{"id":111716,"date":"2017-08-14T03:15:35","date_gmt":"2017-08-14T07:15:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=111716"},"modified":"2017-08-14T03:27:56","modified_gmt":"2017-08-14T07:27:56","slug":"warren-beatty-on-bonnie-and-clyde-at-50","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/08\/14\/warren-beatty-on-bonnie-and-clyde-at-50\/","title":{"rendered":"Warren Beatty on ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ at 50"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\u201cBonnie<\/a>
\u201cBonnie and Clyde\u201d returned to theatres Sunday to mark its 50th anniversary and it will again play nationwide on Wednesday as part of Fathom Events’ TCM Big Screen Classics series. (Photo<\/a> by tara hunt\/Flickr<\/a>, CC BY-SA 2.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

NEW YORK \u2014 \u201cBonnie and Clyde\u201d might have indelibly captured the spirit of the anti-authoritarian’60s with a pair of devil-may-care bank robbers from the ’30s. But it didn’t exactly roar into theatres when it opened 50 years ago.<\/span><\/p>\n

The film, starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway as the fatalistic outlaws, would become a cultural sensation, one of the biggest box office hits up until that point and a 10-time Oscar nominee. But on its initial release on August 13 in the midst of the Summer of Love, \u201cBonnie and Clyde\u201d was virtually gunned down by bad reviews and a tepid reception at the box office.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes you make a movie where everyone gets the joke immediately,\u201d said Warren Beatty in an interview looking back on \u201cBonnie and Clyde.\u201d \u201cAnd then you have a different situation with other movies.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBonnie and Clyde\u201d returned to theatres Sunday to mark its 50th anniversary and it will again play nationwide on Wednesday as part of Fathom Events’ TCM Big Screen Classics series. It remains an epochal landmark in American movies: the first bullet fired in the coming storm of the American New Wave \u2014 the \u201cNew Hollywood\u201d of Coppola, Scorsese, Altman and others.<\/span><\/p>\n

It’s fitting, in a way that \u201cBonnie and Clyde\u201d should be celebrated with a re-release. That’s how it established itself, in the first place.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBonnie and Clyde\u201d made a small dent in its 1967 release, but it sparked a delayed response. This was before the days of wide release, and critics had considerable influence on the months-long rollout of films. Most outlets slammed the film, with many objecting to its cavalier violence. The New York Times called it \u201ca cheap piece of bald-faced slapstick comedy that treats the hideous depredations of that sleazy, moronic pair as though they were as full of fun and frolic as the jazz-age cutups in ‘Thoroughly Modern Millie.\u201d’<\/span><\/p>\n

But \u201cBonnie and Clyde\u201d caught on with others, notably Pauline Kael. Her 9,000-word New Yorker review called it the most exciting American movie since \u201cThe Manchurian Candidate\u201d (1962). \u201cThe audience is alive to it,\u201d wrote Kael.<\/span><\/p>\n

Others flip-flopped. Months after Time magazine labeled it \u201ca strange and purposeless mingling of fact and claptrap that teeters uneasily on the brink of burlesque,\u201d the magazine put it on its Dec. 8 cover (\u201cThe New Cinema: Violence … Sex … Art\u201d), calling it a \u201cwatershed picture.\u201d After making $2.5 million in 1967, \u201cBonnie and Clyde\u201d grossed $16.5 million in its 1968 re-release, making it one of the top 20 highest grossing films.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe general opinion at the time was that if you have that kind of violence, you can’t mix it with humour. Well, we did,\u201d said Beatty.<\/span><\/p>\n

The film is connected with Beatty for far more than his leading performance. Beatty, after hearing from Francois Truffaut about Robert Benton and David Newman’s script, optioned it. Though actors now routinely produce their films, it was then unheard of. The gangster film was seen as a little passe then, too, especially by then-Warner Bros. head Jack Warner.<\/span><\/p>\n

But Beatty \u2014 an up-and-coming star then thanks to \u201cSplendor in the Grass\u201d \u2014 fought for it. He developed the film and negotiated himself a remarkable 40 per cent of the profits. He brought in Robert Towne (\u201cChinatown\u201d) to doctor the script and cast, among others, a young actor he had previously shot one scene with: Gene Hackman.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn the case of Bonnie and Clyde,’ it was important for me to have control,\u201d said Beatty.<\/span><\/p>\n

Few thought there was much money to be made, including the nearly dozen directors that turned down Beatty, including George Stevens, William Wyler and the man who eventually relented, Arthur Penn.<\/span><\/p>\n

Beatty, now 80, isn’t much inclined to diagnose the considerable influence of \u201cBonnie and Clyde.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI thought that it was good,\u201d Beatty said. \u201cBut I’m really of the opinion \u2014 and it seemed to me even then \u2014 when you make a movie, you don’t really know what you’ve made until years later. It takes time to separate one’s opinion from the gamble of the moment. It’s impossible to factor out all of the nonsense that accompanies trying to sell something.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But Beatty does believe strongly that the patience required to let audiences catch up to \u201cBonnie and Clyde\u201d holds important lessons for today’s opening-weekend-centric Hollywood.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe way movies were released in those times gave the public the time to become interested,\u201d he said. \u201cNow that has been eliminated with what we call mass release. We’ve now reached a point in the movie business where the marketing of a low-cost picture costs quite a bit more than the making of the movie. I think the chaos that has resulted from that is leading us to different approaches.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

It’s a subject that over the course of more than an hour’s conversation Beatty returned to frequently. It was no doubt a factor in the disappointing reception for Beatty’s last film and \u2014 his first time directing in nearly two decades \u2014 \u201cRules Don’t Apply,\u201d a ’60s-set film much inspired by Beatty’s own arrival to Hollywood.<\/span><\/p>\n

As to whether the notoriously indecisive Beatty will make another movie, he quickly answered, \u201cSure.\u201d \u201cI’ve always been fortunate enough to not rush and get away with it,\u201d he said. \u201cI’ve never made movies until I couldn’t avoid it any longer.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But Beatty has grave misgivings about the effect digital technologies have had on both the movie business and politics.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere are so many changes brought about in the new technology that it makes you think about Guttenberg more often than you would like,\u201d said Beatty. \u201cI don’t think the general public has come to grips with the need to command attention in this new technology. The requisite narcissism needed to gain attention in the entertainment business is somewhat dwarfed by what we see happening in all fields.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

And it’s the current political climate that Beatty alludes to when asked about the best-picture flub at the Academy Awards in February. It was, after all, the anniversary of \u201cBonnie and Clyde\u201d that prompted the film academy to put Beatty and Dunaway on the stage for that moment.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was kind of silly,\u201d said Beatty. \u201cI feel bad for the people who made the mistake. But I don’t think it’s an earth-shaking matter.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK \u2014 \u201cBonnie and Clyde\u201d might have indelibly captured the spirit of the anti-authoritarian’60s with a pair of devil-may-care …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":111727,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,106],"tags":[21128],"class_list":["post-111716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","category-hollywood","tag-bonnie-and-clyde-at-50","mauthors-jake-coyle","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}