The conservative, old-guard studio more or less did this against its will.
After all, the film was unapologetically violent, unvarnished in its depiction of sexuality, and borderline nihilistic.
Not to mention that the man who had bankrolled it, Jack Warner, hated it.
Credit: Everett Collection
Its a revolution that almost never happened.
In the early 60s, Robert Benton and David Newman were two young staffers atEsquire.
Benton was the magazines art director; Newman was a writer and editor.
Everett Collection
These films grappled with new subjects and spoke in a new kind of movie grammar.
They felt urgent, of the moment, raw.
Benton and Newman wanted to explore that galaxy.
Everett Collection
They were criminals, sure.
They expected nothing yet hoped for everything.
Miraculously, Truffaut was intrigued enough to meet with the writers in New York.
But after months of stop-and-go flirting on both sides, Truffaut passed on the project.
But he did pass it along to his fellow New Wave comrade, Jean-Luc Godard.
Benton and Newman didnt have time to sulk.
Plus, one brilliant, red-hot French director was as good as the next, they figured.
Godard seemed not only interested in makingBonnie and Clydebut was itching to get started right away.
It was all moving so quickly that Benton and Newman were taken aback.
In the end, that marriage, too, would fall apart before it could be consummated.
But Truffaut wasnt particularly interested in Piaf.
The pitch ended up evaporating into the ether like so much Gauloises smoke.
It was calledBonnie and Clyde.
Beatty filed the tip away.
He was just a pretty face with a tabloid-friendly menagerie of famous off-screen lovers.
Beatty aspired to more.
Its not a good movie, but it ended up becoming a hit nonetheless.
Beatty got none of the credit for its success nor did he particularly think he deserved it.
I wanted to be in control.
And thats what led me to produceBonnie and Clyde.
He was ready to bet on himself.
Beatty offered the writing team $75,000 for the rights to makeBonnie and Clyde.
Beatty went to Warner Bros. hat in hand to pay a visit to Jack Warner.
The old-school boss blew hot and cold on the young star.
He thought Beatty could be presumptuous and cocky.
Beatty pleaded with Warner to makeBonnie and Clydefor cheap.
Regardless of whether you buy into the facts or the legend, Beatty got his green light.
Now he just had to find a director and some stars.
FromBonnie and Clydes inception, Beatty knew that he didnt want to direct the film himself.
And he also, initially at least, didnt think that he should play Clyde Barrow.
Producing such an uncompromising film would come with more than enough headaches as it was.
Plus, he had another star in mind for the role.
I was thinking of Bob Dylan for the part, Beatty told EW.
No one hems and haws like Beatty does.
Gradually, I thought maybe I wouldnt be bad, he said.
This happens to me a lot.
It was an unusual movie, Beatty said.
To make it good, it had to combine violence and comedy in a way that hadnt been done.
He and Beatty settled on a gorgeous, strong-willed unknown as the Bonnie to Beattys Clyde: Faye Dunaway.
She seems to get off on the promise of danger.
His drug is fame.
Powerful with a firearm, but impotent in the sack.
Again, pretty radical stuff in 1967.
Perhaps more taboo than any of that, however, was the films ballet-of-death climax.
It was literally overkill.
It was a story set in the 30s, but it couldnt have been more timely.
In the audience at that first screening was Bosley Crowther, the augustNew York Timesfilm critic.
He was outraged by what he saw.
Soon, others would follow.Timemagazine panned the film.
But then something very interesting happened.
Too late to pull his scathing initial review, he wrote a second a mea culpa of sorts.
The tide onBonnie and Clydebegan to turn.
It is also pitilessly cruel, filled with sympathy, nauseating, funny, heartbreaking, and astonishingly beautiful.
It is also a landmark.
The fact that the story is set 35 years ago doesnt mean a thing.
It has to be set sometime.
But it was made now and its about us.
The audience is alive to it.
It had officially become the movie that everyonehadto see.
Problem was, Jack Warner just wanted to be done with it.
But they underestimated Warren Beattys persistence.
Then, in early December, another one of the films detractors did a very public about-face.
Timemagazine just panned the hell out ofBonnie and Clyde, Beatty toldEW.
But four months later, they put it on the cover saying very elaborate things about it.
The banner headline ofTimes Dec. 8.
It would go on to earn ten Oscar nominations, including Best Picture.
But its not totally wrong either.
His answer was predictably Sphynx-like.
Well, thats an exaggeration, he said, while leaning back in a chair in his study.
A sly smile spread across his face.
