Ranked #5 in AFI's 10 Top 10 – Gangster Films, behind The Godfather, Goodfellas, The Godfather Part II and White Heat; and just above Scarface and Pulp Fiction, Bonnie & Clyde is a biographical movie about one of the most reckless and dangerous couples in crime history.
During the Public Enemy Era, between 1931 and 1934, just after the Great Depression, there was an american couple that managed to rob banks, stores, killing cops and caughting the eye of public opinion, for a couple of years. Bonnie Parker (Faye Dunaway) met Clyde Barrow (Warren Beatty) when she was 21 and he was just getting out of jail. They inmediatly connected. He was charming and decided, although as he confessed himself he wasn't a lover boy. Bonnie was bored, sick of her monotonous life and her job as a waitress. Captivated by Clyde's manner's and blue eyes, she decided to take up with him and become his partner in crime. Their first two jobs weren't so profitable: the first one was a bank in bankruptcy, the other one was a grocery store where Clyde got punched and almost killed. To aim higher in their crime career, they hook up with a dim-witted gas station attendant, C.W. Moss (Michael Pollard) and later with Clyde's older brother Buck (Gene Hackman) and his wife, Blanche (Estelle Parsons). By then, there were known as the Barrow Gang. That way, they turned from pulling small-time heists to robbing banks and things got more dangerous and violent.
The gang was pursued by law enforcement officers, including Texas Ranger Frank Hamer (Denver Pyle), who took it personal when the gang captured him and humiliated him by taking pictures with him and sending them to the newspapers before releasing him. Upon discovering his whereabouts and after a confrontation, Buck was murdered and Blanche lost her sight. The other three managed to escape, although Bonnie and Clyde were shot. C.W. hid them then in his father's house so they could recover before going back to the old ways, but Moss's father made a deal with the police: in exchange for indulgence for his son, the old man helped to set a trap for the outlaws. This is how, faking a flat tire on the side of the road, old Moss attracts the criminals who, trusting their gang mate's father, fall into the ambush where they are shot to dead.
I'm not much a gangster films fan, so I might be hard with my judgment, but although is a good action movie, with great lines on the script and a great scenography (one of the best things in the movie are all those classic cars from the 20's and 30's we can see in it ) the plot doesn't have a continuous rhythm, its fluidity is interrupted sometimes and, in my opinion, there are too many gunshots. Too many. I know that's what all these movies are about, but in some scenes the amount of shots is exaggerated, especially in the final sequence, in which they kill Bonnie and Clyde, who were not even armed at that time. Another remarkable thing is the love relationship between Clyde and Bonnie. They were criminals, but they were also humans who could feel love, jealousy, tenderness and they remained faithful to each other until the end. If you like funny romantic movies, this one ain't for you, but if you like westerns, gangsters and Tarantino, you may like this one. Of course you gotta be aware of Bonnie & Clyde is from 1967, so the sound and visual effects are not the best. But if you can tolerate that, grab a bucket of popcorn and a soda and enjoy the movie.