Bonnie and Clyde
When Warren Beatty was on-board as producer only, his sister Shirley MacLaine was a strong possibility to play Bonnie. But when Beatty decided to play Clyde himself, for obvious reasons he decided not to use MacLaine.,The film portrays Texas Ranger Frank Hamer as a vengeful bungler who had been captured, humiliated, and released by Bonnie and Clyde. In reality, Hamer was already a legendary Texas Ranger when he was coaxed out of semi-retirement to hunt down the duo. He never met either of them until he and his posse successfully ambushed and killed them near Gibsland, Louisiana, in 1934. In 1968, Hamer's widow and son sued the movie producers for defamation of character over his portrayal and were awarded an out-of-court settlement in 1971.,Clyde Barrow: This here's Miss Bonnie Parker. I'm Clyde Barrow. We rob banks.,Several scenes (most of which can be read in the film's script) were shot but removed or altered for various reasons, either for content or to keep the running time under two hours. These scenes are, in chronological order:
The earliest versions had Clyde shooting and killing the butcher during their fight. This was toned down to Clyde just shooting the butcher, and finally just pistol whipping him. In real life, speculation still exists as to whether actually committed the crime this is based on; although his photo was picked out, the method in which it was executed doesn't fit his MO. In the final cut, there is a brief jump in the film during the fight, where it was spliced from the original, more graphic conclusion.,Featured in The 40th Annual Academy Awards (1968),Deep Night
Music by Charles Henderson
Lyrics by Rudy Vallee
Performed by Rudy Vallee
(heard over the opening credits),"Bonnie and Clyde" is a real innovative film in the fact that it does contain some extremely violent content. 1967 was a different time in the cinema. This film was one of the first, if not the first, that really showed violence the way it would be in real life. People bleed when they get shot and they die in gruesome fashions. The film itself is the somewhat true story of the infamous bank robbers who terrorized parts of Texas and Oklahoma in the early-1930s before they were finally terminated by the authorities. Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, Gene Hackman, and Michael J. Pollard all received Oscar nominations. Estelle Parsons won one in the Supporting Actress category. Dunaway and Hackman proved to be the finds of the decade and Beatty became the first real star to be an instrumental part in the actual production of the film. Watch for Gene Wilder in a somewhat funny sequence during the course of the action. Unrelenting and overall exceptional, "Bonnie and Clyde" is easily one of the top 10 films of the 1960s and one of the greatest films of all time. 5 stars out of 5.,