Arthur Penn 1922 - 2010

We were just about to write a post on Monday about Arthur Penn's 88th Birthday, and then yesterday, one day after his birthday, he up and died on us.
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Penn was an immensely gifted movie director, most famous for directing the Oscar-winning 1962 film, "The Miracle Worker", with Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke, and the ground-breaking "Bonnie and Clyde", (1967), which helped to usher in the new era of "realistic" film-making which immediately followed the collapse of the old Hollywood studio system. Penn was Oscar-nominated as Best Director for both those films, his third nom coming in 1970 for "Alice's Restaurant".
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"Bonnie and Clyde", which starred Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, Gene Hackman and Estelle Parsons was shocking in its time. Up until its release, the old Hollywood studios had dominated the movie-making industry and almost completely dictated what the American public would see on the silver screen. And as wonderful as those studio era movies from the 1930's to the 1960's were, they were often extremely sanitized with barely a whiff of violence, sex or nudity. But the late 1960's, behind the youth movement of hippies and flower power, saw many of the old social barriers start to topple. And then along came "Bonnie and Clyde", which seemed to glorify violence and made heroes out of criminals. The movie was like a cold slap in the face to the "establishment"; not only the film establishment but also to the overall social establishment of America. And the film was wildly popular. It made stars of Faye Dunaway and Gene Hackman, reignited Warren Beatty's career, and won a Supporting Actress Oscar for Estelle Parsons. Many think that Sam Peckinpah's "The Wild Bunch" and Dennis Hopper's "Easy Rider" were the first films to hold up a middle finger to older America, but it was "Bonnie and Clyde" which came first.
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Our favorite Arthur Penn film, though, is "Little Big Man", (1970), a quirky tale of the old West which starred Dustin Hoffman and Faye Dunaway. It's a strange, little movie, but incredibly entertaining and very indicative of the more realistic style of movie-making. We'll never forget the image of the gay Native American who confused his tribe by acting "like a woman". So good. Thank you, Arthur Penn!