Nobody mentioned Robert Towne and yet it was he, not Benton or Newman (who were not allowed on the set of the film), who completely rewrote the screenplay at the behest of Beatty and Penn. Also interviewed were director Arthur Penn and star-producer Warren Beatty. The original screenwriters, David Newman and Robert Benton, were extensively interviewed about the origins of the film and its progression to the screen. To mark the occasion, a documentary, American Desperadoes: The Story of Bonnie and Clyde (Russell Leven 1999), was released. The thirty-year anniversary of the release of Bonnie and Clyde occurred in 1997.
They’re young… they’re in love… and they kill people. If there is such a thing as an American tragedy, it must be funny.
