Sorry, but I call it bragging. Sure, it’s complaining in the scene you point out, but this is the poem we’re talking about. In a futher scene in the movie, Clyde tells Bonnie after he reads the poem in the paper, that she made him immortal. (Or some such. I don’t remember the exact words.) The Barrow Gang wouldn’t have been blamed for unsolved crimes if they weren’t notorious, and criminal types are rather proud of their notoriety. The “tough pose” photographs they took along the way indicate this.
I don’t doubt that Bonnie had worries about her future, and didn’t particularly like being reminded that she could be killed at any moment. But she didn’t feel badly enough to turn herself in to the law. And I don’t buy that she was an unwilling participant either.
Also B&W, but a great con-man movie. I love Paper Moon. Or maybe have a look at The Sting, in color? Redford and Newman again, which might be an issue if the kid wasn’t wild about Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid.
True Lies - a great comic action/adventure movie.
Trading Places - one of my favorite comic buddy/revenge fantasy movies.
Additionally, according to Blache’s book, the law, the police, were constantly after, harassing, bothering, checking up on all of the Barrows. It is depressing when every time you turn around the police are after you and your family, esp when you have not done anything wrong. I think they all knew there was an inevitability of its going to constantly get worse…which gave them no incentive to go straight since they know they would be constantly hounded by the law no matter what.
They knew they were on a course doomed to have a bad ending and there was not anything they could have done to get out of it.
Furthermore, Clyde had a very bad experience in prison, getting sexually assaulted, and there was no way Clyde would ever go to jail/prison again, he would fight to the death, so would his brother, and Bonnie and Blanche would not leave their men - therefore, they also would do down with their men.
They had no nice future and they knew it, but it was not because they wanted a bad ending, they were doomed to a bad ending.
It is a little slow, I suppose, but a lot of the fun for me was the Dust Bowl atmosphere, the cons, the scenery-chewing of Madeline Kahn as Miss Trixie Delight, and the crackling dialogue between Mose and his maybe-daughter Addie.
The only thing I remember from the movie was the line
Tatum O’Neil was about the same age as me and my seven-year old self fell a little bit in love with her for that only for my dreams to be dashed when International Velvet was so awful several years later.
I haven’t seen it since I was a kid and I might be romanticizing it, but I remember loving The Great Train Robbery with Connery & Sutherland. Sutherland’s hilarious. I second 12 Angry Men. Also, try An American Werewolf In London.
As for B&C, I just saw it last week for the first time. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I was surprised how sexualized they made Bonnie- she had just met Clyde about 10 minutes before and he showed off for her by robbing the grocery store at gunpoint (after she suggestively stroked the shaft of his gun), and it made her so horny she was trying to jump his bones during the getaway drive.
It was a really hot scene in 2011, so I can’t imagine what they thought of it in 1967. Hummina hummina.
Who’s the black private dick
That’s a sex machine to all the chicks?
SHAFT!
(You damn right!)
Who is the man that would risk his neck
For his brother man?
SHAFT!
(Can you dig it?)
Who’s the cat that won’t cop out
When there’s danger all about?
SHAFT!
(Right On!)
They say this cat Shaft is a bad mother
(SHUT YOUR MOUTH!)
I’m talkin’ 'bout SHAFT!
(THEN WE CAN DIG IT!)
He’s a complicated man
But no one understands him but his woman
JOHN SHAFT!
It actually holds up surprisingly well.
And given your kid’s likes and dislikes, the clear common denominator is the “Breaking glass” quotient.
“To Kill A Mockingbird”? No mockingbirds are killed and no glass is broken.
“Saving Private Ryan”? There’s almost nothing BUT on-screen action. By that standard, Shaft should be a hit. (Can you dig it? That’s what I’m talkin’ about!)
I was about to make the same recommendation. I saw this movie for the first time just a couple of years ago, and was impressed by how well it had held up. (I also realized that I’d seen this movie referenced many times in other media without knowing it!) It probably helps that it’s a horror/comedy, and that the makeup effects were quite good. kevlaw’s son might be interested to see what they did before CGI.
This movie does contain a sex scene that a teenager might be embarrassed to watch with a parent, although IIRC it’s not that explicit for an R-rated movie.
The kid didn’t care for spaghetti westerns but does like heist movies. Maybe try a heist movie that’s a spaghetti western? Duck, You Sucker (aka A Fistful of Dynamite), directed and co-written by Sergio Leone, is set in Mexico during the revolution and focuses on a Mexican rebel (Rod Steiger) convincing an Irish rebel (James Coburn) to help him rob a federal bank.
The only potential problem there is that Leone never liked to be rushed through a movie. Duck, You Sucker is 157 minutes long - that’s fine if you’re enjoying the movie but if you’re borderline on it, it starts to drag.
My recommendation for a good spaghetti western* is The Professionals: Lee Marvin, Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan, Woody Strode, Claudia Cardinale, Jack Palance, and Ralph Bellamy.
*Purists might argue that it’s not a real spaghetti western - it’s an American production filmed in the United States. But it was made when the authentic spaghetti westerns were at their peak of popularity and is inspired by the genre. So it’s an hommage.
There’s usually some sort of action–stagecoach robbery, random explosions, attacking a tower held by Federales (IIRC), espionage, etc.–so I don’t think dragging would be much of a problem.
I saw this movie for the first time just a couple of years ago, and was impressed by how well it had held up. (I also realized that I’d seen this movie referenced many times in other media without knowing it!) It probably helps that it’s a horror/comedy, and that the makeup effects were quite good. kevlaw’s son might be interested to see what they did before CGI.