B/C: A Morbid Toast to the Power of Pop Culture

I guess depending on where you are, today (May 23rd) could not have been all that different than the May 23rd of 1934. Oh sure, we were in a depression and pennies probably actually counted for a helluva lot more than the cold embrace of a coin press machine, but Americans, a good 25% of which were unemployed, were rightly on their way to becoming the cynical creatures we know and love today.

However, on that muggy May afternoon, six men were probably not as comfortable as you are now. In all likelihood, given the weather conditions characteristic to Louisiana, they were probably staining their spiffy tweed and herringbone coats in liters of their own sweat and mosquito guts as they struggled to keep their legs from falling asleep while they sat in a roadside ditch just south of Gibsland. But I can assure you that all six of these mean SOBs probably weren’t just grab-assing like some buck-toothed extras on the set of "Deliverance". Naw, these guys were armed to the teeth. Browning Automatic Rifles to be exact. The kind of weapons that could put an exit wound in you the size of a baseball. And if you think that’s overkill then you really didn’t know just how mean Bonnie and Clyde were either.

Not exactly how it went...

That’s right. Today’s the bloody anniversary of the famed couple’s demise on a lonely stretch of road on State Highway 154. And, I suppose, in honor of such an occasion it would behoove me to grace you all with a bit of pop culture particulars, huh? Well okay then.

I’ll be brief but I’m sure most of you know the basics, even if you haven’t seen director Arthur Penn’s 1967 classic starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway. And you’re probably more than familiar with the couple’s bloody bank-robbing career and the fact that the two saw themselves as star-crossed lovers.

Upon its controversial release (mostly stemming from its grahpic violence) the movie pretty much solidifies the place of the murderous couple as a pair of folk martyrs in Americana, and its style--which was said to have borrowed heavily from the French nouvelle vague (or New Wave)-- gave it a jarring but fresh allure that romanticized their brief but memorable life on the road in a way that was frenetic and exciting for mainstream audiences, most of which were unfamiliar with the choppy cuts and moodiness of its arc.

Yet, regardless of the movie’s adherence to the basic facts of their lives, "Bonnie and Clyde" is as much a seminal piece of dramatic film-making as it is a twisted projection of fantasy. Remember kids: Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow (along with their gang) killed A LOT of people. Nine of which were police officers and a good handful of others who were just so much more collateral damage. Now, I know the '60’s were a time of upheaval and rebellion, but when that statement is designed to dehumanize acts of extreme violence with slapstick fervor and banjo music well…..yeah. Screw you lovebirds. You had that thirty aught six coming with interest.

Seriously, would you have asked these guys to surrender?

And for those of you who saw Mann’s “Public Enemies” recently you’ll know that bank robbers of the 1930s were, in some cases, the modern day Robin Hoods that Americans were looking for. Nay, needed. But at the time, Bonnie and Clyde were hardly representative of that. They were not the loveable hoodlums looking to escape the pressure of an unfair society nor were their adventures in any way that romantic (more often than not they were starving and sleeping in fields on stormy nights). In fact, most of the Chicago Syndicate guys who ran the big show with guys like Dillinger and Karpis pooh-poohed the Barrow gang as a handful of petty amateurs looking to make it big.

And when you look at their old photos captured in a raid at their Joplin hideout you might agree. With Clyde posing against the grill of his Ford V8 or with Bonnie lugging around a shotgun that’s almost as big as she is, both of them seem to make it painfully obvious, their faces painted with ambition and naïveté, that trying to be impressionistic with a world that thought of them as anything but was a job that’s a lot harder than Mr. Penn (or scripters Robert Towne, David Newman & Robert Benton) made it out to be.

Is this the face of a couple of stone-cold killers? Actually yeah…it kind of is.

But is that really all they were? Wannabe gangstas? Hardly. Though I might have robbed the 67 version of its verity, the romance never left. Point of fact it grew. Exponentially. Don’t get me wrong, everyone knew about the couple as just another band of thieves, but their reputation began to take on a life of its own in the public eye. And though it might not have been as substantial as the other robber barons of the day, it was one that only grew stronger, faster and bigger as the years came to dominate the legend.

And, as the times start to mirror themselves, with our own economy floating against the porcelain rim of the john, we start to see our own hidden hopes and desires embodied not so much in what Bonnie and Clyde were, but what they come to inspire in us as faithful movie-lovers. They’re a couple of hotshot kids in WAY over their heads. They’re people who, in the immortal words of Journey, didn’t stop believing. Even if believing bought them a bullet to the brain.

So in this way, they really are the enduring tragic heroes we need. They’re just not the ones we’re necessarily accustomed to. Especially considering how uncomfortable we are when it comes to acknowledging our own personal desires for fortune n' glory. Take a minute to ponder. If you look at the obsessions with all the get-rich-quick schemes, American Idol, the petty gladiator matches we like to call reality TV or the fascination with Tiger Woods’s extra-marital affairs, who’s to say America has changed much since the days of gun-wielding molls looking to etch their names into the sands of time? True enough, Americans love their underdogs, but I think a more appropriate estimation of our spirit would say that Americans love their dreams more. Even if those dreams manifest themselves in violent ways.

—A.H.

NEWSFLASH:

And, according to sources, principal photography is about to begin tomorrow on the newest chapter of the B&C legend, which goes to show that we still can’t let go of them even after all of the ballads, movies and musicals produced in the wake of that muggy May afternoon. I’ll let you al be the judge but apparently this one has sigh) Hillary Duff as the viciously indelible 5’1” blonde menace and some beefcake heartthrob named Kevin Zegers as, you guessed it, Clyde Barrow. Again, I’ll try to keep an open mind but if you just take a gander on IMDB you’ll see why I’m not too enthused about this remake, seeing as the only obvious piece of sanity in this project seems to be the casting of Michael Madsen as the notorious Texas Ranger antagonist Frank Hamer.