Realism

An example of realism in Bonnie and Clyde would be the verisimilitude that comes with the violent scenes. Before the New Hollywood era, heavy uses of things like blood were uncommon in films, so Arthur Penn challenges this by presenting a realistic depiction of what would have happened to characters when shot at.

Tone

Suspense is built in the final scene of the film, with the fast paced editing between shots creating a sense of panic for the audience before the eventual firing of the guns.

Visual Style

A common camera shot during the French New Wave era was tracking shots. One scene in which these are used in Bonnie and Clyde is the scene where Clyde exits the car to run after Bonnie. The camera follows the vehicle as it moves, as opposed to remaining stationary and having the car go into the distance.

Women

In Bonnie and Clyde, Bonnie holds just as much power as Clyde as they work together and posses the same motives. Yet throughout, the representation of women is different to men as they turn against each other like the characters Blanche Barrow and Bonnie Parker (seen below). They seem to turn against each other perhaps because Bonnie wants to be the only female holding the power and also because Blanche is not a criminal like Bonnie.

Men

Throughout Bonnie and Clyde, there are obvious men who hold more power like Clyde and his brother Buck Barrow (image 2), compared to C.W (image 1), as they treat C.W as someone with less power. This is changed because C.W has to look after them, showing his ture friendship yet when he brings them to his dad to take care of them, his dad convinces him to help set Bonnie and Clyde up in order for them to be captured and killed. C.W turns into the powerful character. So in Bonnie and Clyde, men are represented as power holders and are used to show the difference of status (Clyde v.s C.W).

Authority Figures

While Bonnie and Clyde are on the run, they seem to keep dodging the authority, though this Sheriff captures them they decide to mess with him, showing the lack of power held by the Sheriff when it came to ‘powerful’ criminals like Bonnie and Clyde. Yet at the end, the authority make a comeback and manage to capture Bonnie and Clyde.

People Of Colour

The people of colour in Bonnie and Clyde is not hugely spoken on and the plot does not include much about the people of colour and their significance, despite their significance in the Great Depression in real life back in the 1930s. However a previous farm worker appears with another previous farm worker (image below) when Bonnie and Clyde and practising shooting. Bonnie and Clyde lend their gun to these farm workers to use, giving them much joy. Their is a moment of silence as appreciation in this scene, showing Bonnie and Clyde’s sympathetic personality’s when not in their criminal mindsets, just being normal people.

Working Class Americans

In the movie Bonnie and Clyde, working class Americans were represented in a way that showed that the people of time were suffering from economic collapse. This can be seen in scenes like when C.W drives to a rural area in which people are camped in to find some water for Bonnie and Clyde (image 1), and when Bonnie and Clyde are found practising shooting guns and the previous farm workers show up with their family in the car (image 2). Bonnie and Clyde symbolise the two naïve lovers who decide to carve out their own American Dream by rejecting the failing economic systems during the Great Depression. Though Bonnie and Clyde were actually liked by a lot of the public because so much of the working-class population of the United States were hit hard by the depression, many were more sympathetic to criminals who were targeting banks and other financial institutions, which were perceived to have been behind the economic collapse.

men: in Casablanca men are presented as powerful and responsible. this is the stereotype men had when the film was set and the director wanted to keep this stereotype. however when rick meets ilsa he becomes more venerable and shares his feelings. this shows the effect woman have on men i the film

women: in Casablanca women are mostly seen as romantic counterparts for the male characters. Ilsa is the main woman in the film and she loves 2 men at the same time (rick and victor , but she also shows independence by making her own choices such as threating rick with a gun (rick was not phased).

authority figures: in Casablanca authority figures are presented as corrupt weather it be for good or for bad.

people of colours: can be seen through the character of Sam, who challenges stereotypes by being among many white people while performing, in a time where racial segregation was a serious problem.

Europeans

americans

Bonnie and Clyde mainly uses continuity editing, in which each scene flows naturally to the next. However, similarly to other films of the New Hollywood era, elements of discontinuity editing are also used.

Discontinuity editing can be seen in the death scene of the titular characters, in which there are rapid cuts between Bonnie, Clyde and the policemen shooting them from several angles.

What style of editing is used in Bonnie and Clyde?

Arthur Penn uses shot-reverse-shot in the diner conversation, tempo, timing, along with joining shots to enhance the film. The simplistic editing and use of close ups encourages the audience to focus on the dynamic between the characters as Clyde is revealed to be insightful and intuitive and Bonnie to be surprised and impressed. The most renowned scene in the film is the final scene of the film where Penn used various shots to capture several emotions and actions within seconds of film time. He also utilises narrative seuencing to tell the infamous tale of Bonnie and Clyde.

diegetic : used Rapid jarring cuts between Clyde, Malcolm and Bonnie are used as they hear the diegetic sound of frightened birds flying away. This sound of the birds foreshadows their own sudden deaths in the seconds that follow.

non-diegetic : not as loud as the shutter sound: this opening music can be compared to the fanfare given through sound at the start of Casablanca

Location

Location, a key part of mise-en-scene, is crucial to the film Bonnie and Clyde. The film itself, set in Texas, shows many scenes that emphasize the film set being in Texas like the diverse landscapes featured in the film and the strong southern culture.

Sets (interiors)

There are many interior sets in Bonnie and Clyde because they are always on the run. For example this scene shown below, it is a good example of the simplistic yet at the time good enough for them life they had. They didn’t have much but after robbing the banks were able to afford more things. So the sets featured in the film continuously get better and better because of their increasing money from robbing.

Costumes

The costumes in Bonnie and Clyde are important in the sense that they show the typical styles of the era in which the film was set in (the early 1930’s). It also shows each characters persona, like for example in this scene, Bonnie is wearing her clothes that she wears for work as she meets Clyde before her work begins in the morning. It shows her lack of wealth before meeting Clyde and that shes really only just a Texan girl from the village. Clyde, throughout the film, is shown to dress smart and business like, as if he’s always ready to go out and make money. It shows his serious character persona with a hint of glamour and wealth.

Props

The main props in Bonnie and Clyde consist of guns used for shooting and defense. Here, Bonnie and Clyde are practicing shooting their guns. The use of props helps to emphasize the narrative of the film and show that the film is a crime/action.

realism: the realism in the film is mostly presented by the plot and how it relates to real world events such as WW2. the introduction sets the scene and tells us how so many people ended up in Casablanca which is factually correct.

tone: the tone of the film is mostly light-hearted and romantic and presents a sort of escapism for the audience who’s lives would have been affected by the war at this time

film noir: the film uses a film noir style as it uses lighting that would accommodate a black and whit movie. for example uses bright lighting for lighter scenes and darker lighting for more sadder scenes

dialogue: when rick says “everybody in Casablanca has problems yours may work out” he is telling ilsa that her problems are not that big compared to some of the other people who are in Casablanca due to the fact that the may be fighting in the war or have been exiled from there country

underscoring: when Rick shoots the general there is an underscore as this is a monumental point in the plot.

sound motif: when Sam the piano player sings “as time goes by” it reminds ilsa of the old times when she was together with rick and Sam

synchronous music : the music we here at the end of the movie is the same as the music at the start of the movie. this properly tells the audience that the movie is done and finished

sound mixing: The sound of dialogue, piano glasses clinking and background noise is all mixed into one scene