Bonnie and Clyde (1967) - Penn and Beatty's true-crime classic marks a turn in American film

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The wild, lawless allure of the subjects attract on this poster for Arthur Penn's Bonnie and Clyde

Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker are young and aimless in Texas in the doldrums of 1931's Depression-era US, but they find each other and discover a new kind of freedom, - based on robbing banks.

 
Bonnie and Clyde is written by Robert Benton (What's Up Doc? (1972)) and David Newman (Still of the Night (1982)), with uncredited contributions by Robert Towne (Tequila Sunrise (1988)), and directed by Arthur Penn (The Left Handed Gun (1958)). It is a heist/road movie/drama-romance based on the historical figures.

The film is a very entertaining, albeit perhaps a bit overrated, American classic, first and foremost because it is also very funny, which it seems to be with a charming ease. One example from the film could be Clyde's brother Buck's cow joke. Often the film blends comedy and crass violence for the audience to digest with some ambiguity. 

Gene Hackman (The French Connection (1971)) is Buck, and Gene Wilder (Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971)) debuts in a supporting role. Warren Beatty (Reds (1981)) produced and co-stars; he is great as Clyde. Faye Dunaway (Chinatown (1974)) is beautiful and lost as Bonnie.
Beatty and Dunaway's scenes together are wonderful. The language and the images of Bonnie and Clyde contribute to its distinguished magic. It is a good, oft cited and distinctive film.
But in the outlaw couple sub-genre, I find that both Terrence Malick's Badlands (1973) and David Lynch's Wild at Heart (1990), both, however, inevitably influenced by Bonnie and Clyde, are greater films.
Bonnie and Clyde was very trendsetting, and served as an indicator for the arrival of the New Hollywood era with young, strong-minded directors like Steven Spielberg, Brian De Palma, Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, William Friedkin and Martin Scorsese, who revitalized American cinema. It also marked a change in the depiction of violence; a change for the more boldly realistic, explicit and transgressive.
Bonnie and Clyde is heavily influenced by the French New Wave, and the direction of the film was, in fact, offered to both François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard, the two most famous directors of the French New Wave, before it ended up with Penn. SPOILER To those who have seen Bonnie and Clyde and wondered at Clyde's sexual problem in the film, it was originally the idea for the character to be portrayed as bisexual, but for reasons of censorship and possibly Beatty being against the idea, Clyde, in the film, is instead meant to be impotent.

 

Related post:

 

Arthur Penn: Top 10: Best heist movies

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 2.5 mil. $
Box office: Reportedly 70 mil. $
= Mega-hit (returned 28 times its cost)

[Bonnie and Clyde premiered 4 August (Montréal Film Festival) and runs 111 minutes. Truffaut passed on directing the film in favor of his Fahrenheit 451 (1966); Godard wanted to shoot in New Jersey (not Texas) and was not hired as a consequence; Penn was reportedly asked several times to direct by Beatty before accepting. Beatty's deal with Warner Bros. secured himself 40 % of the film's profits (if it would make any); and 10 % for Penn; eventually netting the two more than 6 mil. $ (Beatty) and more than 2 mil. $ (Penn). Dunaway was paid 60k $ for her performance in the film; Estelle Parsons (Diane (2018)) 5k $. Shooting took place from October 1966 - January 1967 in Texas, including in Dallas, and in California. Warner Bros. were unsupportive of the film, which ran over budget, and tried to give it a small release without marketing it, but its impressive reception (and Beatty's threat to sue) made them change their tune, and the film became their 2nd highest-grossing film up to that point, only beaten by My Fair Lady (1964). It was in the North-American top 12 for 22 weeks, becoming one of the 5 highest-grossing films overall in 1967.The film was nominated for 10 Oscars, winning 2: For Best Supporting Actress (Parsons) and Cinematography (Burnett Guffey (The Split (1968)). It lost Best Actor (Beatty) to Rod Steiger for In the Heat of the Night; Supporting Actor (Hackman; Michael J. Pollard (Forever Lulu (2000))) to George Kennedy in Cool Hand Luke; Actress (Dunaway) to Katharine Hepburn in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner; Costume Design to Camelot; Director to Mike Nichols for The Graduate; Picture to In the Heat of the Night; and Original Screenplay to William Rose for Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. It also won 1/4 BAFTA award nominations, 2 David di Donatello awards and was nominated for 7 Golden Globes and a Grammy, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 4/4 star review, translating to 2 notches over this one. Penn returned with Flesh and Blood (1968, TV movie) and theatrically with Alice's Restaurant (1969). Beatty returned in The Only Game in Town (1970); Dunaway in The Thomas Crown Affair (1968). Bonnie and Clyde is certified fresh at 91 % with an 8.40/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Bonnie and Clyde?

American Graffiti (1973) or, Cruisin' Modesto '62

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A 1960s-nostalgic drawn poster for George Lucas's American Graffiti

American Graffiti comprises 4 stories of young people on one night in Modesto, California of 1962. - Young people cruising in their long cars, listening to rock 'n roll, fooling around with each other; young people who will soon have to leave their safe nests and fly out into the world.

Wonderful, fresh actors' performances embellish this romantic youth car drama from Ron Howard (I Spy (1966), TV-series), Charlie Martin Smith (Perfect Alibi (1995)) as 'the Toad' and others. It is written by Gloria Katz (Howard the Duck (1986)), Willard Huyck (Lucky Lady (1975)) and great Californian co-writer/director George Lucas (Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999)), who is from Modesto.
The music plays a great part of this narratively loose, refreshing and funny film, and it swings beautifully. American Graffiti combines the peculiar cruising phenomenon with such innocently charming lines such as, "Go kiss a duck!".
Innocent, underplayed or down-toned bordering on the conflict-averse and nearly sleep-inducing, Lucas's extraordinarily successful, nostalgic American Graffiti may boldly be labeled the deciding factor that Star Wars ever came to be, simply because of its surprisingly enormous success.
The film is by many considered an American classic.

Related post:

George Lucas: Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002) - Despite stale romance and Anakin, Episode II excites 

 

Watch an original trailer for the film here

Cost: 777k $
Box office: 118 mil. $
= Blockbuster
[American Graffiti premiered 1 August (Los Angeles, California) and runs 112 minutes. Lucas developed the film following his unsuccessful sci-fi THX 1138 (1971), and all the major studios turned down his pitch except for Universal Pictures, who bounced the small 600k $ budget with 175k $, when Francis Ford Coppola (The Florentine (1999)) signed on to produce. Harrison Ford (The Fugitive (1993)) was focusing on a carpeting career and would only appear, if he didn't have to cut his hair. Shooting took place in California from June - August 1972. The unruly production is notorious for its many later stars appearing and for the rambunctious stories; Ford was thrown out of his Holiday Inn hotel for drunkenness and climbing its sign; Richard Dreyfuss (Nuts (1987)) concurred a gash in his head after being thrown in a pool on the day before he was to shoot closeup scenes; Paul Le Mat (Wishman (1992)) was hospitalized for an allergic reaction to walnuts; Lucas' hotel room was set on fire by an actor; and two camera operators were nearly killed filming the climactic race scene. The film was edited down from an initial 3½ hour version, and Universal threatened with releasing it only as a TV movie, if Lucas didn't cut 4 more minutes from his final version. Only through terrific word of mouth did Universal decide to give the film a 500k $ marketing campaign. It made sensational 55 mil. $ in North America. The only foreign market that was good for it was France, where it was a cult hit. The 4 minutes were put back for the 1978 re-release, where the film took another enormous 63 mil. $ in North America. It is one of the most profitable movies of all time and has exceeded 200 mil. $ in earnings with home video sales taken into accounts. According to Lucas, Coppola "still kicks himself" for not having financed the film himself. It was nominated for 5 Oscars: Supporting Actress (Candy Clark (Niagara, Niagara (1997))), lost to Tatum O'Neal in Paper Moon, Director, lost to George Roy Hill for masterpiece The Sting, Editing, also lost to The Sting, Picture, also lost to The Sting, and Original Screenplay, lost to David S. Ward for The Sting. It won 2/4 Golden Globe nominations, was nominated for a BAFTA and other honors. Lucas returned with great sci-fi adventure Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977), partially made possible due to profits from American Graffiti. A sequel by Bill L. Norton featuring most of the original cast, More American Graffiti (1979) was released to a much smaller reception. American Graffiti is certified fresh at 96 % with an 8.4/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of American Graffiti?

1941 (1979) - Spielberg's bizarre 'comedy spectacular' sinks like a rock

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A packed, explosive and fire engine red poster drawn poster for Steven Spielberg's 1941

Ohioan master filmmaker Steven Spielberg's (Jurassic Park (1993)) initial entry in the annals of the bombs of the New Hollywood directors is his 1979 war comedy 1941. The failure was not as spectacular as that of some of his contemporaries, like Dennis Hopper's The Last Movie (1971), Martin Scorsese's New York, New York (1977), Francis Ford Coppola's Peggy Sue Got Married (1986), George Lucas's Howard the Duck (1986) or (especially) Michael Cimino's Heaven's Gate (1980), and it broke even and may have turned a slight profit, but it is still a deeply strange jumble, an impressively gigantic production of a crazy array of ideas and pointless dalliances. It is written by Robert Zemeckis (Flight (2012)) and Bob Gale (Amazing Stories (1986), TV-series), with John Milius (Evel Knievel (1971)) contributing story elements.

Centered on a war-paranoid, gun-loving Los Angeles in the wake of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, 1941 presents a range of more or less comical figures, who we follow as they engage in attacks on - mostly - each other.

Some audiences surely think that 1941 portrays the American war effort in WWII as silly, a laugh, pointless, and/or unimportant. If Spielberg had not stayed working for decades and given us two of the best, serious WWII-films of all time as well, later on in his career - Schindler's List (1993) and Saving Private Ryan (1998), - 1941 would have been a much more embarrassing blot on his body of work than it is.
As it stands, I don't feel he should be embarrassed of it. Everyone knows that Spielberg's heart is in the right place, and he just made a ridiculous film back in the heyday of these young directors' perceived immortality in 1979. Today, perhaps, he has become even more immortal in terms of his industry status and monetary gains; (he was the second-highest earning celebrity of 2012 according to Forbes Magazine; making around 100 mil. $; only surpassed by Madonna.) - But does Spielberg have more good pictures up his sleeves? His only directorial effort planned at the time of writing this is an Indiana Jones 5, with the far from youthful Harrison Ford (Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)), and it thus it unfortunately seems that Spielberg's finest hours are behind him. (Ed.: This was proved wrong as Spielberg did return with great family comedy The BFG (2016) and political drama masterpiece The Post (2017).)
Back to 1941:
Lacking a central character and an engaging story, and super-abundant in odd slapstick-comedy that doesn't result in real laughs, 1941 is strange, empty and extravagant to a point of ... pointlessness.
Visually, much of it is made uncomfortably bright for no apparent reason, while a seemingly grand and spectacular airplane scene in LA towards the end is so under-lit that it is hard to make out what's going on.
With an impressive cast of names such as Toshirô Mifune (Winter Kills (1979)), Ned Beatty (The Killer Inside Me (2010)), John Candy (Space Balls (1987)), Christopher Lee (Starship Invasions (1977)), Slim Pickens (The Swarm (1978)), Robert Stack (Police Story (1976), TV-series), Treat Williams (Moola (2007)) and others, and several fellow filmmakers involved in its making, contributing jokes, cameos, story, and script-wise, at least for Spielberg's sake, when the film was met with incomprehension, head-shaking and box office far below his two sensational films before it, masterpiece Jaws (1975) and Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), - he had a boatload of good people on his side to share the negative critique with.
The things that make 1941 bearable (if not, for the general viewer, worth watching exactly), are the few laughs that it does have. Especially John Belushi (Old Boyfriends (1979)) and Dan Aykroyd (Tammy (2014)) and some of the toilet-humored Pickens-scenes supply these. There's also a quite extraordinarily staged and filmed dance scene that goes totally amok, which is also entertaining and fun in its own way.
Spielberg has stated that he considered turning 1941 into a musical halfway through production, and that, in retrospect, it might have helped it. I doubt it, but, of course, we will never know.

Related posts:

Steven Spielberg: The Post (2017) - Spielberg returns to mastery with a thrilling salute to the virtues of real, critical, brave journalism
War Horse (2011) - Spielberg visits WWI with problematic horse drama
The Adventures of Tintin/The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn (2011) - Affinities for Tintin, earlier Spielberg and film will decide your experience of this 3D mo-cap adventure
Super 8 (2011) - Abrams' nostalgic family crowdpleaser (producer)
Band of Brothers - TV mini-series (2001) - WWII-sacrifice and -comradeship portrayed with skill and integrity (producer)
A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) - A robot fairy tale with both heart and mind
Amistad (1997) or, Must... Free... Slaves! 
Empire of the Sun (1987) - Spielberg's grand production of boy-in-China-during-WWII is a misfire
Twilight Zone The Movie (1983) - Fear takes many forms in tragedy-struck anthology
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) - Spielberg's greatest accomplishment
Top 10: Best car chases in movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Duel (1971) - Spielberg's truck terror is ideal afternoon fare
 

Here is a teaser for the film with Belushi prominently featured

Cost: 35 mil. $
Box office: 94.4 mil. $
= Box office success
[1941 premiered 13 December (Los Angeles, California) and runs 118 minutes. Spielberg sought out cinema legends John Wayne and Charlton Heston to participate in the film, but both advised him against it and called it unpatriotic. The enormously long shoot took place in California, including Los Angeles, and in Oregon from October 1978 - May 1979. Belushi was in an airplane accident during shooting and was hospitalized; the shot of the accident was used in the film. The film opened #3 to a 2.7 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it grossed 31.7 mil. $ (33.6 % of the total gross). The film was nominated for 3 Oscars: Best Cinematography (William A. Fraker (Protocol (1984))), lost to Vittorio Storaro for Apocalypse Now, Best Effects, Visual Effects, lost to Alien, and Best Sound, lost to Apocalypse Now. Roger Ebert gave the film a 1.5/4 star review, translating to one notch harder than this review. Spielberg has later said that personal arrogance on his side contributed to the film's not "funny enough" but that he is "not embarrassed by it." He returned with great adventure Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). Belushi and Aykroyd returned together in John Landis' masterpiece The Blues Brothers (1980). 1941 is rotten at 36 % with a 5.2/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of 1941?