Rachel, Rachel

The Rachel (Joanne Woodward) in Paul Newman’s directorial debut, Rachel, Rachel, has let her life go nowhere.  She is thirty-five, living with her overbearing, widowed mother (Kate Harrington) in the same baby-pink room she grew up in.  Her job as a second grade school teacher surrounds her with children that she grows to love, but can never call her own.  Her only real friend is a fellow teacher, Calla (Estelle Parsons), but there are some tensions between the two.

All that only scratches the surface of Rachel’s issues.  Her entire life, she has been surrounded by ideas and images of death and they seem to be the reason for her constant morbid fantasies.  Her father ran the town funeral parlor, attached to the house.  Her mother sweetly remembers the way he used to reek of embalming fluid.  It’s no wonder her daydreams are about being hit by a car on her walk to work or shoving a full bottle of pills in her mother’s mouth.

When the school year ends, a long summer with her mother looms ahead for Rachel, then an old childhood acquaintance, Nick (James Olson), asks her out on a date.  Rachel is the kind who makes excuses about her mother to avoid social situations, but Nick is persistent enough.  We get excited for her, thinking that this could be a real turning point for Rachel, who has never had any hope for romance in her life.  However, Nick is just looking for some action while he’s in town and Rachel is a virgin who remembers him best when his twin brother died and she watched her father get him casket-ready.  It can be hard to get past that in any relationship.

Woodward’s Rachel is wonderfully lowly and yet we try to hold out some hope for her.  Even through her more outlandish daydreams, she becomes a character that we feel sympathy for.  Surely everyone can recall a time of repression, self doubt or crippling social anxiety.  She brings out these ideas of shyness and depression that made me feel like she was just waiting to die.  When she finally has a chance for happiness, we’re afraid to be uplifted, and I think she was as well.  She has denied herself any sort of real happiness for so long, it’s hard to let go.

One scene that really shows Rachel’s drab and repressed personality is when Nick approaches her in the drugstore.  The shop is full of teenagers, celebrating the beginning of summer, wearing stylish, bright clothes, dancing and touching in ways that make Rachel uncomfortable.  My favorite image is a girl combing a boy’s long hair.  These kids are on board with the sexual revolution going on while Rachel is left behind with her manicured bangs and drab wardrobe.  Nick is in the right place to find some action, it’s just that the only woman of legal age does not quite realize his angle.  I think Rachel realizes how out of place she is among the crowd, so she’s already uncomfortable even before Nick starts prodding her for a date.

At first glance, Rachel, Rachel seems like the ultimate female mid-life crisis.  She hates living with her mom, her biological clock is ticking, being around kids all day doesn’t help and suddenly she has a lover.  These elements have made up countless terrible movies.  Here, Newman is crafty behind the camera, hardly letting anything slip a smile on our face, and that is a good thing.  With the quiet, thoughtful feeling of this film and the morbid ideas interjected, Rachel, Rachel is intriguing, beautiful but a bit depressing.

“He told me now they’re putting perfume in the embalming fluid.”

Bonnie and Clyde

Sometimes I look at the tale of Bonnie andClydein an odd way.  It was the depression and they were in the middle of the boring, flat mid-west.  They were young, crazy and faced with the choices of sit around and rot in the dust or run off, have fun and raise a little hell.  Their main problem was, they raised loads of hell.

When we first see Bonnie Parker (Faye Dunaway), she’s alone in her room, bored, naked and all she has to look forward to is her next waitress shift.  But outside her window, she sees a young man hanging around her mother’s car.  This is Clyde Barrow (Warren Beatty).  They hang out around town for a while, just talking.  He says he’s done time for armed robbery.  That fascinates a bored girl.  Everything happens so casually, just as in conversation.  Before we realize what is happening,Clydehas robbed a store and the two are exchanging names as they steal a car.

You could say these two move pretty fast, but that only applies to their life of crime.  Though it’s easy for Bonnie to get stirred up and attempt a ravenous make-out session while Clyde is driving the getaway car,Clydemakes it clear that he “ain’t much of a loverboy”.  To Bonnie’s disappointment, she’s just run off and become an outlaw with someone who won’t have sex, which seems to be Bonnie’s main asset and outlet.

Soon the Barrow gang is expanding.  While Bonnie andClydeare driving through, they recruit a young man tending a gas station, C.W. Moss (Michael J. Pollard).  He seems like just another bored kid who decides on a whim that running from the law is more exciting than sitting around in the dust.  Later,Clydemeets up with his brother and sister-in-law, Buck (Gene Hackman) and Blanche (Estelle Parsons).  Buck knows all about his little brother’s growing list of run-ins with the law and tries to keep all that from his wife.  The whole gang decides they should just lay low for a while, but when they’re found out, Buck and Estelle shoot and run with the rest, permanently attaching themselves to the Barrow gang.

The gang finds themselves in some of the most screwball situations.  When a lone Texas Ranger tries to sneak up on the gang, parked in the woods for a break, he ends up with his arms tied and in a photo shoot.  Buck brings out his camera and takes a few priceless shots of Bonnie andClydeposing with the bound lawman.  Later, there’s a hilarious scene where the gang steal the car of a young man, Eugene (Gene Wilder).  He and his girlfriend Velma (Evans Evans) start chasing the gang in another car, but decide to turn back fearing they’re armed.  Soon, they’re riding around, with the Barrow gang, stopping for hamburgers and having a grand time.  Hanging around with the Barrow gang sounds like a real fun time, unless you’re an undertaker.

Bonnie soon sees that this life on the run is harder and less romantic than she thought.  She misses her family and refuses to let go of her old life, saying she wants to live near her mother again.  As the law moves closer, it’s clearer that those things aren’t going to happen.  It’s kind of sad really, but eventually Bonnie makes her own mark on the world and tells the story of her andClydein a way that makes sure they’re remembered forever.

To this day, the term Bonnie andClydehas a hint of romanticism in it.  We know they robbed banks and killed people along the way and by definition they are considered bad people.  But there are still ideas of rebellion, adventure and charm associated with the unforgettable duo.  Somehow, I think Bonnie andClydeappreciate us remembering them as just a couple crazy kids raising some hell in a time that needed a little excitement.

“All I can say is, they did right by me – and I’m bringin’ me and a mess of flowers to their funeral.”