In the film Bonnie and Clyde a constant editing theme that is throughout the entire movie is the fast and rapid change from one character to another during any one of the scenes in the film. This starts right away in the film when we see Bonnie getting ready in her room and Clyde outside eyeing up her mothers car, and then we see it again when Bonnie is looking at Clydes gun. We witness the facial expression on both of their faces in a matter of seconds and the camera continues to go back and forth during the rest of the scene when Clyde robs a store to prove that he is a criminal and thief to Bonnie. The scene following Clyde running into the store to rob it, is the scene where he steals a car for the first time with Bonnie there. When they jump in the car and drive out of town we see Bonnie throwing herself all over Clyde and we see each of their faces as the camera goes back and forth when Clyde is trying to get Bonnie off of him. The facial expressions that Bonnie has throughout the rest of the scene are so dramatic and ones of disgust and embarrassment, and the expressions on Clydes face are off embarassment as well but also of annoyance and regret to an extent. He tells her that he is not a lover boy and that he is more there for the thrill of committing crimes and having a partner like Bonnie. He tries to make up for hurting her by telling he that she is the swellest girl in Texas and the one that is perfect for his team. I almost started to believe him there, but then I remembered that he gets her killed so that feeling flew out the window quite quickly.
During the rest of the film while Bonnie, Clyde, C.W., Buck and Blanche are committing a number of crimes we are able to witness a number of the characters facial expressions, and the different characters in an entire scene that may not all fit into one shot. During one of their first heists together we get a shot of the bank and all the people in it, and then the camera quickly moves to the gang coming in to the bank proclaiming that this is a stick-up.
We are able to see them as they are entering and the few characters that are in the shot as well, but the way that each scene is edited is great and showing the audience so much of what is going on in one scene so that we can get a feeling for who all and what all is in each scene. The matter of seconds it takes to go from one section of a scene to the next is so small and it is so cool that we can see that because there is so much to see in films such as this.
Later on in the film as the gang is fleeing from anther robbery of sorts they are found by a sherif who tries to scare them and arrest them but he is very much out numbered and there is nothing that he can really say or do to get them to surrender. When they take away his gun and start to push him around a little and so on Bonnie suggests taking a picture of her and Clyde with him so that they can send it to one of the papers. When they are posing for this picture Bonnie thinks that it would be funny for her to kiss him, and when she does he is not too happy and he spits on her after she stops kissing him. The expression on both of their faces is so surprising and full of disgust and anger that I was a little shocked, because even though she is criminal what man wouldn't want t be kissed by a pretty girl with a gun mind you. But also after the cop spit on Bonnie Clyde really freaked out and attacked him and they ended up in the river and the cop eventually on a boat all by himself handcuffed, so they were pretty ticked off with him.
It is really interesting to me how fast a camera can flash from one persons face to another, I know that ultimately there is more than one camera shooting at once, but the editing is so perfect in this film when it goes back and forth between characters. I might even say flawless at times. Throughout the rest of the film there are numerous shots that go from character to character in this film that I could not even write about all of them, we would be here all night to say the least. The editing in this film is great and I really think that it helped make the movie what it is today. I think that it really helped the audience to get in touch with each of the characters because we got to be so close up to them in this film and a face can tell you everything and the faces in this film tell so much of the story that without all of the cutting from face to face would change the movie entirely. I know that sometimes we get almost motion sick when we fly back and forth from character to character in a matter of seconds during a film, but this film wasn't really one that would make you sick, but one that would make you want to see more and more of the characters so that you could read in their facial expressions what was going to happen next, and how they really truly felt about what they were doing.
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