Bonnie & Clyde (DVD) (Warren Beatty)

Adrift in the Depression-era Southwest, Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker embark on a life crime. They mean no harm. They crave adventure and each other. Soon we start to love them too. But nothing in film history has prepared us for the cascading violence to follow. Bonnie and Clyde turns brutal. We learn they can be hurt - and dread they can be killed. Bonnie and Clyde balances itself on a knife-edge of laughter and terror, thanks to vivid title-role performances by Warren Beatty and Fay Dunaway and superb support from Michael J. Pollard, Gene Hackman and Estelle Parsons, who won 1967¿¿s Best Supporting Actress Academy Award¿¿. Director Arthur Penn keep¿¿s the film¿¿s sensibilities tough but never cruel. It continually dazzles, especially in the work of cinematographer Burnett Guffey (winner of the film¿¿s second Oscar¿¿) and editor Dede Allen. And as film lovers since have discovered, it¿¿s no ordinary gangster movie.