Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

Source: Universal Pictures: Blu-ray, 2016.

Year: 1967

Director: Arthur Penn

Action Stars

Warren Beatty

Faye Dunaway

Gene Hackman

Michael J. Pollard

Denver Pyle

Genre: Crime Film

Country: United States

Story Duration: 01:48:04

Act Duration:

1st Act: 00:26:10

2nd Act: 00:27:12

3rd Act: 00:33:05

4th Act: 00:21:35

Plot Turns:

1st: First killing

2nd: Frank Hamer humiliated

3rd: Buck and Blanche captured

ASD Ratio: 46%

AAD Ratios:

1st Act: 33%

2nd Act: 54%

3rd Act: 62%

4th Act: 27%

Action Structure: 4123

Action Scenarios

Capture

Escape

Fall

Fight

Heist

Pursuit

Rescue

Speed

Total Action Moments: 29

1. Night to day transition, setting up sequence.
2. Clyde shot in arm hindering escape.
3. Destruction of property variant of the fight scenario.
4. Buck and Blanche captured.
Action Structure

Notable Action Sequence: Final Police Raid

Duration: 00:03:49

Act: 3rd

Action Scenarios:

Capture

Escape

Fall

Fight

Heist

Speed

Description: The final police raid that ends the 3rd section of the film coincides with what in screenwriting theory is labeled the all-is-lost moment. The sequence commences with a striking graphic match dissolve from night to morning after the Barrow gang narrowly escaped from an earlier police raid at a motel in Platte City, Iowa [Figure 1]. A figure in the distance appears from the cover of the trees demanding that the Barrow gang surrender, initiating the capture action scenario. Bonnie, Clyde, and C.W. Moss assist the wounded Buck and Blanche into their vehicle in attempted escape, vertically combining with the capture scenario. Clyde drives off, but the vehicle is encircled and shot at by the posse, preventing any easy means of flight. Clyde is then shot in the arm, causing him to crash the vehicle into the trees [Figure 2]. The gang spill out and split, with Buck and Blanche headed toward the gang’s other vehicle while Bonnie, Clyde, and C.W escape into the woods. In a destruction of property variant of the fight scenario, the posse direct fire at the second vehicle to prevent escape until it explodes in a ball of flames [Figure 3]. The capturing posse surround Buck and Blanche, in a shot that graphically represents their capture [Figure 4]. The moment incarnates a plot turn through Buck’s eventual death and by Blanche later on providing the identity C.W. Moss to Texas Ranger Frank Hamer. Bonnie, Clyde, and C.W. Moss continue their escape through the woods and across a river but are spotted by a police officer who shoots Bonnie in the shoulder. Wounded, they make their way to a farm where Clyde hot-wires a parked sedan, enacting the heist scenario, allowing the remain gang to continue their escape, but diminished in their ability to continue their bank robbing ways.

 

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