Rent Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

Masterpiece - Bonnie and Clyde review by GI

America has a big tradition of creating heroes and myths out of their outlaws - Jesse James, Billy the Kid, John Dillinger etc - often portraying them as the victims of oppression who find a courageous yet fatal means to overcome the times they live in. Bonnie & Clyde are two such criminals, a pair of rampaging killers who roamed the southern states during the Great Depression robbing banks and stores and murdering as they went. This film is one of the first that began a New Wave in American cinema depicting these 'heroes' as dangerously flawed and started to question the image of the screen hero. This film movement opened the doors in the 70s for directors like Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola and even Steven Spielberg. Warren Beatty plays small time crook Clyde Barrow who impresses bored waitress Bonnie Parker (Faye Dunaway) with his boasts of being a robber. Lured by the excitement they begin to travel around committing poorly planned and small robberies and eventually form a bigger gang with Clyde's brother Buck (Gene Hackman). Graduating to bank heists and pulling off some daring getaways from police ambushes they soon find their carefree attitude results in tragedy. With Beatty portraying Clyde as impotent, with blood spurting and slow motion violence this film broke new ground and it feels like a much more modern film when viewed today. It's certainly an important and influential American film, with a dark humour, fast action and a gripping story. If you like a good crime film then this is absolutely fantastic and if you've never seen it I highly recommend it.