Activities

1. How authentic are the scenes of the 1930s?

Why would the ordinary people who appear in the film view Bonnie and Clyde as "outlaw heroes" rather than criminals?

The brief scene from the 1933 movie, Gold Diggers of 1933, is authentic. Why would musicals like that become popular in the 1930s?

2. Why would Bonnie & Clyde introduce references to John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath?

That novel was made into a movie in 1940. To what extent does Bonnie & Clyde imitate the story and structure of The Grapes of Wrath?

3. Although Bonnie (Faye Dunaway) wears clothing and hairstyles of the 1930s, how does her behavior express the values of the 1960s, the time when the movie was made?

What social choices did Bonnie face at the beginning of the movie? Had she not gone away with Clyde Barrow, what would she have become as a woman? How can you support your answer?

What does Bonnie feel about marriage and the family? What kind of a family does she desire?

What family role does the character C.W. Moss play? Which family is he loyal to?

4. In the movie, Bonnie reads aloud a poem that she has written:

But few of them are really justified
If you get right down to the point
You've heard of a woman's glory
Bein' spent on a downright cur...
Still you can't always judge the story
As true, bein' told by her.
Now Sal was a gal of rare beauty
Though her features were coarse and tough...
She never once faltered from duty
To play on the up and up.
Sal told me this tale on the evenin'
Before she was turned out free
And I'll do my best to relate it
Just as she told it to me.

What does this poetry tell about her character?

How does Bonnie's "identity crisis" at the beginning of the movie reflect the issues that young women faced during the 1960s? Is the movie character Bonnie Parker a "liberated" woman?

5. The character of Blanche Barrow is intended to contrast one woman's role with that of Bonnie Parker. What aspects of Blanche's character does Bonnie resent and reject? Why?

6. How does the film Bonnie & Clyde reflect the sexual revolution of the 1960s?

How does the movie present male sexuality? Why does it take the form it does?

According to the movie, what is the connection between sexuality and violence?

7. In the movie, Bonnie also presents a poem titled "The Story of Bonnie and Clyde":

You've heard the story of Jesse James
Of how he lived and died;
If you're still in need
Of something to read
Here's the story of Bonnie and Clyde...
Now Bonnie and Clyde are the Barrow gang.
I'm sure you all have read
How they rob and steal
And those who squeal
Are usually found dyin' or dead.
They call them cold-hearted killers
They say they are heartless and mean
But I say this with pride
That I once knew Clyde
When he was honest and upright and clean.
But the 'laws' fooled around
Kept takin' him down
And lockin' him up in a cell
Till he said to me: 'I'll never be free
So I'll meet a few of them in Hell.'
If a policeman is killed in Dallas
And they have no clue or guide
If they can't find a fiend
They just wipe their slate clean
And hang it on Bonnie and Clyde
If they try to act like citizens
And rent them a nice little flat
About the third night
They're invited to fight
By a sub-guns' rat-a-tat-tat.
Some day, they'll go down together
They'll bury them side by side
To few, it'll be grief -
To the law, a relief -
But it's death for Bonnie and Clyde.

How does this poem justify the activities of Bonnie and Clyde? What does the reference to Jesse James indicate?

What are the themes of the poem? Why would young audiences of the 1960s identify with these themes?

8. The decade of the 1960s saw enhanced interest in issues of civil rights and racial justice. Does this theme emerge in the film Bonnie & Clyde? Why or why not?

9. Bonnie & Clyde appeared on screen one year after the motion picture industry introduced a new production code that eliminated most forms of sexual and language censorship and rated movies so that audiences would self-censor their attendance at a specific show. What aspects of this movie would probably NOT have been acceptable to movie audiences of the 1930s, but were considered appropriate for adults of the 1960s?

Bonnie and Clyde