The_Film_That_Changed_My_Life

Bonnie and Clyde
45
Obviously those things are harder to recapture in later years, but it was
always thrilling. It was an exciting movie to watch. I know so much has
been written about what kind of violence it is and whether it’s real. It just
explodes out of real moments, and I think that’s true. But I also think it
was an introduction for me into the beauty of violence in an abstract way,
which I think is still a disturbing idea.
For years, cowriter David Newman caught hell for it. And his response
was always, “It’s not gratuitous; if you choose to make your living as an
outlaw you’d better know that pain and blood and horror come with
that territory.”
Condon: But the movie is so clever. One thing is it builds and builds and
builds, but I think you’re well over an hour into the movie before Faye Dunaway
gets shot in that river and Beatty gets shot in the arm, and it is a shock.
It’s so cleverly built because we’ve seen their victims.
How did your perception of the film change through subsequent viewings?
Condon: I think there was a time when it first came out on video in the ’80s
and suddenly you’re aware of all the things that are dated about it. And you
reject things that meant so much to you. But then I got it again when it came
out on DVD and looked at it, and I was just struck by the kind of brilliance
of the writing.
Was there a moment in the film when you first saw it that galvanized
your feelings toward it?
Condon: I can’t honestly remember that, but I have to say that looking
at it again, I remember the reaction to certain scenes. Like the shock of
Warren Beatty, when Faye Dunaway was trying to go down on him, of
him turning over so he just basically smothers her and this look on her
face of rage and of betrayal and frustration. It’s unbelievable, and as you’re
entering puberty and worried about that, to see that kind of thing. I still
think it is powerful filmmaking that you don’t much see in movies. You
never think of these things consciously, but looking at it the other day, it
is interesting—Warren Beatty and his reputation as a ladies’ man and then
playing this person.