial negative negative reviews as other critics continued to savage it. Though Warner Bros. had dumped the film, star Warren Beatty badgered the studio into a second release. Bonnie and Clyde grossed over $20 million, landing on the cover of Time as the harbinger of the "New Cinema" as Theadora Van Runkle's costumes inspired a 1930s fashion craze. Heavily influenced by the European art movies of the early 1960s, writers Robert Benton and David Newman intended to make a revisionist gangster movie in the spirit of the French New Wave, to be directed by Jean-Luc Godard or François Truffaut; the film openly sympathized with its glamorous gangsters, who became analogues of hip 1960s counter-culture protestors, and its tone veered unexpectedly between slapstick comedy and serious consequences, galling more conventional critics who wanted the film to enforce a clear morality. Faye Dunaway's strong-willed Bonnie and Beatty's impotent Clyde were hardly a traditional couple, and their gory demise in rapid-fire, slow motion montage went far beyond previous Hollywood bloodshed. Nominated for ten Oscars including Best Picture, Bonnie and Clyde won for Burnett Guffey's cinematography and Estelle Parsons as Supporting Actress. The impact of its violence and youth appeal was confirmed by the ensuing successes of The Wild Bunch and Easy Rider, while outlaw couple films from Badlands (1973) to Thelma and Louise (1991) have ensured its continuing legacy.

releases for Bonnie and Clyde on AllMovie

Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

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Bonnie and Clyde

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Graphic Violence
Not For Children

genres

Crime

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category

Feature

directed by

Arthur Penn

countries

USA

released

1967

run time

111 min.

produced by

Tatira-Hiller Productions, Warner Brothers

released by

Warner Bros.-Seven Arts

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	Title/Studio	Release Date
	Bonnie and Clyde Warner Home Video (Canadian) More	December 7, 2010

	Bonnie and Clyde [P&S] Warner Home Video More	December 7, 2010

	Bonnie and Clyde [P&S] Warner Home Video More	June 8, 2010

	Bonnie and Clyde [Blu-ray] Warner Home Video More	February 2, 2010

	Bonnie and Clyde [HD] Warner Home Video More	April 15, 2008

	Bonnie and Clyde Warner Home Video More	March 31, 2008

	Bonnie and Clyde [Blu-ray] Warner Home Video More	March 31, 2008

	Bonnie and Clyde [HD] Warner Home Video More	March 31, 2008

	Bonnie and Clyde [DigiBook] [Blu-ray] Warner Home Video More	March 25, 2008

	Bonnie and Clyde [WS] [Special Edition] [2 Discs] Warner Home Video More	March 25, 2008

	Bonnie and Clyde [WS] [Ultimate Collector's Edition] [2 Discs] Warner Home Video More	March 25, 2008

	Bonnie and Clyde [WS] Warner Home Video More	October 1, 1999

	Bonnie and Clyde [WS/P&S] Warner Home Video More	May 18, 1999

	Bonnie and Clyde [P&S] Warner Home Video More	March 26, 1997