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In the middle of the Great
Depression,
Clyde Barrow (Warren Beatty) and Bonnie Parker (Faye Dunaway) meet when
Clyde tries to steal Bonnie's mother's car. Bonnie, who is bored by her
job as a waitress, is intrigued with Clyde, and decides to take up with
him and become his partner in crime. They do some holdups, but their
amateur efforts, while exciting, are not very lucrative.
The duo's crime spree shifts into
high gear once they hook up with a dim-witted gas station attendant,
C.W. Moss (a composite of the real W. D. Jones and Henry Methvin played
by Michael J. Pollard). The three are joined by Clyde's brother, Buck
(Gene
Hackman), and his wife, Blanche (Estelle Parsons), a preacher's
daughter. Soon a long-simmering feud between Bonnie and Blanche begins;
the once-prim Blanche views Bonnie as a harpy corrupting her husband
and brother-in-law, while Bonnie sees Blanche as an incompetent, shrill
shrew.
With their gang now assembled, Bonnie
and Clyde turn from pulling small-time heists to robbing banks. Their
exploits also become more violent. When C.W., the get-away driver,
botches a bank robbery by parallel parking the car, Clyde shoots the
bank manager in the face after he jumps onto the slow-moving car's
running board. The gang is pursued by law enforcement, including Frank
Hamer (Denver Pyle), a Texas Ranger who is captured and humiliated by
the outlaws, then set free. With a score to settle, the ranger leads a
raid that kills Buck, injures Bonnie and Clyde, and leaves Blanche
sightless and in police custody. Hamer tricks Blanche, whose eyes are
bandaged, into revealing the name of C.W. Moss, known in the press only
as an unnamed accomplice.
The Ranger locates Bonnie and Clyde
and C.W. hiding at the house of C.W.'s father, Ivan Moss (Dub Taylor).
Because Ivan thinks Bonnie and Clyde have corrupted his son, he strikes
a bargain with Hamer: in exchange for a lenient jail sentence for C.W.,
he reveals Bonnie and Clyde's location and helps set a trap for them.
When Bonnie and Clyde are ambushed while stopped by the side of the
road, the police riddle their bodies with bullets in a blood bath.
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