News culture More than 56 years later, the ending of this feature film about this iconic crime couple is still as poignant as ever
Good films and finely crafted sequences never get old! Proof of this is the finale of this feature film about this great criminal couple. One look will shape the entire history of cinema.
Do you know Bonnie & Clyde? This famous criminal couple, who actually operated in the USA in the 1930s, is not only Rockstar’s source of inspiration for GTA 6 … In 1967, the duo gave their name to a film that would shape the whole of Hollywood, especially because of its particularly poignant ( and bloody) finale. What makes this scene so special?
A revolutionary film
Let’s first introduce the scene: Bonnie & Clyde is a feature film by Arthur Penn (Little Big Man | The Merciless Pursuit) that was released in theaters in the late 1960s. It is considered the first success of “New Hollywood” – a counterculture movement inspired in particular by the New Wave in France that will modernize the way of thinking and cinema-making. This movement works to break the taboos Major subjects (the largest production studios in the USA) by showing the corruption of the powerful, violence, sex… Two final points that fit Bonnie & Clyde like a glove.
Because yes, the duo are beautiful, in love – and are not afraid to rob everything and everyone to line their pockets! However, by the end of the film, reality catches up with Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty (who play Bonnie and Clyde, respectively). The couple is betrayed by one of their accomplices and is ambushed. Police opened fire on the thugs in a rare display of violence.
And a very moving finale
The finale, available above, is full of incredible violence (even 56 years later), so you can imagine viewers’ reactions at the time. “Before, you couldn’t see one man shooting and another being shot in the same frame, he had to make a cut,” notes Arthur Penn in a reported interview Allocated. “We wanted to get away from that. The public has the right to see things as they really are.”. Aside from the brutality of the image, it’s the brief look Bonnie gives Clyde just before the epithets are mentioned that is heartbreaking. If all of this interests you, you can rent the film on YouTube for 2.99 dollars.
