Gangsters and Businessmen: Business as Usual
Following the killing of John Dillinger after his ill-fated date with a gangster movie and a woman dressed in red, the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America instituted a ban on gangster films. Supposedly, this bad was put in place in order to stop the youth of American from identifying with the romantic portrayal of the gangster life that was being shown on the silver screen. A more likely explanation is that gangster movies like the original Scarface, Little Caesar and Public Enemy all made a subtle but undeniable connection between success as a gangster and success in the business world of mainstream America. The idea was to highlight the distinction between the behavior of businessmen and criminals and marginalize the gangster from his reflection as a perfect representative of free market pursuit of the capitalist ideal.The movie gangster was never fully detached from his romantic roots, but in 1967 he made a conspicuous return to his earlier form; a return that appears to be permanent. Arthur Penn's Bonnie & Clyde was feverishly pro-gangster, featuring two very striking young actors as the notorious bank robbers. There can be no doubt as to who are the heroes of this film. In fact, they are so unquestionably heroic that they aren't even deserving of the term anti-hero. The filmmakers clearly weren't as concerned with historical accuracy as they were thematic coherence. In fact, the makers of this movie stated that their intention was to craft a story about anti-establishment heroes bucking the system instead of knuckling under it. Their intention seemed to be accepted as fact by both those who admired the movie and those who were appalled by it. If one looks closer at the film, however, it is possible to accurate read this version of the story of Bonnie & Clyde as a gleeful acceptance of the establishment, rather than a subversive undermining of it.
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