59 Years Ago Today: The Crime Film That Broke Hollywood's Rules On Violence Premiered In New York

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Something was going horribly wrong in the U.S. during the 1960s, and Hollywood was failing to reflect this rapidly mounting turmoil. A wildly popular U.S. President had been assassinated, racist lawmen were turning firehoses and dogs (for starters) on peaceful protesters, the Vietnam War continued aimlessly at great human expense, and so lamentably on. A new generation of filmmakers felt compelled to honestly depict this society upheaval, but the Motion Picture Production Code, which had been adopted in 1930, restrained them from creatively meeting this tumultuous moment. (Alfred Hitchcock alone fought numerous battles with over the Production Code.)

The studios were feeling pressure from the evolution of television (with color sets beginning to enter living rooms) and the formally audacious French New Wave movement, which was challenging moviegoers' notions of what a film could be. Hollywood had to get with the times, but the old moguls were clueless about Baby Boomers' entertainment interests. They did, however, know which movie stars moved the needle, and Warren Beatty was a rising talent on the verge of a breakthrough. So, they gave him extensive creative control of "Bonnie and Clyde" and almost immediately regretted it.

Then studio head Jack Warner fumed over budget overruns and what he perceived as a misguided throwback to the 1930s gangster film era. What he didn't account for was Beatty's good fortune to be making a crime flick in between the end of the Production Code and the establishment of the Motion Picture Association of America's ratings system. This allowed producer Beatty and director Arthur Penn to flout long-held standards regarding on-screen sex and violence. Armed with newfangled squibs (which explode to simulate bullet strikes), they shook up moviegoers and critics alike when the film debuted theatrically in New York on August 13, 1967.

Bonnie and Clyde and the bloody headshot that changed cinema

From the opening scene, where Faye Dunaway's Bonnie Parker mopes nude around her bedroom in a clear state of sexual frustration, there's a New Wave fearlessness to "Bonnie and Clyde." Moviegoers of the era should've been primed for some rougher-than-usual stuff, but they couldn't possibly predict the shocking moment of violence that helped usher in the X rating.

This scene arrives when getaway driver C.W. Moss (Michael J. Pollard) inexplicably parks the car while Bonnie and Clyde rob a bank. When they run out, he's trapped between two cars and has to bump his way out. This gives the bank manager time to run out into the street and hop onto the side of the automobile. Clyde instinctively shoots the man point-blank in the face. Blood gushes from the wound and splatters the side window. The shot has lost none of its power 59 years later, and it's a prelude for much more bloodshed to come.

As the movie nears its conclusion, Buck Barrow (Gene Hackman) gets shot in the head and ultimately dies. This is the end of the line for Bonnie and Clyde, as, in the final scene, they're slaughtered by Texas Rangers. Squibs explode one after another, sending fake blood spurting and misting into the air.

The following year, the MPAA introduced four ratings: G (Suggested for general audiences), M (Suggested for mature audiences — parental discretion advised), R (Restricted — persons under 16 not admitted, unless accompanied by parent or adult guardian), and X (Persons under 16 not admitted). I have no idea if "Bonnie & Clyde" would've received an X had such a rating existed at the time, but I do know this system probably wouldn't have existed at all without "Bonnie and Clyde."