Arthur Penn (1922-2010)

[throatybeard]

Arthur Penn is gone.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/30/movies/30penn.html?hp

I think I have Bonnie and Clyde on the DVR, so I'll make a point of seeing it again when I get home.

I've always loved both of Ebert's reviews, his original [positive] one that went against the grain of the reception at the time, and his later, "Great Movies" one.

1967
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.d...VIEWS/709250301 (http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19670925/REVIEWS/709250301)

1998
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.d.../401010306/1023 (http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19980803/REVIEWS08/401010306/1023)


Today, the freshness of "Bonnie and Clyde'' has been absorbed in countless other films, and it's hard to see how fresh and original it felt in 1967 -- just as the impact of "Citizen Kane,'' in 1941, may not be obvious to those raised in the shadow of its influence.

When I saw it, I had been a film critic for less than six months, and it was the first masterpiece I had seen on the job. I felt an exhilaration beyond describing. I did not suspect how long it would be between such experiences, but at least I learned that they were possible.

[Olympic Fan]

Count me among those who consider Bonnie and Clyde a ground-breaking film. It's been copied a million times (as all the great ones are), but I agree that it had a huge impact when released in 1967.

Penn's career is interesting -- he started as a director of TV dramas in the early 1950s, during the golden age. He parlayed a critically praised TV adaptation of the Miracle Worker on Playhouse 90 (with Teresa Wright, Burl Ives and John Drew Barrymore) into a job directing the famous film version with Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke.

In between, he directed an interesting Paul Newman Western -- a Billy the Kid story titled "The Left Handed Gun."

What's interesting to me is that he followed his great success with Bonnie and Clyde with a very bizarre film: Alice's Restaurant, starring Arlo Guthrie. Although Penn worked on a number of screenplays, it's the only one where he got writing credit.

I've always considered the film an underrated masterpiece -- despite the mediocre acting chops of Guthrie ... it's a fascinating look at the counter culture of the late 1960s.

Penn also had a success with the eipic -- but flawed -- Little Big Man.

One curious fact -- he appeared on screen once ... actually twice, but in the same role, playing a character on the 1999 TV series Beastmaster.

Anyway, RIP ...

[77devil]

Nothing else Arthur Penn directed even comes close to Bonnie and Clyde. Penn was fired a few years earlier and replaced for the better by John Frankenheimer on the classic film The Train. Frankenheimer was in his prime and was a better director at his best and over their body of work.