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ERA on Bonnie and Clyde

The story of Bonnie and Clyde is a classic one, these two young and reckless individuals meet by chance and immediately jump into a life of danger, crime, and thrills. It’s obvious to see there blatant attraction for each other, right away every conversation they have lights up their eyes and they are having fun every step of the way. They start small by holding up small inconsequential shops and only brandishing their weapons but eventually, things start ramping up and the loss of human life occurs.

In addition to increasing the want out for their arrest, they increase the size of their gang on step at a time. They quickly meet a mechanic who joins so that they can have someone to help with all the cars they steal and their getaways. Next, they join Clyde’s brother who is no novice to crime and his brother’s wife who is a preacher’s daughter and really is hesitant to every action that they take. As the size of their gang increases so does the level of their crimes. They start robbing bigger banks and taking much more money.

Eventually, this starts to catch up with them and they begin to build a large notorious reputation, The cops start to become more numerous and pursuing them much faster and with more firepower. Also Bonnie becomes increasingly dangerous and mischievous as time goes on she even goes as far as to kiss the cop that they capture. The movie ends with two shootouts one that results in Clyde’s brother’s eventual death and the final ambush by the police and the mechanics kin that results in Bonnie and Clyde dying in a storm of bullets. Overall this type of disregard for the law reminds me a lot of the wild west and that period of culture in America and we can see the similarity to all the pretty horses in the culture of an outlaw.

3 replies on “ERA on Bonnie and Clyde”

I agree that Bonnie and Clyde embodied the stereotypical American outlaw persona. As the movie progresses, the two become more and more hazardous and risky in their decisions. While the pair ultimately met their end during a shoot out, their legend and infamous nature lives on. Do you think the end of the movie was to emphasize the new coming of the law in the west? Or were Bonnie and Clyde just too ambitious in their pursuits? The presence of the law and ultimate victory of the cops could represent the disappearing of the frontier world, but might simply be due to the fault of the protagonists.

I really enjoyed this movie, as you do a great job of describing the plot and analyzing it. Towards the end of your ERA you compare the movie to the wild west in America in that time period. I found this comparison really interesting, and definitely agree with it. In particular, there are definitely some parallels between this movie and the book All the Pretty Horses. One example of this could be the violence in each, as there is blood and deaths in both. Additionally, the frontier and location play a role in both the movie and book.

Nick’s summary of the film, Bonnie and Clyde, is well organized and effective. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this movie and the fact that this is considered a classic story tells a lot about the film as a whole and its role in and display of American culture. This movie coincides with the ideals of crime and danger that are connected with the Wild West today. He talks about the connection to All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy and I would like to add another comparison to further illustrate this point. Another of McCarthy’s stories, No Country for Old Men, also depicts a similar portrayal of this time period and its connection with crime in the film. This book and these two films are three pieces of culture that have helped shape the current understanding of the Wild West and this time period in America.

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