Chloe Grace Moretz +Jack O'Connell are our new Bonnie+Clyde

As a lover of Penn's film (see avatar), I gotta agree with cherry68. Most people today know the names 'Bonnie & Clyde' via hip-hop/pop cultural references. For instance, the recent Halloween movie had two major characters dress up as B&C. I think that's why the producers of this new project stated the following:



The story of Bonnie and Clyde is epic. It's not just about a couple who went on a crime spree. Their story encompasses the Great Depression (B&C were dirt-poor) and Prohibition (Bonnie was a drinker; Clyde preferred to stay sober to keep an eye out for "the laws"), both which gave rise to the Public Enemy Era (1931-1935). Also, their deaths via ambush remains controversial and still resonates today because they were not given Due Process, which is guaranteed in the 5th and 14th Amendments ("No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law"). Then there's B&C's narcissism (posing amorously or with their guns for photos) which speaks to today's 'selfie generation,' as well as their becoming nationally famous for doing bad things. Both of them desperately craved fame and fortune. They enjoyed reading about their exploits, and Bonnie even wrote poems about their escapades.

Furthermore, Clyde's prison stint exposes how corrupt the system could/can be, especially in Texas. Despite initially being just a petty criminal, he was sent to an untamed prison farm where he was routinely subjected to beatings by the guards. That's why he became so desperate and chopped off two toes from his foot to get out of work detail. In prison, he committed his first murder when he killed another inmate, Ed Crowder, who had raped him. All of this combined to turn Clyde "from a schoolboy to a rattlesnake," as a fellow inmate observed. When he was released after two years, Clyde was a very dangerous and vengeful man. The whole point of starting the so-called Barrow Gang and robbing stores/banks/armories was to recruit members and finance his mission to return to the prison, release as many inmates as possible, and kill all the guards, which he eventually accomplished (with Bonnie's aid) four months before his death though only one guard was killed (another was injured) and 5 prisoners escaped, including Henry Methvin whose father would eventually set up the ambush. Talk about Shakespearean!

Bonnie's fascination with the movies also gives us a glimpse into the end of the Silent Film Era (late twenties) and Pre-Code Hollywood (1929-1934), the five years when films were becoming daring and were unafraid to portray life as is (e.g., promiscuity, drug use, infidelity). The so-called Hays Code, a set of moral guidelines for motion pictures in the United States, wasn't enforced until mid-1934, a couple of months after B&C's demise. For over 30 years, the Hays Code dictated what could and could not be shown on screen. Ironically, it was Arthur Penn's Bonnie and Clyde, with its graphic violence, anti-hero main characters, and frank depiction of sexuality that finally did away with the Code and a new film rating system was created in its place in 1968 (still in effect today).

Lastly, as an amateur B&C historian, I vouch that Penn's film was pretty factual though their story was glamorized and oversimplified because Penn was merely using them as commentary for '60s disenchantment with authority. But this new project is based on Jeff Guinn's biography, which really delves into their history. I only hope they do the book justice.