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A32 FEATURE
Monday 14 august 2017
Warren Beatty on ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ at 50

By JAKE COYLE (“Chinatown”) to doctor
AP Film Writer the script and cast, among
NEW YORK (AP) — “Bon- others, a young actor he
nie and Clyde” might have had previously shot one
indelibly captured the scene with: Gene Hack-
spirit of the anti-authoritar- man.
ian’60s with a pair of devil- “In the case of Bonnie and
may-care bank robbers Clyde,’ it was important for
from the ‘30s. But it didn’t me to have control,” said
exactly roar into theaters Beatty. Few thought there
when it opened 50 years was much money to be
ago. made, including the nearly
The film, starring Warren dozen directors that turned
Beatty and Faye Dunaway down Beatty, including
as the fatalistic outlaws, George Stevens, William
would become a cultural Wyler and the man who
sensation, one of the big- eventually relented, Arthur
gest box office hits up until Penn.
that point and a 10-time Beatty, now 80, isn’t much
Oscar nominee. But on inclined to diagnose the
its initial release on Au- considerable influence of
gust 13 in the midst of the “Bonnie and Clyde.”
Summer of Love, “Bonnie “I thought that it was
and Clyde” was virtually good,” Beatty said. “But
gunned down by bad re- I’m really of the opinion —
views and a tepid recep- In this Jan. 24, 1968, file photo, Fay Dunaway, left, and Warren Beatty appear at the Paris pre- and it seemed to me even
tion at the box office. miere of their film, “Bonnie and Clyde.” then — when you make
“Sometimes you make a Associated Press a movie, you don’t really
movie where everyone know what you’ve made
gets the joke immediate- until years later. It takes
ly,” said Warren Beatty in depredations of that slea- time to separate one’s
zy, moronic pair as though
an interview looking back opinion from the gamble of
on “Bonnie and Clyde.” they were as full of fun and the moment. It’s impossible
frolic as the jazz-age cut-
‘’And then you have a dif- to factor out all of the non-
ferent situation with other ups in ‘Thoroughly Modern sense that accompanies
Millie.’”
movies.” trying to sell something.”
“Bonnie and Clyde” re- But “Bonnie and Clyde” But Beatty does believe
caught on with others,
turned to theaters Sunday strongly that the patience
to mark its 50th anniversary notably Pauline Kael. Her required to let audiences
9,000-word New Yorker
and it will again play na- catch up to “Bonnie and
tionwide on Wednesday review called it the most Clyde” holds important
exciting American movie
as part of Fathom Events’ lessons for today’s open-
TCM Big Screen Classics since “The Manchurian ing-weekend-centric Hol-
Candidate” (1962). “The
series. It remains an ep- lywood. “The way mov-
ochal landmark in Ameri- audience is alive to it,” ies were released in those
wrote Kael.
can movies: the first bullet times gave the public the
fired in the coming storm of Others flip-flopped. Months time to become interest-
after Time magazine la-
the American New Wave ed,” he said. “Now that
— the “New Hollywood” beled it “a strange and has been eliminated with
purposeless mingling of
of Coppola, Scorsese, Alt- what we call mass release.
man and others. fact and claptrap that tee- We’ve now reached a
ters uneasily on the brink of
It’s fitting, in a way, that point in the movie business
“Bonnie and Clyde” should burlesque,” the magazine where the marketing of a
put it on its Dec. 8 cover
be celebrated with a re- low-cost picture costs quite
release. That’s how it es- (“The New Cinema: Vio- a bit more than the mak-
lence ... Sex ... Art”), calling
tablished itself, in the first ing of the movie. I think the
place. it a “watershed picture.” chaos that has resulted
After making $2.5 million in
“Bonnie and Clyde” made In this Feb. 26, 2017 file photo, Faye Dunaway, left, and Warren from that is leading us to
a small dent in its 1967 re- 1967, “Bonnie and Clyde” Beatty present the award for best picture at the Oscars in Los different approaches.”
grossed $16.5 million in its
lease, but it sparked a de- Angeles. It’s a subject that over the
layed response. This was 1968 re-release, making it Associated Press course of more than an
one of the top 20 highest
before the days of wide hour’s conversation Beatty
release, and critics had grossing films. returned to frequently. It
“The general opinion at
considerable influence on Francois Truffaut about head Jack Warner. was no doubt a factor in
the months-long rollout of the time was that if you Robert Benton and David But Beatty — an up-and- the disappointing recep-
have that kind of violence,
films. Most outlets slammed Newman’s script, optioned coming star then thanks to tion for Beatty’s last film
the film, with many ob- you can’t mix it with humor. it. Though actors now rou- “Splendor in the Grass” — and — his first time direct-
Well, we did,” said Beatty.
jecting to its cavalier vio- tinely produce their films, it fought for it. He developed ing in nearly two decades
lence. The New York Times The film is connected with was then unheard of. The the film and negotiated — “Rules Don’t Apply,” a
Beatty for far more than
called it “a cheap piece of gangster film was seen as a himself a remarkable 40 ‘60s-set film much inspired
bald-faced slapstick com- his leading performance. little passe then, too, espe- percent of the profits. He by Beatty’s own arrival to
Beatty, after hearing from
edy that treats the hideous cially by then-Warner Bros. brought in Robert Towne Hollywood.q