This Is A Picture From A Revolution!
One of the greatest – and most influential films ever made – is being shown on the big screen on March 21 in Los Angeles – with an amazing special guest!
Warren Beatty is Clyde Barrow, and Faye Dunaway is Bonnie Parker – and together they star in one of the most influential films of all time – a movie that was part of a revolution! More on that in a moment, but first, here is the trailer for Director Arthur Penn’s 1967 classic:
Vintage Los Angeles Scores Again!
Kudos once again for Alison Martino, the mastermind behind “Vintage Los Angeles”, a website she created to keep the vintage pieces of Tinseltown alive! One way she is doing that is showing vintage Hollywood films in a “million dollar” theater!
The marquee is up for this special event screening – one night only – in classic downtown LA!
“Hello C.W!”
Veteran character Actor Michael J. Pollard stars int eh film as well – a memorable role in a movie full of them!
“Vintage LA’s screening of “Bonnie and Clyde” is on March 21 at 8pm!! And Actor Michael J. Pollard, who played C.W. Moss PLANS BE IN ATTENDANCE TO SEE THE FILM ON THE BIG SCREEN AS WELL! The California Feetwarmers will be performing Jazz and Ragtime music directly next door at the Grand Central Market AND make sure to put on your best Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow inspired fashions to be part of our costume contest for prizes!!!”
What a great night! Read more about it and get your tickets by going to the official website here:
This is a great opportunity to see one of Hollywood’s most “revolutionary” films on the big screen!
Gene Hackman and Estelle Parson were both oscar-nominated for their roles…as my friend Jamie Klein reminded me, one of Hackman’s best lines is “whatever you do, don’t sell that cow!”
“Bonnie & Clyde” is violent, funny, emotional, shocking and revolutionary – the film ushered in a new era of screen violence in America.
Audiences at the time were stunned by the film’s climax – this had NEVER been seen onscreen before! “Bonnie & Clyde” was one of five films nominated for Best Picture in 1967 that defined a revolution in Hollywood, and there is a brilliant book that tells the whole story:
Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood by Mark Harris
This is a terrific story about Hollywood, Oscars, the end of one era in film, and the launch of a new way of making movies that changed Hollywood forever…
It’s the epic story behind the making of the five movies nominated for Best Picture in 1967 – Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, The Graduate, In the Heat of the Night, Doctor Doolittle, and Bonnie and Clyde – and through them, the larger story of the cultural revolution that transformed Hollywood, and America, forever!
It’s the mid-1960s, and westerns, war movies and blockbuster musicals like Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music-dominate the box office. Meanwhile, Warren Beatty wonders why his career isn’t blooming after the success of his debut in Splendor in the Grass – and even though Sidney Poitier has just made history by becoming the first black Best Actor winner, he’s still feeling completely cut off from opportunities other than the same “noble black man” role.
“Bonnie & Clyde” showcased brutal violence never seen before on-screen, along with Faye Dunaway’s unabashed sexuality – and great fashion:
And in a year of seismic change int he country, one film had the audacity to ask this question:
“Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner” tackled a virtually taboo subject at the time: inter-racial marriage – subjects that “mainstream” Hollywood would never tackle before…but a sea change was coming to Los Angeles…
This was explosive material for the movies, in this case helped by having the parents portrayed by Hollywood legends Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy:
“Are you trying to seduce me, Mrs. Robinson?”
And then, how about the “original MILF?”
Another of the Best Picture nominees of 1967 was “The Graduate”, which featured a young man having an affair with his girlfriend’s MOM!
And it was a “double bill” year for Poitier, as he also starred in the brilliant film “In The Heat Of The Night!”
“They Call Me MR. Tibbs!”
Poitier starred as Virgil Tibbs, a Philadelphia cop who finds racism everywhere in a redneck south that refuses to think modern, and as the poster warned “this was adult” stuff! Poitier fights racism at every turn, not helped by the racist Police Chief played by Rod Steiger:
These four films were culture shocks to Hollywood, which at the time was still trotting out films like the 5th nominee in 1967 for Best Picture: the bloated, out of touch musical fiasco “Dr. Doolittle.”
This is a terrific book about a Hollywood being torn apart…check it out….and don’t forget to support “Vintage Los Angeles” and Alison Martino’s efforts to keep classic Tinseltown alive!
Here is a look at one of her previous screenings, the classic “Sunset Boulevard!”
Kudos, Alison Martino!
