Bonnie and Clyde (1967 film) = Finished

There's a scene near the end of the movie where Bonnie and Clyde roll into a camp of what seem to be dispossessed Americans. Their gang--or what's left of it--has been shot to bits, left dehydrated and shaking from their recent ambush. Inept companion C.W. Moss scrambles from the car to ask the hardscrabble group outside for water. At first, they're suspicious of the tattooed stranger. Then they see who else is in the car.

Men, women, and children crowd around its windows to get a glimpse of the infamous outlaws. "That's Bonnie and Clyde," they whisper. They're enthralled by the stories that have spread across the country, even while facing the all too human, flawed reality.

I've seen a similar effect with this movie. Before watching it myself, I had heard Bonnie and Clyde hailed as this symbol of peak, transgressive 60s Hollywood cinema. The sexy, tragic story of legendary outlaws Bonnie and Clyde.

That's...not the story this movie tells.

In actuality, Bonnie and Clyde are primarily depicted as screw-ups. Failed criminals, failed friends--even failed lovers, in the case of Clyde's sexual impotence. What crimes they manage to pull off are riddled with misadventure and poor planning. They spend more time goofing off at the side of the road, taking pictures with a Texas ranger they've captured, than they ever do staking out the heist they need to buy their next meal. Clyde is an insecure mess using his skill with a gun as a substitute for his lack of ability in the bedroom, Bonnie had no idea what she signed up for and can be seen as increasingly resenting the life she's been forced into, Moss is a dullard who can drive well some of the time, Buck Barrow is a fast-talking country slouch, his wife Blanche is a braying liability...all in all, the group shown isn't legendary. It's a miracle--stunning, because it hasn't totally fallen apart yet.

Bonnie and Clyde ends, not with Bonnie and Clyde's death (as in the fantastic Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid), but with the police approaching their dead bodies. They silently watch at the corpses of our 'heroes'. The movie closes with their perspective, because in many ways, it isn't about Bonnie and Clyde at all. It's about the story others built around them. The romantic tale we wanted to see in their pairing.

How ironic that this movie is now given the same, valorizing treatment.