So I watched the movie, found it really impressive, and did some research on B&C as well. One thing I couldn't figure out though: What was up with Clyde's refusal or inability to be sexual with Bonnie? (Just lack of confidence/experience?) And did that have any basis in their real relationship? (Didn't seem to, from the little looking into it that I did.)
Sorry if this has already been addressed... Is there a "search" feature for posts?
He couldn't get it up.
Meet me in Montauk.
According to good new biography, GO DOWN TOGETHER, the stories about Clyde came from being sexually assaulted in prison. Script writers originally had more sexual issues than wound up being in the movie but according to GO DOWN TOGETHER
they were not accurate.
Clyde was rumored to be impotent. I believe that this impotence was really a coverup for being homosexual.
He was also a psychopath, as was Bonnie.
Is this really a mystery?
Originally, writers Newman and Benton included Clyde, Bonnie and C.W. having a menage a trois. Beatty vetoed that since he felt it detracted from the likeability of all of the characters. Robert Towne rewrote the script substituting Clyde as being impotent which is much more effective at eliciting sympathy for both Clyde and Bonnie.
^^^
You're pretty sure? That rumor has been debunked by now.
well it has always been rumored that Clyde was bisexual, and the screenwriters even wrote the script that way originally, but Warren Beatty supposedly refused to play a homosexual, so it was instead implied that he was impotent.
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I don't get it. If he's bisexual, what's the problem? It would make sense if he were gay because he would not be physically attracted to the idea of making love to a woman. It would make sense if he were traumatized from some assault while he was in jail. But if he were bisexual why on earth would he not sleep with Bonnie? I'm so confused.
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He says at the start of the movie that he isn't. When he throws off Bonnie and says "I ain't no lover boy" he also smiles and throws in "there's nothing wrong with me, I don't like boys" or something to that effect.
shareHe says at the start of the movie that he isn't. When he throws off Bonnie and says "I ain't no lover boy" he also smiles and throws in "there's nothing wrong with me, I don't like boys" or something to that effect.
Just wanted to correct, beatty didnt have any kind of problem with playing gay scenes, look at his personal life, anyone whod have had a problem with him if they suspected he was gay would already have a problem with him. It was the director who said there would be so many personal issues that it would make the characters hard to identify with, theyd stop just being people who happened to go down this path and instead been seen more as a bundle of neurosis and conditions, not like the rest of us, in the end the writers whod said the gay scenes were non negotiable agreed, it wasnt to censor gay scenes for the sake of it, it was because the original script was just too melodramatic. it is just a simpler story if you say oh well the actor probably just wouldnt do that in the 60s.
shareI don't really get it either... Read somewhere that he's supposed to be impotent but don't they have sex near the end of the movie?
Seems more like he was just really insecure...
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:well it has always been rumored that Clyde was bisexual, and the screenwriters even wrote the script that way originally, but Warren Beatty supposedly refused to play a homosexual, so it was instead implied that he was impotent."
That's not true. Warren Beatty was up to playing the part, even as a bisexual. Rather, it was Arthur Penn who suggested in the end that the screenwriters remove the bisexual aspect from the storyline. He thought that general audiences wouldn't be able to relate to the characters. They were already outlaws and living on the fringes of society, and adding a ménage à trois between Clyde, Bonnie, and the CW Moss character would have pushed them farther into the outskirts. He was afraid they'd be thought of as "freaks." Rent or buy the BONNIE AND CLYDE DVD that came out last year. It's all explained in the documentary REVOLUTION: THE MAKING OF BONNIE AND CLYDE.
That's the point. In the movie Clyde can't get it up, which is why he substitutes "shooting" a gun, a rather phallic symbol. Bonnie is sexually frustrated, as well (she's not getting any), so the gun and the adrenaline of bank-robbing are orgasmic to her. But they are finally able to consummate their relationship near the end of the film, but it's too little too late. At the "climax" of the movie they're both fvcked over and are killed with the same phallic weapon which had given Clyde a sense of masculinity and Bonnie and outlet for her libido.
In the '67 film Clyde triumphs over impotence. In reality he may have been bi or homosexual and the screenwriters originally had an idea of a menage involving B&C and C.W. Moss.
shareImpotency doesn't always mean "never".
Sometimes it means "has trouble" and "only works under some circumstances".
Maybe he busted in his pants and it killed the mood, and the erection. Either that or he was just sexually inexperienced, and not confident with a girl who probably had way more sexual history than him. I think the idea of him being sexually traumatized works too. He definitely didn't come across as bi-sexual. Whatever his issue was, it worked well with the story, because when they finally did make love it was that much more meaningful.
share"He definitely didn't come across as bi-sexual."
He sure came across that way to me. How many straight men wrap themselves around other men (CW), from behind, using a bouncy recliner to help the action along, while playing checkers? And how straight is CW that he allows that to happen? There's a reason that scene is presented that way.
If Viagra was around in 1934, Clyde wouldn't have had a problem.
At least that's true of the Warren Beatty Clyde.
I think the real Clyde had some issues from being molested in prison. But that's a different story.
did anyone possibly think he was asexual?? he just had no desire for sex. is that so unbelievable? he had no libido...im just the same. it happens. not sure if thats the case for him but i think its possible.
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