Editing on Movement makes Bonnie and Clyde a Must See

Like most gangster movies, Bonnie and Clyde is full of action, car chases, criminals, and machines guns, but this movie would not be nearly as entertaining without the editors magic. This films rhythmic editing is what sets the pace and determines how quickly or slowly cuts are made (Corrigan and White 139). In Bonnie and Clyde movement or stillness is the key editing tool to creating the action and general speed of the film. A perfect example of editing on movement is the police car chase, right after the Barrow Brothers rob a bank in a town right outside of Oklahoma. The pace changes from the silent, slower cuts of Clyde, Buck Barrow, and Bonnie robbing the bank, to a wild police chase. It begins when the alarm sounds in the bank and the scene cuts to a reaction shot of Buck's wife screaming for Buck to get into the car. As Bonnie and Clyde pile into the moving car the scene quickly cuts again to four police cars speeding around the corner and shoots being fired. The speed of the cuts build as the camera alternates from the police to the gang driving across dirt roads and wide open fields. Then, unexpectedly, the shot intercuts to a parallel action of interviews with the witnesses from the bank robbery (141). These four continuous intercuts creates the "stop-and-go" feel to this specific scene and changes the fast paced rhythm of the police chase to an intermittent, slower rhythm (141). After these crosscuts occur the police chase finally ends as the closest police car to the gangs car flips over and Bonnie, Clyde, C.W. Moss, Buck and his wife safely cross over the boarder into Oklahoma. Without the rhythmic editing in this scene the intensity of the chase would not be evident.

Throughout the police chase I found my heartbeat increase in speed as the cuts became quicker; especially as the police car gained on the criminals. I also felt that the banjo music added to the speed of the chase. The music got faster as cuts got faster and the music stopped when the movement stopped. I really found this effective, the only thing I felt was lacking from the this scene is variety of angles. It did get a little repetitive seeing the same angle of the police car a few times in a row, but we can't hold a movie made in the 1960's up to the standards of filming today.