Chasing Bonnie and Clyde
National Review,
by
Kyle Smith
Original Article
Posted By: MissMolly,
4/3/2019 6:11:34 PM
The Highwaymen, Netflix’s new manhunt film starring Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson, is a suspenseful and morally fraught take on the story of the ex–Texas Rangers who tracked down the most famous bank robbers of 1934. But this movie about chasing Bonnie and Clyde is also a movie about Bonnie and Clyde. It’s a pleasing tale of resourceful, hard-nosed cops that’s also something of an essay on cinema and society. Arthur Penn’s 1967 cinematic landmark (which is also streaming on Netflix) launched an American New Wave of counterculture films about anti-heroes and misfits contesting a nefarious system. Penn’s successors painted a
Reply 1 - Posted by:
Jed 4/3/2019 6:15:23 PM (No. 22427)
See a lot of myself in them, old school Texas raised, we are a dying breed.
13 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
columba 4/3/2019 6:18:01 PM (No. 22428)
This review by the National review can be placed alongside the review it published about the movie UNPLANNED.
12 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
MissMolly 4/3/2019 6:34:22 PM (No. 22437)
#2, did you think National Review didn´t have a review of Unplanned? In fact, there have been three different articles about the movie. Here is one of them.
https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/04/unplanned-movie-power-love-change/
13 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
Vaquero45 4/3/2019 6:41:27 PM (No. 22443)
It’s about time the real story of Bonnie and Clyde was told. I can’t wait to see it.
17 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
DVC 4/3/2019 6:42:57 PM (No. 22436)
I like Costner as an actor, one of my all time favorite movies is Open Range, although D/w Wolves was a mess, but when I found out that Harrelson is in it, that ended any thought of seeing it.
Woody Harrelson is a really, really obnoxious, hateful, nasty person and I long ago decided to never, EVER pay any money to see anything that might possibly have the slightest benefit to this horrible person.
Hamer was the real deal, a tough, no BS lawman. My former cop, current FBI friend and I happened to be discussing the execution of Bonnie and Clyde last Friday at dinner. There was no intention to arrest them, just to kill them. Served them right.
21 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
bad-hair 4/3/2019 6:45:50 PM (No. 22439)
Time to go to the library. Drag out James Lee Burke if for no other reason than a REALY good read.
14 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
Nashman 4/3/2019 6:48:52 PM (No. 22442)
No matter what you think of Harrelson or any other actor in this film, you should watch it. It´s methodical in pace. It lingers in places films used to but don´t anymore. It´s sharp. The dialogue real... The scene with the great William Sadler as Clyde Barrow´s father is stunning and heartbreaking. This is the kind of film that needs lots of eyes so they make more. It doesn´t whitewash any aspect or this riveting story.
27 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
StormCnter 4/3/2019 7:00:46 PM (No. 22425)
I´m a James Lee Burke fan too, #6.
14 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
Jethro bo 4/3/2019 7:03:44 PM (No. 22432)
A very small town doctor in Oklahoma was called to come to a farm house for an emergency. The doctor didn´t know the way to the farm and was told to meet someone at a certain rural crossroad. The doctor went to the crossroad and a man got in , held a pistol to his chest and told him to drive. After a while, the doctor told the driver he wasn´t going to try anything and had no place to run and the road was mighty bumpy, would the man lower the gun which he did. After a while the ´car jacker´ told the doctor to stop and get out. The man stole the car leaving the county´s only doctor alone in rural Oklahoma without any means to contact someone. Eventually the car was found, burned. The car jacker was identified as Clyde Barrow. The doctor was my grandfther. Stealing a car nad threatening to kill an entire county´s only doctor isn´t exactly a nice movie star type.
29 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
web 4/3/2019 7:44:08 PM (No. 22435)
Bonnie and Clyde were petty thieves whose crimes changed them in to murderers without a conscience. The many poor throughout Texas and the Midwest thought they were Robin Hood, robbing for the little guy. Those who they murdered in cold blood testify differently.
Hamer was a legendary Texas Ranger, who actually did stand up for the little guy, blacks, and the victims of crime. He had no compunctions about how he stopped vicious criminals, and he fought a decades long war against mexican invaders and criminals crossing the border to rob and rape at lonely ranches owned by Whites. (sound familiar?)
The mexicans believed they had the right to rob Whites, as they were participating in a righteous war to take back mexican land stolen from them. Reconquesta... don´t know what their excuse for rape and murder was...
Hamer and the Texas Rangers killed over 50 of them one night when the only mexican reply to law enforcement ordering them to throw down their weapons and throw up their hands was gunfire.
19 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
web 4/3/2019 7:52:13 PM (No. 22438)
If I may, I read "Texas Ranger: The Epic Life of Frank Hamer, the Man Who Killed Bonnie and Clyde" by John Boessenecker a year or two ago, and it really inspired and kept my attention. Lots of good history.
One thing that stuck me is that every time a demoncrat would be elected governor, they would cut the budget, fire Hamer, and many other Texas Rangers... they didn´t like them. They don´t like law enforcement. Republican governors would increase their budget, hire more rangers, and hire Hamer again.
16 people like this.
Bonnie and Clyde? I was looking for a story on the Clintons.
13 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
Kate318 4/3/2019 9:13:23 PM (No. 22440)
So funny you would post this, OP. I just finished watching it today. I liked it a lot. Kevin Costner does a stellar job. Interesting technique used in that we never actually get a good look at Bonnie & Clyde until the infamous end.
My one big takeaway was that it was a tale about vicious killers in the 1930’s told with an eye to 21st century navel-gazing and self-doubt. Many (not all) of the lawmen and politicians were shown as having some reservations about using extreme measures to end this killing spree. I find that hard to believe, given the moral certitude of the time, and that it happens mostly in the Great Plains and the South. Folks back then understood what had to be done. And, did it.
But, do yourself a favor and watch it. It’s quite good.
21 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
hurricanegirl 4/3/2019 10:14:20 PM (No. 22423)
My late uncle as a boy walked in on a Bonnie and Clyde robbery in progress. He and his siblings´ car had broken down, and they had sent him back to the store to get help. I´m not sure if he tried the front door and found it locked (probably), but at any rate, he went around to the back, saw Bonnie and Clyde´s car (but didn´t know whose it was til later), and entered the store through the back, surprising everyone in the process.
He said the storekeeper saved him from being killed by telling Clyde that my uncle didn´t know who Clyde was and by convincing Clyde that my uncle was just a boy and wouldn´t tell anyone.
Somewhere in this "friendly" meet-and-greet session, someone asked Clyde why he was an outlaw, and he replied that once they had started down the road of stealing and killing, it was impossible to turn around.
Apparently, many store owners in that area (around Denton) "willingly" provided Bonnie and Clyde with supplies--in exchange for their safety and the safety of their families.
The only other thing of interest that I know about the duo is that Bonnie was from Rowena, Texas, a tiny town not far from San Angelo.
14 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
NYbob 4/3/2019 10:46:53 PM (No. 22433)
Arthur Penn was as creepy as his kid Sean. Hollywood made Bonnie and Clyde into some kind of glamorous heroes, but #15´s explanation of victims providing support at the point of a gun held by scum, is right on point. There is a tiny percentage, if any, of ´honorable´ outlaws. Unless you count the growing number of American citizens turned into outlaws by rats like cuomo using unconstitutional laws passed by dishonorable politicians.
12 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
Italiano 4/3/2019 10:51:53 PM (No. 22431)
You mean to tell me that the Warren Beatty / Faye Dunaway portrayals were inaccurate??
Sorry, not buying it.
18 people like this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
Penney 4/3/2019 11:01:22 PM (No. 22441)
This is an excellent film in every way! A must see.
14 people like this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
Shells 4/4/2019 12:20:59 AM (No. 22426)
Yowza #9.
Interesting thread. Eager to see this movie now.
10 people like this.
Reply 19 - Posted by:
DVC 4/4/2019 1:20:09 AM (No. 22424)
#7, no chance whatsoever. I will NEVER see any Harrelson movie, no matter what. Well, if it is a video of him actually drowning, I might make an exception.
12 people like this.
Reply 20 - Posted by:
Jack44 4/4/2019 12:31:12 PM (No. 22430)
I saw it just recently. Really good flick. Both Costner and Harrelson did a very effective job in portraying the Texas Rangers, and the film showed a few very effective scenes portraying life during the depression. Highly recommended.
4 people like this.
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