Movie Review #9276 BONNIE & CLYDE.
Having today stopped in to Primm, Nevada, to see the actual car in which Clyde Barrow & Bonnie Parker met their end, it was apt that the original 1967 movie was showing on my flight back from LA to Auckland tonight. Bringing a very young Warren Beattie & Faye Dunaway, the latter looking more like 60s bombshell than 30s moll, to international prominence, this is a masterful piece of movie making that tells the story of Bonnie & Clyde from the time of Clyde's release from prison in 1932 through to their demise on a Louisiana backroad in 1934. In a couple of short years, their ruthless daring captured the hearts & minds of America in the midst of the Depression, perhaps giving those suffering the most some sort of folklore to hang onto. Certainly the movie portrays this way & paints these characters without excuse or misunderstanding, depicting events reasonably close to truth with very little over-dramatisation. Excellent performances from the aforementioned leads + an equally superb Gene Hackman as Clyde's older brother Buck. Estelle Parsons is Buck's squealing spouse Blanche, Michael J Pollard does the goofball yet sinister sidekick CW Moss (actually a fictional character - an amalgamation of a couple of the gang's sidekicks) with aplomb & Denver Pyle is on Texas Ranger duty as Frank Hamer, the law who finally brings them down. Also spotted was Gene Wilder as a Midwestern twit who manages to get himself & his fiancée kidnapped by the Barrow gang before being dumped in the middle of nowhere, after ticking off Bonnie. All in all a thoroughly entertaining yarn that manages to decently reflect life in the mid America dustbowl with the bravado of Bonne & Clyde roaring through the middle of it. 8.5/10.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Geoff HorneI'm a movie nut from way back with my first ever being The Hallelujah Trail from 1964. Ever since being mesmerized by the giant screen, the darkness that went on forever & the infernally uncomfortable seats + having to stand for God Save the Queen, I've been enticed ever since to duck into a theatre whenever I can for a few hours of escapism. My favourite movie of all time is Schindler's List, one of only two movies I've ever cried in (the other was Bambi when I was 6!) & I'm a sucker for a damn good comedy; Dumb & Dumber, The Hangover & Death at a Funeral stand out. I'm also a musician and work in IT. I have 4 grandchildren who also seem to enjoy their movie excursions with grandad. I can be reached at geoff@nztester.co.nz. Archives
November 2020
Categories |