Top 250 Challenge: 218

Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
Number 223 on IMDb's Top 250

Bonnie Parker (Faye Dunaway) is bored with life and wants a change. She gets her chance when she meets a charming young drifter by the name of Clyde Barrow (Warren Beatty). Clyde has dreams of a life of crime that will free him from the hardships of the Depression. The two fall in love and begin a crime spree that extends across several states. They rob small banks with skill and panache, soon becoming minor celebrities known across the country. People are proud to have been held up by Bonnie and Clyde; to their victims, the duo is doing what nobody else has the guts to do. To the law, the two are evil bank robbers who deserve to be gunned down where they stand. Hilarity ensues.

Trivia: The film has a dynamic soundtrack that gets much louder during the gunfights. The British premiere of the film was notable because the projectionist previewed the film and thought the volume changes were a mistake, so he made careful notes for when to turn it up and when to turn it down so that the volume was "corrected." Warner Bros. gave the movie a limited, "B" movie-type release at first, sending it to drive-ins and lesser theaters. When critics began raving about the film and young people began to show up at screenings, it was better promoted, given a wider release and became a huge hit. This is Gene Wilder's first movie role. Thousand of berets were sold worldwide after Faye Dunaway wore them in this film. Warner Brothers had so little faith in the film that, in a then unprecedented move, they offered its first-time producer Warren Beatty 40% of the gross instead of a minimal fee. The movie then went on to gross over $50 million.

This movie was a very unconventional love affair between Bonnie and Clyde. It was controversial at the time for it's depiction of violence (tame by today's standards) and for supposedly glorifying murderers, and for its unprecedented violence. Bonnie and Clyde was the first film to feature extensive use of squibs — small explosive charges, often mounted with bags of red liquid and fired from inside an actor's clothes to simulate bullet hits. Bonnie and Clyde is also a landmark film in cinema history as it is regarded as the first film of the New Hollywood era, an era often regarded as Hollywood's second golden age. The film broke taboos, a common characteristic of the era and its success opened doors for other films.

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