When someone mentions the infamous criminal duo Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, many people think of the 1967 film “Bonnie and Clyde.” Others may think of the Broadway musical by composer Frank Wildhorn which, although unsuccessful in its Broadway premiere, recently became a hit in London. However, neither of these dramatized tales, glamorizing the pair’s few years on the run as a daring, thrilling adventure, truly captures the spirit of their story.
It’s these works and largely fictionalized biographies like them which have created a warped public view of a wild, passionate pair, riding through the country, stealing and killing where they please, and who “laughed about it all the way home,” to quote the Georgie Fame song about them. However, if you delve into their true story, you will find that it’s something entirely different: a terribly tragic tale about two young people in love on a desperate road leading to a dead end. Not long after, Eddie is fired from his job the very day he makes a down payment on a house for himself and Joan.
With the balance due and Joan already moved into the new house, Eddie seems ready to return to his old gang. He makes one last attempt to plead for his job back, or at least a recommendation from his boss, but the man refuses to help him. What this film captures is the tragic nature of Bonnie and Clyde’s story.
Rather than focusing the entire time on a pair on the run, as most retellings do, the first hour of this 85-minute fi.