Violence In Bonnie And Clyde By Arthur Penn

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Throughout history the United States of America has encountered violence through wars, organized crime, and the social media. As a nation we have come to see violence as an everyday phenomena and as a necessary tool that helps us “keep our peace and freedom.” Violence forms part of our nation’s history and it is being taught as something that has existed for decades and was what formed our country. The need for violence has been shown through the laws that allow Americans to bear arms with the pretense of defending. This law has only proven to be the cause of many deaths and a rise in crime. The violence and crime in our society has become an everyday event in our nation and has claimed the lives of many Americans. People have now become accustomed…show more content…
The film that showed violence to its fullest glory was Bonnie and Clyde which was directed by Arthur Penn. This film caused a lot of controversy for the violence that it used and it introduced a new kind of violence into films. The story in the film is given by the criminals point of view which makes the audience sympathized more with them, then with the victims. In a way the film is not only glorifying violence, but it is also giving the perpetrators a positive image (French, “How violent taboos were…”). The film allows the audience to make a connection with the gang and it gives them the feeling that they are accomplices to their crimes. Furthermore, it is the ending scene which truly causes the audience to see Bonnie and Clyde as the victims of a cruel betrayal. They are ambushed after finally consummating their love for each other. After the release of Bonnie and Clyde, the film The Wild Bunch (directed by Sam Peckinpah) that featured more gruesome murders, “even further distended slow motion and more kinetic editing was released (Hoberman, “A Test for the Individual Viewer…” pg.117). The film, like ¬Bonnie and Clyde, “reduces the camera speed to slow motion” during the murder scenes which adds more horror to the killings. The Wild Bunch is a film about a gang of thieves who throughout their travel they steal and kill innocent people. The violence in films became more…show more content…
The film inspired the production of Natural Born Killers which was directed by Oliver Stone. The main characters (who are a “murderous outlaw couple”) of the film are without a doubt modeled on Bonnie and Clyde. Natural Born Killers devotes most of the movie to the killing spree of the main characters who like Bonnie and Clyde become famous for their crimes (Maslin, “Natural Born Killers (1994)”). Most of the films that followed Bonnie and Clyde during the ’70s “like “The Godfather” became hallmarks of the honesty and daring of the new Hollywood.” Like Bonnie and Clyde, director Francis Ford Coppola sets the film, The Godfather in the point of view of the criminals, which in this case is the mafia. The audience in this case is sympathetic towards the criminals and have a closer connection to them. The end of the films ends with a victory for organized crime and no punishment is given to the criminals. The film Bonnie and Clyde completely changed how people saw and accepted violence in
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