Director: Arthur Penn
Plot: Boy meets girl. Murderous bank-robbing rampage ensues.
Excerpts from our roundtable discussion:
KELLY: All right. We have four votes for Bonnie and Clyde.
RAMÍREZ BERG: I was the one who didn’t vote for it. It doesn’t scream out, “This is a Texas movie.” It could be Missouri or Oklahoma. I know a lot of it historically is set in Texas, but it feels more like a Midwestern story than a Texas story.
BLOOM: That’s because it’s North Texas, the most neglected part. You know, northeast Texas is not interesting visually to begin with. But the reason it lends itself to a Depression-era drama is that people abandon those little towns, and so they have those old buildings, and a film crew can go in and dress them up and shoot scenes there.
KILLEN: I would argue that the story is born out of the same thing that led to Last Picture Show: Texas is so big, and you can be isolated, and there’s a hopelessness and an ennui that takes place that leads to something like going on a Bonnie-and-Clyde-style rampage. That’s what Texas does to human beings.
BLOOM: The reason I think it ought to be on the list is that it’s a Dallas movie, Dallas being the least Texan of all Texas cities. The problem is, Warren Beatty doesn’t read Texan. Also, it may be one of the only times that a Texas Ranger has been portrayed in a negative way. Texas Rangers do really well in movies. They’re always portrayed in a positive light, even if they’re murderers.
Read the entire roundtable discussion on the ten greatest Texas films ever.
•••••
And now, the Alamo Drafthouse Presents . . .
The Texas Monthly Rolling Roadshow
Starting June 3, the Alamo Drafthouse and TEXAS MONTHLY will be showing all ten of these films in unique, location-specific settings all over Texas. For more information, please visit texasmonthly.com/texasfilms or drafthouse.com/texasfilms.
