Bonnie and Clyde Page #16

BONNIE:

But I mean it, though. I want to

see my mama. Please, Clyde.

Two shot. BONNIE and CLYDE. Day.

CLYDE:

(enormously relieved,

kissing her)

Okay, sweetheart.

DISSOLVE TO:

EXT. SIDE OF A ROAD. VERY LONG SHOT. DAY.

--of three or four cars parked on the side of a road in

Texas. A light rain is falling. There are a lot of people

gathered around, but the sound is an indistinct mixture of

talk, laughter, etc.

There follows a quick montage of cuts which isolate specific

moments in the family reunion, thereby implying the entire

tone of the proceedings. The sense of family pervades.

Montage. BONNIE and MOTHER. BONNIE's mother, an old woman,

grabs her and hugs her and cries.

Montage. BONNIE, CLYDE, MAN. A man, an uncle perhaps,

stands with BONNIE and CLYDE, arms around them both, hugging

them to his sides tightly.

Montage. BONNIE and sister. BONNIE's sister hands them a

scrapbook of clippings.

SISTER:

Here you are, we been cuttin' and

pastin' everything we could find

about you in the papers.

80.

CLYDE, BONNIE, BUCK and BLANCHE all look at the scrapbook.

We see a page of it, showing newspaper articles with the

photographs the gang took back at the motel.

BUCK:

Hey look, here's that one I took of

you, Clyde. That came out just fine!

Montage. BONNIE, CLYDE, MAN. BONNIE and CLYDE are posing

for a comic snapshot. A silly looking male relative is

posing, pointing a gun at them. They have their hands in

the air and are grinning broadly. (The effect should be

funny and simultaneously frightening.)

Montage BUCK, SMALL BOY. BUCK is sitting with a little

four-year-old on his knee, bouncing him up and down and

singing. Both are having a fine time.

BUCK:

(singing)

Oh, Horsey! keep your tail up, keep

yer tail up, keep yer tail up, Oh,

Horsey! keep yer tail up, Why don't

you make it rise.

Montage--C.W. A hand off camera thrusts a sandwich at C.W.

He opens the bread to see what's inside it, then eats it.

Montage--BONNIE & SISTER. BONNIE sits stock-still while her

sister gives her a permanent in the back seat of a car. He

sister pauses, setting down the curling iron. She strokes

BONNIE's yellow head with her hand, as though she were a

wild animal that had paused long enough to be petted.

BONNIE turns to see her sister's expression. They embrace.

Montage--Family picnic--Favoring CLYDE, MOTHER & BONNIE.

CLYDE, in his best theatrical manner has been playing host

in the sand pile, perhaps using some sort of towel across

the arm or around the middle. The party is beginning to

break up now as used paper plates and crumpled napkins are

blowing across the sand and the group is finishing up on

Eskimo pie.

BONNIE'S UNCLE

(rising)

Where y'all headed from here?

CLYDE:

(right back)

I don't know, what y'all got in

mind? At this point we ain't

headin' to anywhere, we're just

runnin' from.

81.

CLYDE laughs, in fine spirits.

Reaction--BONNIE. She doesn't.

BONNIE'S SISTER'S VOICE

C'mon, down, Litte Tom! We're

goin' home. Little Tom? Mathew,

fetch Little Tom.

BONNIE:

Don't go yet, Mama.

UNCLE'S VOICE

(cutting in)

C'mere, c'mere you little corn

roller.

Wide angle. As Uncle sweeps up the laughing little Tom.

Reaction--BONNIE. BONNIE turns with increased urgency to

her MOTHER, who, having been hefted to her feet by BONNIE's

sister, has turned to CLYDE, who gives her a big, boyish hug.

MOTHER:

...you know, Clyde, I read about

y'all in the papers and I'm jes'

scared.

BONNIE:

(to Clyde)

Sugar, make mama stay a while yet.

CLYDE:

(ignoring Bonnie, as

does Mother,

ebulliently, even joshing)

Now Mrs. Parker, don't y'all

believe what you read in the papers!

That's the law talking there. They

want us to look big so's they'll

look big when they catch us.

He knows he's stumbled onto the wrong thing, but he bounces

right along--it's his style.

CLYDE:

--and they can't do that. Why, I'm

even better at runnin' than robbin'

banks--aw shoot, if we done half

the stuff they said we did, we'd be

millionaires, wouldn't we, old

sugar.

(MORE)

82.

CLYDE (CONT'D)

(he turns to Bonnie

who continues to

stare at her Mother)

And I wouldn't risk Bonnie here

just to make money, uncertain as

times are. Why one time I knowed

of a job where we could of make

$2000 easy, but I saw the law

outside and I said to myself, why

Bonnie could get hurt here. So I

just drove right on and let that

money lay.

He waits for a response, as does BONNIE. BONNIE's MOTHER

smiles, a little abstractedly.

MOTHER:

...Maybe you know the way with her,

then. I'm just an old woman and I

don't know nothin...

She trails off, looking nowhere in particular. CLYDE takes

her reaction to mean that he's overwhelming her with his

confidence, and continues to pour it on.

CLYDE:

We'll be quittin' this just as soon

as the hard times is over, Mother

Parker, I can tell you that. Why

me and Bonnie were just talkin' the

other day and we talked about when

we'd settle down and get us a home,

and Bonnie said, "I couldn't bear

to live morn'n three miles from my

precious mother." Now how'd you

like that, Mother Parker?

BONNIE's MOTHER has undergone a funny sort of transformation

during CLYDE's speech--as if something had suddenly come

into focus before the old woman's eyes.

MOTHER:

Don't believe I would. I surely

don't.

(to Bonnie)

You try to live three miles from me

and you won't live long, honey.

(to Clyde)

You'd best keep runnin' and you

know it, Clyde Barrow.

(matter of fact)

Bye, baby.

83.

She hugs BONNIE who can barely respond. We move in for a

closeup of BONNIE as her various relatives, young and old

come by to squeeze, kiss and hug her with a chirpy little

chorus of Bye, Bonnie! Bye, Bonnie, bye, bye, bye.

DISSOLVE:

EXT. PLATTE CITY MOTEL. PLATTE CITY, IOWA. DAY.

Hold on the outside long enough to see the unusual

structures:
two little motel cabins connected by two

identical garages, an entirely symmetrical structure.

INT. PLATTE CITY MOTEL BEDROOM. WITH BONNIE. DAY.

--as she tries, against heavy odds, to file and trim her

nails in a corner of the room. The odds are; CLYDE on a

uke, b.g., BUCK, and BLANCHE--gathered around C.W. who sits

in the only stuffed chair in the room. Their o.s.

raucousness is clearly shattering to BONNIE who, at a key

moment in the scene, ends up spearing her cuticle with a

file, spurting a little board and a lot of temper.

Other angle. CLYDE--BUCK--BLANCHE--C.W. Day. A naked

lightbulb (the lampshade has been removed) glares down on

C.W.'s chest--where a pair of bluebirds have been tattooed

with a rocco flourish. BUCK and BLANCHE are vastly amused-rather

BLANCHE takes delight in BUCK's delight.

BUCK:

How long have ya had it?

C.W.

(like some docile

animal submitting to inspection)

--just got it.

BUCK:

(to Blanche, who

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