Immediately in the film Bonnie and Clyde, director Arthur Penn uses editing to let the viewer know that the film will be moving at a rapid tempo.

As photographs quickly flash across the introduction, it lets the viewer know that the action will be fast paced. Throughout Bonnie and Clyde the use of editing does indeed romanticise the criminal activity of the Barrow gang, and is also used to recruit the viewer to the Barrow’s side.

Example of editing sequence in Bonnie and Clyde

A scene that stood out was the one where they had just robbed a bank and fled to Oklahoma, this scene stood out because narrative sequencing was used to depict a few results and opinions that resulted from the bank robbery all while they
were escaping from the police.

Narrative sequencing is used “to suggest the
simultaneity of events happening in different settings” (Pramaggiore 201).

While Bonnie, Clyde and the rest of their group were outrunning the police, a few shots of what was happening back at
the bank were entered into the sequence. these shots featured a policeman who was taking in the glory of having escaped the crimes of Bonnie and Clyde.

This was done to help the audience realize just how notorious Bonnie and Clyde had become. There is also a shot of an old man who thought what Bonnie and Clyde did was right by him.

A reason why this shot might have been added was so that the audience could sympathize with Bonnie and Clyde and not think of them as all that bad. 

Ultimately, Bonnie and Clyde were thieves and murderers but what Penn did with editing was to make the audience sympathize with them. He used tempo, timing, along with joining shots to enhance the film.