Clyde and Bonnie Died for Nihilism

Commentary Magazine ^ | July/August 2009 | Stephen Hunter

[metesky]

By far the movie’s gravest insult to posterity, however, is its treatment of the Texas Ranger captain, Frank Hamer, who may (or may not) have been instrumental in bringing them down. As seen in the movie, Hamer (played by Denver Pyle in an uncharacteristically dour performance) is a kind of harsh Puritan ideologue, so righteous that when Bonnie (whom Dunaway has made us love) flirtatiously poses for a funny snapshot with him, he spits savagely in her face. He considers her so morally tainted that he is sickened by her. Then later, like a serpent in a garden, he coos and caresses the blind Blanche (Estelle Parsons in a great, Oscar-winning performance), gulling her into giving up a vital clue that leads to his ambush murder by Thompson submachine gun.

[metesky]

The myth of Bonnie and Clyde gets some of the whipping it deserves...

[Rummyfan]

Stephen Hunter... the author of the Bob Lee Swagger novels. Just finished Night of Thunder. Excellent!

[musicman]

[Rummyfan]

Great post thanks.

[netmilsmom]

This is the final paragraph.....

“Hamer stands for your grandfather’s authority, annoyance at fools, and the willingness to kill in the belief that he was saving the weak by eliminating their predator. He was a righteous killer, a dinosaur whose time has passed. He’s what Barack Obama swears he’ll change about America.”

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Stephen Hunter, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for criticism, retired last year as film critic of the Washington Post. His new novel, I, Sniper, will be published in October.

I can see why they had to get rid of him.

[tlb]

>>>The myth of Bonnie and Clyde gets some of the whipping it deserves..

Well I wish that was so but John Ford said it best in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. “When the legend becomes the truth, print the legend”.

Not one in a hundred will ever bother to see the reality of Bonnie and Clyde. Clyde’s homosexuality for instance. All they’ll ever know is what Faye Dunnaway and Warren Beatty played. Impossibly pretty kids having fun. Misunderstood, but really nice people.

“gulling her into giving up a vital clue that leads to his ambush murder by Thompson submachine gun.”

I don’t think the ambush used Thompsons. I believe they had one or two BARs along with shotguns and rifles though.

[Misterioso]

Excellent. Thanks for the post.

[metesky]

In fact, Hamer was almost a prototype of the kind of man the Boomer generation would be taught to distrust, both in life and in fiction. Almost insanely brave and almost unbelievably tough, he was Texas’s most famous man hunter. He wouldn’t sell his life story to the movies; he was too dignified, too suspicious of the alien (even then) West Coast culture and of “dramatic license.” But if he had, John Wayne would have played him, with all 50 of his shoot-outs accounted for, as well as his numerous wounds.

When a Peace Officer knew how to bring peace to the land, eh?

:O)

[netmilsmom]

>>When a Peace Officer knew how to bring peace to the land, eh?<<

Oh that’s every day here in Detroit.

[chesley]

In other words, the original culture that made America great.

It’s gotta go. :(

[Monterrosa-24]

Hamer’s words about bringing down Bonnie, “I hate to bust a cap on a woman especially when she was sitting down but if it hadn’t been them it would have been us”.

[AppyPappy]

Bonnie was in pretty sad shape by that time. The Law had to get BAR’s from the Army because their 45’s wouldn’t punch through the car metal hard enough.

[Prodigal Son]

I don’t think the ambush used Thompsons. I believe they had one or two BARs along with shotguns and rifles though.

He actually says this in the article (that BARs were used). But in the film it was the Thompsons I believe. Hollywood always distorts things. Sometimes they do it out of dramatic necessity to keep the film moving or to make a difficult concept concise. But more often they do it out of ignorance and because they don't see why it matters.

Like the movie, The Kingdom. I was fully immersed, watching that one until towards the end when one of the characters fires an M2 .50 Cal machine gun. The sound accompanying the weapon is more like an Uzi. It really pissed me off. The .50 has such a lovely, deep authoritative voice and for them to replace it with a whimpier sound was just a travesty. Probably they just figured 'any old machine gun sound will do- who's going to notice?'. Well, anybody that was in the combat arms, that's who. And in America, that's a lot of people.

[netmilsmom]

Yeah, all that hero American stuff is so out of date.

(help us all!)

[Prodigal Son]

Bonnie and Clyde- one of my favorite flicks from childhood. I liked Natural Born Killers too but it was B & C on steroids/LSD. Bonnie and Clyde was a great flick because it was based on real people.

The author needs to lighten up. It isn't the first time in American (or world) history that people have idolized outlaws. Jesse James? People idolized him decades before Hollywood even existed. Willam Bonney. Robin Hood. Various pirates. List goes on.

[ConservativeMan55]

bttt

[MortMan]

My dogs, who we found while they were on the lam in the swamp next door, back in Georgia, are not dead.

Bonnie and Clyde LIVE!!! ;-P

[Prodigal Son]

An official statement by Frank Hamer (Texas Ranger that hunted down Bonnie and Clyde) about a lynch mob he held off a few years before Bonnie and Clyde.

Wild and woolie times back then.

Part One

Part Two