Bonnie and Clyde (film) - Production and Style

Production and Style

The film was intended as a romantic and comic version of the violent gangster films of the 1930s, updated with modern filmmaking techniques. Arthur Penn portrayed some of the violent scenes with a comic tone, sometimes reminiscent of Keystone Kops-style slapstick films, then shifted disconcertingly into horrific and graphic violence. The film was strongly influenced by the French New Wave directors, both in its rapid shifts of tone, and in its choppy editing, which is particularly noticeable in the film's closing sequence.

The film was originally offered to François Truffaut, the best-known director of the New Wave movement, who made contributions to the script. He passed on the project to make Fahrenheit 451. The producers approached Jean-Luc Godard next. Some sources claim Godard didn't trust Hollywood and refused; Richard Benton claimed that Godard wanted to shoot the film in New Jersey in January and took offense when would-be producer Norah Wright objected that was unreasonable considering the story took place in Texas with its year round warm environment while her partner, Elinor Jones, claimed they did not believe Godard was right for the project in the first place. After attending a screening of the completed film, Godard was asked what he thought of the film and reportedly replied, "Great! Now let's go make 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, obviously a different actress was called for. Those considered for the role were Jane Fonda, Tuesday Weld, Ann-Margret, Leslie Caron, Carol Lynley and Sue Lyon. Cher auditioned for the part, while Warren Beatty begged Natalie Wood to play the role. Wood declined the role to concentrate more on her therapy at the time, and acknowledged that working with Beatty before was "difficult."

The film is forthright in its handling of sexuality, but that theme was toned down from its conception. Originally, Benton and Newman wrote Clyde as bisexual and he and Bonnie were to have a three-way sexual relationship with their male getaway driver. However, Arthur Penn persuaded the writers that the relationship's emotional complexity was underwritten, it dissipated the passion of the title characters and it would harm the audience's sympathy for the characters who would write them off as sexual deviants because they are criminals. Others claimed that Beatty was not willing to have his character display that kind of sexuality and that the Production Code would never allow such content in the first place. Instead, Clyde is portrayed as unambiguously heterosexual, if impotent. When Clyde brandishes his gun to display his manhood, Bonnie suggestively strokes the phallic symbol. Like the 1950 film Gun Crazy, Bonnie and Clyde portrays crime as alluring and intertwined with sex. Because Clyde is impotent, his attempts to physically woo Bonnie are frustrating and anti-climactic.

Bonnie and Clyde was one of the first films to feature extensive use of squibs — small explosive charges, often mounted with bags of stage blood, that are detonated inside an actor's clothes to simulate bullet hits. Released in an era where shootings were generally depicted as bloodless and painless, the Bonnie and Clyde death scene was one of the first in mainstream American cinema to be depicted with graphic realism.

Beatty had originally wanted the film to be shot in black and white, but Warner Bros. rejected this idea. As it stood, much of the senior management of the studio was hostile towards this film project, especially Jack Warner who considered the subject matter an unwanted throwback to Warner Brothers' early period when gangster films were common product. In addition, Warner was already annoyed at Beatty who refused to star in the film, PT 109 at his behest and was insolent enough to defy his favorite gesture of authority of showing the studio water tower with the WB logo on it by responding "Well, it's got your name, but it's got my initials." In addition, Warner complained about the film's extensive location shooting in Texas that exceeded its production schedule and budget until he ordered the crew back to the studio backlot, which it had planned to anyway for final process shots.

At first, Warner Brothers did not promote Bonnie and Clyde for general release, but instead mounted only limited regional releases that seemed to confirm its misgivings about the film's lack of commercial appeal, despite the fact the film was doing excellent sustained business in select urban theatres. In fact, while Jack Warner was selling the studio to Seven Arts, he would have had the film dumped but for the fact that Israel, of whom Warner was a major supporter, had scored a triumphant victory in the Seven Days War, and he was in too defiant a mood to sell any of his studio's films. Meanwhile, Warren Beatty, Bonnie and Clyde's producer and star, complained to Warner Brothers that if the company was willing to go to so much trouble for Reflections in a Golden Eye (they had changed the coloration scheme at considerable expense), which was getting poor reviews, their neglect of his film, which was getting excellent press, suggested a conflict of interest; he threatened to sue the company. Warner Brothers gave Beatty's film a general release. It eventually became a major box office success.