Bonnie and Clyde (1967) on Netflix
R19671h 51mActionBiographyCrimeDrama
Bonnie Parker, a bored waitress in Depression-era Texas, meets Clyde Barrow, a criminal just out of prison. She is drawn to his past and joins him in robbing banks.
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- Netflix3.7/5
- IMDb7.7/10127,792 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes90%
Trailer
Plot summary
Clyde Barrow has just left prison and turned to bank robbery when he meets Bonnie Parker, who finds her life dull and is fascinated by the way he talks about his criminal past. He sees in her someone sympathetic to his goals. They are attracted to each other, but a sexual relationship between them runs into obstacles. They join forces to hold up establishments, mostly banks, for money and for fun, carrying loaded guns but meaning to hurt no one. A small gang gathers around them: C.W. Moss, a gas station attendant who repairs the cars they steal, Clyde's older brother Buck, and Buck's wife Blanche, a preacher's daughter who comes along unwillingly.
Cast
- Mabel Cavittas Bonnie's mother (uncredited)
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- When Warren Beatty decided to play Clyde, the Bonnie role was considered for Jane Fonda, Tuesday Weld, Ann-Margret, Sharon Tate, Leslie Caron, Carol Lynley and Sue Lyon; Cher auditioned, and Beatty begged Natalie Wood, who declined to concentrate on her therapy and said working with him before had been difficult.
- David Newman and Robert Benton first wrote Clyde as bisexual, with Clyde and Bonnie in a three-way relationship with their male getaway driver; director Arthur Penn argued this undercut the couple's passion and audiences might dismiss the criminals as sexual deviants, so the theme was toned down.
- David Newman and Robert Benton's script went to François Truffaut, who made contributions but passed to direct Fahrenheit 451; at his suggestion they approached Jean-Luc Godard, who refused, and Benton said Godard wanted to shoot in New Jersey in January.
- The film's portrayal of Texas Ranger Frank Hamer as a vengeful bungler captured and humiliated by Bonnie and Clyde was far from fact, he was a decorated Ranger who had never met the couple before his posse killed them near Gibsland, Louisiana, in 1934, and in 1968 his widow and son sued the producers for defamation.
- The family gathering scene was shot in Red Oak, Texas, where residents gathered to watch; when the filmmakers spotted schoolteacher Mabel Cavitt among the crowd, they cast her as Bonnie Parker's mother.
- Bonnie and Clyde was one of the first films to use squibs extensively, small explosive charges, often with bags of stage blood, that detonated inside an actor's clothes to simulate bullet hits.
- Flatt and Scruggs's banjo instrumental "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" reached a worldwide audience through its frequent use in the film, and the music is anachronistic because bluegrass dates from the mid-1940s rather than the 1930s.
- The critical fight over the film had real consequences: The New York Times fired its critic Crowther because his negative review seemed out of touch with public opinion, and Pauline Kael was hired as a staff critic at The New Yorker after her long essay praising the film and crediting the French New Wave for its success.
