10/10
(Top 10 choice) Superb job done by all involved.
22 April 1999
Besides being an enormously entertaining movie, "Bonnie and Clyde" was an important 1960's landmark film in a couple of ways. Its violent ending helped to hasten the end of the old Hayes code, which had been a severe restrictor of artistic freedom; and it helped shape the '60's image of the anti-hero. For these things it received a good deal of condemnation as well as commendation.

The picture is a melange of artistic license and historical accuracy. The recreation of the Depression-era look is superb. (It's done in an unostentatious manner, however. One feels it rather than particularly noting it.) While some liberties are taken with the story, a reasonable amount jibes with the facts. But certainly there is some romanticization here. And of course the real Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker were not nearly as attractive as Beatty and Dunaway.

The acting by the two principals is top-notch, as well as that of most of the rest of the cast, especially Gene Hackman (the first film I ever saw him in) and Estelle Parsons.It's not generally recognized that actors Denver Pyle, Dub Taylor and Gene Wilder contribute to the movie's success. Technically as well as artistically everyone from director Arthur Penn on down deserves praise for making what I think is one of the finest movies ever made, without qualification. It seems we all reserve the warmest spots in our hearts for favorite films of our youth. This is one of mine.

And you'll love Flatt & Scruggs' "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" too.
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