The film that some say started the modern cinema’s preoccupation with violence comes to Blu-ray in a newly re-mastered edition that’s full of excellent extras. The added resolution of Blu-ray not only enhances the bullet wounds, but illustrates why this film is a classic all around.
Bonnie Parker (Faye Dunaway) is lounging around her bedroom (starkers, mind you) when she happens to look out and see a man contemplating stealing her mother’s car. This man is Clyde Barrow (Warren Beatty). Bonnie is bored with the life of a waitress and so she hooks up with this charismatic, exciting thief.
Soon the two have hooked up with C.W. Moss (Michael J. Pollard), Clyde’s brother Buck (Gene Hackman), and Buck’s wife Blanche (Estelle Parsons) to form the Barrow gang and are robbing banks all across the 1930s dustbowl South. To put it mildly, Johnny Law doesn’t appreciate this and soon makes it top priority to make sure that the Barrow gang is caught dead or alive, preferably dead.
Bonnie and Clyde was a film that broke several taboos. The film may seem rather tame as we modern folks look at it today but in 1967 they were a big deal. Not only was the film filled with a violent ending but covered some sexual situations that in 1967 was something that the American screen had not seen before.
It can be said that Bonnie and Clyde started it all, but most think of the violence beginning with in 1969 with Sam Peckinpah’s the Wild Bunch. Many taboos were broken on the screen, but we discover in the special features that the screenwriters were even more ambitious and were going to portray a bisexual love triangle between Bonnie, Clyde, and C.W.
It may be just me but I really can’t see this working (Pollard seems too childlike), but neither did Penn and it was dropped and the dysfunction was changed to Clyde’s impotence. The performances are all around excellent and Faye Dunaway has never been sexier.
Beatty also has the same appeal as the dashing and dangerous Clyde, well not to me but I can still recognize it. Gene Hackman is dependable as always (but that dependability was not known at this time, in fact he didn’t work for a time after the film and thought it might’ve ruined his career), Michael Pollard is oddly appealing, and Estelle Parsons was rewarded with an Oscar for her performance.
Bonnie and Clyde is just as much a classic as the Wild Bunch. What’s interesting is that the film was deemed to be flopping at first (Jack Warner called it a “three piss film,” meaning that he got up and took a piss three times during the screening not being interested enough to hold it) until it caught fire and began to surge at the box office.
Warner Brothers has digitally re-mastered the film from the original elements to make a film that looks just as good as when it graced screens in 1969, it also helps that it’s the 85th anniversary of the studio and they’re dusting off their best and brightest to help celebrate.
Bonnie and Clyde is presented in 1080p anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. Special features include the 43 minute “Love and Death: The Story of Bonnie and Clyde” from the History Channel which details the real story. Next is the excellent 65 minute “Revolution: The Making of Bonnie and Clyde” which features interviews with Beatty, Dunaway, Michael Pollard, Gene Hackman, Estelle Parsons, director Arthur Penn, and many others.
Next are 5 minutes of deleted scenes. The deleted scenes are missing the audio to you have subtitles. There are also 7 minutes of wardrobe tests with Beatty, so we get to see him try on various costumes. Next are the teaser and theatrical trailer (totaling 4 minutes). Finally, you get a very nice package resembling a book that has a reproduction of the pressbook.
Bonnie and Clyde have never looked better (anything would be better than they look at the end of the film) but Warners has gone all out to pay tribute to this groundbreaking film. The potty breaks of Jack Warner were unfounded as the film is still appealing after all these years, so it has withstood the test of time and Warner Brothers has paid tribute to it nicely with this Blu-ray.
Bonnie and Clyde [Blu-ray] is now available at Amazon . Visit the DVD database for more information.
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