Bonnie and Clyde Essay Questions

How does Clyde persuade Bonnie to join him in his life of crime?

When Clyde first meets Bonnie, she is already intrigued by his daring attempt to steal her car. However, as seduced as she is by Clyde's boldness, she still needs some convincing when it comes to joining him in his life of crime. He appeals to her sense of adventure and her desire to escape from her confining and average life in Dallas living with her mother and working at a waitress. If she comes with him, he tells her, she has the chance to be someone, and she is the perfect girl for the job because in his estimation, she's "different."

What was most striking about the film upon its release?

The most shocking moment in the film, then and now, is the final sequence in which the cops finally catch up with Bonnie and Clyde and gun them down. The sustained moment of violence is intense and unforgiving, and the frank depiction of murder, as well as the fact that this is how the film ends, is one of its more notable elements. Part of what makes this final sobering depiction of violence so intense is that much of the film hitherto has a lighthearted, almost comic tonality. Taking cues from the French New Wave, Arthur Penn sought to imbue the film with both light and dark elements, and vacillates between the two poles recklessly. This tonal whiplash is part of what makes the film so iconic and shocking for its time.

In spite of taking place in the 1930s, the film is often touted as emblematic of the mid to late 60s. Why?

It is often said that period films are reflections more of the time in which they were made than the time they depict. Bonnie and Clyde depicts Texas during the Great Depression, and the design elements, performances, and dialogue all reflect this, yet many have interpreted it as an allegory for youth culture in the 1960s. Bonnie and Clyde, two young people searching for meaning by rebelling against state institutions and big banks, represent a kind of liberated countercultural tide, and their conflicts with a more conservative older generation that disapproves of their more starry-eyed ambitions.

What makes Bonnie and Clyde tragic?

The story of the two bank robbers is not only tragic because they both die in the end at a young age, a tragic enough premise in and of itself. Additionally, the fact that the two heroes are so naive and earnest in their dream of freedom and a better life makes their story all the more achingly tragic. These are not simply bloodthirsty sociopathic gangsters, but two lost souls looking to make an impression on a world that seems impervious to their influence. Left alone, they are two dreamy lovebirds hoping to find a life worth living in the midst of a devastating economic depression and a political landscape that seeks to stifle them.

How does the film address sex?

Bonnie and Clyde, as portrayed by the Hollywood stars Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty, are both exceptionally attractive people with good style and a taste for danger. They seem ignited by the adrenaline of their crimes, pulled together by the shared rush of a robbery. This mutual attraction is overshadowed, however, by the fact that Clyde is impotent and they can never actually consummate their interest in one another. The film is frank in its depiction of sex—there is a scene in which Bonnie attempts oral sex, and another in which she strokes a gun, heightening its symbolic phallic-ness—and was noted for the fact that it didn't shy away from depicting its characters' sexualities.