There is something so beautifully simple and innocent about Bonnie and Clyde, yet at the same time so incredibly contemporary and aware. A precursor to Terrence Malick’s first feature, Badlands, Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway star as the titular criminal couple, characters who are paradoxical and irresistible from the moment we meet each of them. They are mysterious to us and to each other, and that’s part of the allure. All we know is that they’re both feisty and brash and attractive and weird and seemingly bored, all ingredients that have a way of adding up to hijinks and shenanigans and possibly death. It’s a fascinating look at the blurring distinction between notoriety and celebrity.
That’s something that almost makes the film more relevant today than during the time it was made; there are numerous connections today between the anti-heroic fame monster that individual celebrities and wannabe celebrities are willing to take up with and the criminal infamy sought out by gangsters in the Depression Era United States. What makes this especially troubling is how damn likeable Bonnie and Clyde both are, how intoxicating their quest for amusement and excitement is, and how alive the movie feels when they’re out causing trouble. They don’t even seem to understand what it is they’re doing. Our era of Disney stars gone bad surely finds some resonance in this.
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