Study Questions: Week FIVE

Rebels with a Cause

Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

The Wild Bunch (1969)

By the end of the 1960s, the disillusionment with institutional authority (both public and private) was reflected in films which presented outlaws, if not as heroes, as more admirable than the government and corporate interests which they oppose. The gangster and the outlaw in films like Bonnie and Clyde and The Wild Bunch may be as doomed as they were in earlier films, but they are no longer merely criminals. They embody values which have been lost a modern world dominated by impersonal institutions which exist to maintain power of the few and to make money (the banks in the first film and the railroad in the second). Two of Hollywood's most important genres, the western and the gangster film, were a perfect medium to explore these cultural transformations. Moreover the attacks on the corporate status quo came from both the left and the right sides of the political spectrum, as is reflected in the liberal ideology underlying Arthur Penn's film and the conservative tone of Peckinpah's western. These tendencies in Hollywood films would result in the Francis Ford Coppola's immensely successful The Godfather (1972) and its sequel The Godfather, II (1974).

1. What attracts Bonnie to Clyde when she first sees him. What is he doing at the time?

2. What, would you say, is the thematic connection between Clyde's pursuing a career of armed robbery and his sexual impotence? Think of the first time he shows Bonnie his gun and the first time they manage to make love.

3. How exactly does Clyde distinguish between the bank and its patrons (who are common farm people)?

4. How do the long shots of the drought-stricken Southwest and the blue-grass music on the sound track ally the central characters with the farm families displaced by drought and the Depression?

5. How is the Texas Ranger, Frank Hamer, presented. How does the way an audience sees him also shape its attitude toward the world of police power in general?

6. In what ways does the daily life of Clyde, Bonnie, "Buck," and Blanche reflect the "family values" championed in the films of the 1950s ANA, at the same time offer an ironic comment on these values?

7. When the film was released, it was widely criticized for the excessively graphic violence. Is the violence merely sensational, or does it contribute to the central themes of the film? Consider the sequences in which "Buck" is killed and in the climactic ambush of Bonnie and Clyde?

8. Why does C.W. Moss's father betray Bonnie and Clyde? How does his behavior set him apart from the migrant workers who had welcomed the couple earlier?

9. In what way might Bonnie and Clyde's dream of leading a normal life have been their nemesis, the wish that can lead only to its very opposite reality?

10. To what degree does their death also symbolize some valuable qualities which have been lost in modern America?

1. As the credits to The Wild Bunch roll and the gang enters a south Texas town, the camera cuts to a group of children amuse themselves by watching red ants attack a pair of scorpions. In what ways does this image serve as a symbol of the world in which the ageing Wild Bunch is trapped?

2. How is the central theme of the film emphasized by casting aging veterans of 1950s westerns as the Wild Bunch?

3. The film, set in 1912-14, not only comments on the end of the western dream but on the western narratives which had long celebrated that dream? For example, how does the opening scene with the temperance meeting both recall a classic Ford western and suggest that the western myth has been corrupted?

4. Harrigan (the Pinkerton man) views the townspeople with open contempt, seems indifferent to their slaughter, and yet proudly claims, "We represent the law." How does this portrayal reflect a general disenchantment with national authority during the late 1960s? What does the law protect?

5. Given the behavior of Harrigan and his group of carrion-hunters, what makes the professional values of the Wild Bunch seem superior? Consider the manner in which they share their spoils, remain loyal to one another, and act cooperatively and competently.

6. In what ways does Peckinpah include many elements from earlier westerns, i.e. Shane (1952) or High Noon (1954)

7. Faced with the prospect of being forced to continue their robberies, Pike dreams of getting the chance to make "one [last] good score and back off." Dutch replies, "Back off to what?" What does this conversation imply about their ability to make a new life? And why does Pike answer, "I wouldn't have it any other way"? How is this dream similar to Bonnie and Clyde's yearning for the American Dream?

8. In what ways might Mapache and his federal troops be seen as the counterparts of Harrigan and the Texas townspeople? How does Mapache represent the same danger to Angel's community as Harrigan represents for the Wild bunch?

9. What is the symbolic importance of Mapache's red touring car? Why does it surprise the members of the Wild Bunch, and why does the conversation turn to the existence of the airplane as a weapon?

10. This film, like Bonnie and Clyde, was roundly condemned for its violence (a quaint idea today). What is the functional or thematic importance violence within the film? Is it merely gratuitous, some have said pornographic. Or is it related in some way to the romantic idealism which informs the film and is best seen in the decision to rescue Angel?