Bonnie Parker

average Parker is a beautiful young muliebrity obviously thirsty for a life more exciting than the unity she leads. One dusty morning, she catches Clyde Barrow, handsome ex-convict, beting like he was most to steal her mothers car. She is a struggling waitress, hungry to machinate something out of herself while he is a small- meter professional whitlow from Texas who decides to begin a glowting career as a deposit robber. After a flirtatious banter took place between the 2 of them, Clyde confesses that he is an armed robber. sightly then dares him to commit an armed robbery pay off then and there, in broad daylight and right smack on main street. Incredibly, he complies. What ensues then is a coming unitedly of two kindred spirits as middling becomes Clydes main participator in the robbing and killing spree that ensued right after. They slowly line a group, eventually known as the Barrow Gang consisting of a vaunt boy attendant, Clydes brother frivol away and Buck s coy wife, Blanche. C. ANALYSIS When nonpareil consciously bears in mind the spirit of the time in which middling and Clyde was released, appreciation for this scoot doubles.It truly was an artistic form of rebellion a type of rebellion that reflected the progressing times. The sixties was truly a dynamic period that gave a new direction to womens empowerment. Gledhill articulates the cardinal logic of accept when she said that, melodrama deals with what rouse non be said in the visible(prenominal) codes of social discourse it operates in the field of the known and familiar, solely also attempts to short-circuit language to allow the beneath or behind the unbelievable and repressedto achieve material presence. The film is really all some identity and the conflicts that occur when such identity is tack outside the jump of acceptable behavior imposed by lodge and policed by the state. A testament to the fact that the film cuts across many issues and opens up new frontie rs in terms of film presentation is how cross-cutting its genre is. It can be filed under action-adventure, romance, gangster, crime and drama it is perhaps more than what was expert mentioned. And just like its genre, the film cannot be pigeon-holed into one neat category, such(prenominal) like its characters.While both Bonnie and Clyde cut interesting personalities, one cannot be discussed without the other. In terms of female person empowerment, Bonnie does present an interesting office model. A murderous thief if rarely seen as good idol material however, if one looks past the fact that her choice of career is base by any standard, she is brave enough to break the forge of womens role at the time. Scene after scene, she rubs her nose against the norms that society dictates for women. of all time since the 1960s, the womens movement has been concerned with media portrayal of women.Major studies of the most pervasive medium, television, and oddly its commercials revealed th e same subordination of women we saw in film. In commercials, most voice-overs were through by men and overall, men were feature more often than women. The women who were featured were limited to family roles. Women were shown doing housework and men were the beneficiaries of their work. On the other hand, men were employed, had careers, and were doing something outside the home. This portrayal of women in the film is instead apparent and much more recognizable fertilisen the fact the Clyde was made less manly.It is therefore quite interesting how the writers and director presented the film the female is a real character that displayed very male characteristics (albeit in a very autoerotic way) while Clydes masculinity is put on a chopping point with his sexual impotence. Whether or not this sexual incapability is accurate in terms of the real Clyde Barrow is irrelevant. What is significant here is the importance found by the film throw awayrs in making Clyde less masculine o r atleast what society perceives as masculine.Initially, the director suggested that Clydes character be homosexual but when Warren Beatty refused to play a homosexual man, they decided that impotence would give the same castrating effect to Clyde Barrow an effect that inevitably led to the masculinisation of Bonnie Parker. This castration of the main male character furthered strengthened Bonnies character. Furthermore, the other male characters are either dimwitted (C. W. Moss) or simpleminded and uneducated (Buck Barrow). It was as if the creation of the other male characters had for a goal to make Bonnieand in consequence, womenlook better and appear smarter.At this juncture, it would be quite interesting to ask oneself if Bonnie truly is a picture of female empowerment or is she merely a case of making a woman more male? Bonnies character finds its anti-thesis in Blanche (Bucks wife). Blanche is the stereotypical female of the sixties. She is demure, conservative and relies on her husband for everything. Bucks chauvinistic commentIts the face powder that gets a man interested its the bacon powder that keeps a man at homepaints except two roles for women as housekeepers and as sexual objects.Bonnie breaks this mold and carves another role for herselfa partner. In many ways, Bonnie represents what women can be if only they dared and Blanche represents what they are. This dual recognitionhow things are and how they are notgives popular culture much of its strength, suggesting the way it may be careworn to occupy gaps in political, ideological and cultural systems and how the subordinated may find a negotiable space in which certain contradictions and repressed desires are rehearsed. check to Arthur Penn, the films director, Violence is one of the most powerful themes in Bonnie and Clyde. The central point is that crime and violence are co-ordinated that one can not exist without the other () Once the summate of violence is lit, it has no choice but to b urn until all flammable ends have been destroyed. This use of violence as a central judgment in the film led to change in the film industry as a whole. Bonnie and Clyde are not depicted as the usual murderers.They are charming, beautiful and for all intents and purposes, are of a splendid manner and as the tag line goes they are in contend by all odds not the usual criminal sort. However, the film is interesting in its depiction of a criminal life as the audience finds it progressively difficult not to sympathize or root for the bad guys. stock-still though the odds are against it, we the audience, find ourselves wishing that the couple go away make it out alive and perhaps grow old together and leave the life of crime behind for an idyllic setting.But even Bonnies poem foreshadows their eventual fate. Someday theyll go down together theyll bury them side by side to few itll be sorrowfulness to the law a relief but its death for Bonnie and Clyde. Here the film gives us t he moral of the story that if one lives by the sword, one dies by the sword. The attempt of the film to subjectify the criminal life was definitely successful and the message is clear not everything is b inadequacy or purity and good or bad.The audience is left with the feeling that although the actions of Bonnie and Clyde cannot be condoned by any moral person, we can sympathize with their situation. This is indeed a powerful effect considering the murders and the thievery that occurred in the film. On the negative side, the film probably opened up a tradition of cinematic endeavors to regale murder and crime in a casual and non-chalant way. The criminals in this film are portrayed in such a manner that makes them icons and idols of sortswhich is actually twisted in a way.The iconography of the film, as examined by Mary Elizabeth Strunk in the American Studies ledger explains that. Yes, Bonnie and Clyde commit reckless acts of violence, but they look so good doing it. Against th e films stagy Depression-era backdrop, the couple becomes the personification of youth, romance, and yearning. By contrast, their victims barely register, save as faded cardboard cutouts deficient names or narrative. The camera affirms Bonnie and Clyde as the only life things on an otherwise inert and colorless landscape. Violence is not only the central theme of the movie but is also the anchor in which the personalities and characters of Bonnie and Clyde are based. The issues relating to identity are also underlying themes for this film. For Bonnie, she knows that she is cut from a different cloth altogether and would like to be remembered for beingness different. Clyde, on the other hand, grappling with his inner demons (mostly, brought on by lack of sexual potency), thirsts to be remembered by many. For him, it does not seem to matter what he is remembered for, just as long as he is remembered.If one were to psycho-analyze this film, one might even say that it could have bee n Clydes sexual go that led him to a life of crime with the gun serving as a substitute for sex. This misplaced pride they both have in being recognized is clearly seen as they proudly read to severally other what the newspapers have wrote about themeven if it is merely a class of the crimes they have done or thought to have done. Works Cited lucre Movie Database. Bonnie and Clyde. Retrieved on May 11, 2008 from http//www.imdb. com/title/tt0061418/ Gledhill, C. (1986). Dialogue on Stella Dallas and Feminist Film Theory. Cinema Journal 25, No. 4 BOOKRAGS STAFF. Bonnie and Clyde Themes. 2000. May 12 2008. http//www. bookrags. com/films/bonnieandclyde1967/themes. html Strunk, M. E. (2007). Bonnie and Clydes Other Side. American Studies Journal No. 50. Retrieved on 12 May 2008 from http//asjournal. zusas. uni-halle. de/85. html FLIPOUT E-ZINE. Women In Film. Retrieved 12 May 2008 from http//www. geocities. com/albanystudent/wif. html