bonnie and clyde

Bonnie and Clyde was different than I expected; it was kind of a quirky movie. Some scenes were tense and violent, others were awkward and uncomfortable, and some were surprisingly really funny.
Bonnie and Clyde meet under odd circumstances- Bonnie is naked in her second-floor bedroom when she spots Clyde out the window attempting to steal her mother’s car. Looking more for a distraction from her frustratingly monotonous life than to interfere with the crime, she throws on a dress and runs outside to talk to him. Walking through the quiet southern town, Clyde proves to Bonnie that he isn’t afraid to use a gun and robs a grocery store – the pair takes off in the first of many similar scenes of a car speeding out of town. They pick up a young gas station attendant in one scene, apparently in need of some extra help, and they soon acquire Clyde’s brother and sister-in-law as part of the team. Interestingly, there is little point to their complicated lifestyle of robbing banks, fleeing sheriffs, and hiding out in motels- other than the cash. Cash isn’t worth quite as much when you can’t live in luxury, however, and Bonnie even points out in a quiet moment with Clyde: She originally believed they were going somewhere, but now she realizes that they are just going. They have to keep running if they want to live, and that’s all they can ever have.
When Bonnie and Clyde were still becoming acquainted, they shared a table in a diner and Clyde predicted nearly every detail of Bonnie’s life as a waitress and how she felt trapped. Her need to escape led to every detail of the film – beginning when she ran downstairs in hope of meeting someone new and exciting and ending with countless deaths. She wanted to run, and they literally ran from their former lives and from the authorities. While I enjoyed the parts that made me laugh – like when Clyde decides to chase the car that was chasing them, or when Gene Wilder learns that his girlfriend is 33 years old – there was a sense of sadness in this film. Bonnie wanted a new life, but she desperately wished she could return to parts of the old life when she realized she was in so deep. This scenario can be applied to nearly anyone who worked so hard to escape their former life that they can never return- even when they change their mind. Bonnie continuously alluded to returning home to her mother or to a married life with Clyde where no one was chasing them. Even her mother understood that it was irreversible and they needed to keep running to protect themselves. Perhaps it was for this reason that I hoped they would escape the police and find somewhere to live in secret. They were thieves and murderers who frustrated me, but because I could see their humanity and their odd capability to kill one person but to love someone else tenderly, I sympathized with them at times. The characters experienced a strange variety of emotions in this film, and when it ended I wasn’t sure how to feel.