Bonnie and Clyde (August 4, 1967)

Bonnie and Clyde (1967) is a film about Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, bank robbers who roamed the central United States during the Great Depression. As in real life, the couple is eventually ambushed and killed by law enforcement. The film was directed by Arthur Penn, and starred Warren Beatty as Clyde Barrow and Faye Dunaway as Bonnie Parker. The screenplay was written by David Newman and Robert Benton, with Robert Towne doing some uncredited work.

The movie was partly filmed in and around Dallas, Texas, in some cases using actual locations that the real Bonnie and Clyde either robbed or used as hideouts. Only loosely based on Barrow and Parker, the film sometimes deviated widely from the historical record, and did not include many of the killings for which the real Barrow and his associates were responsible. (Barrow was a probable shooter in approximately ten murders, though there's no solid evidence that Parker shot or killed anyone.) The movie portrayed Texas Ranger Frank Hamer (Denver Pyle) as a vengeful bungler who had been captured, humiliated, and released by Bonnie and Clyde. However, the first time the real Hamer met either of them was when he helped kill them on May 23, 1934. He was not a Texas Ranger at the time.

When released, the film was controversial for supposedly glorifying murderers, and for its unprecedented violence. Bonnie and Clyde was the first film to feature extensive use of squibs — small explosive charges, often mounted with bags of red liquid and fired from inside an actor's clothes to simulate bullet hits.

Estelle Parsons won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in the film, and Burnett Guffey won an Academy Award for Best Cinematography for his. The film is #27 on the American Film Institute's "100 Years, 100 Movies", #13 on its list of 100 American thrillers, and #65 on its list of 100 American romances. The line "We rob banks" was also ranked at #41 on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 Greatest Movie Quotes. Bonnie and Clyde has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

Bonnie and Clyde is also a landmark film in cinema history as it is regarded as the first film of the New Hollywood era, an era often regarded as Hollywood's second golden age. The film broke taboos, a common characteristic of the era and its success opened doors for other films.

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Bonnie and Clyde Movie Trivia

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