Wicked Wednesday - Bonnie and Clyde

Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow...  What to say about them that hasn't already been said a million different ways.  Simple.  They were crooks.

Yeah, pretty obvious, I guess, but when I say crooks, I mean crooks.  They weren't movie stars or folk heroes or anything one should probably aspire to.  They weren't Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty cutting a dashing figure through the early 20th century.  Hell, they weren't even people you might, maybe, be able to kinda elevate to a Robin Hood status if you squinted and tilted your head sideways.  The majority of the people they robbed were small shop owners and the majority of the people they killed were officers of the law - men trying to protect the citizens who later romanticized their killers.  Bonnie and Clyde were crooks.  And scum.

And romanticizing scum doesn't sit well with me.  (Don't even get me started.)

Anyway, let's look at the facts.  Bonnie Parker was a smart girl who went as bad as a rancid peach.  Maybe it was because her father died when she was little.  Maybe her mother didn't love her enough.  Whatever it was that sent her down the path of criminal behavior, it stuck and it stuck good.  Perhaps she was just a sucker and got pulled down a bad path by a manipulative sociopath...

Like any good sociopath, Clyde Barrow seemed to enjoy the criminal lifestyle.  One might even say he was pretty damn proud of himself.  Until the law caught up with him.  Then he cried his way out of it, lied about being part of it, and generally made a whiny ass of himself.  So basically, he was only proud around his gang, and only a leader when his feet weren't to the fire. 

Some hero. 

So when you look back at this duo and their gang of thugs, don't do it through the Hollywood lens.  These two weren't anything worth celebrating.  They were just wicked.