Posted on 09/29/2010 9:37:44 AM PDT by Borges
NEW YORK – Director Arthur Penn, a myth-maker and myth-breaker who in such classics as "Bonnie and Clyde" and "Little Big Man," refashioned movie and American history and sealed a generation's affinity for outsiders, died Tuesday night, a day after his 88th birthday.
Daughter Molly Penn said her father died at his home, in Manhattan, of congestive heart failure. Longtime friend and business manager Evan Bell said Wednesday that Penn had been ill for about a year. A memorial service would be held before the end of the year. Penn's older brother was photographer Irving Penn, who died in October 2009.
Penn's older brother was photographer Irving Penn, who died in October 2009.
After first making his name on Broadway as director of the Tony Award-winning plays "The Miracle Worker" and "All the Way Home," Penn rose as a film director in the 1960s, his work inspired by the decade's political and social upheaval, and Americans' interest in their past and present.
"Bonnie and Clyde," with its mix of humor and mayhem, encouraged moviegoers to sympathize with the lawbreaking couple from the 1930s, while "Little Big Man" told the tale of the conquest of the West with the Indians as the good guys.
"A society would be wise to pay attention to the people who do not belong if it wants to find out ... where it's failing," Penn once said.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Commie creep who spawned the ugly and destestable Sean Penn.
Wrong Penn.
Sean Penn’s dad was Leo Penn who died in 1998.
It was ALL myth-making.
Not the same Penn.
Ping
I didn’t know we should feel guilty about bank robbers and murderers! And I saw the movie.
It was ALL myth-making”
Toxic myth-making in the service of propagandizing against the American Republic and the social values that sustained it.
Someone should have told him that what you learn by studying “outsiders” is how destructive deviants are (e.g. Bonnie and Clyde). Instead, he glorified destructive behavior and promoted distortions of history.
‘Bonnie and Clyde’ wasn’t intended to be a historical document. Do you think ‘The Miracle Worker’ is toxic ‘propagandizing against the American Republic’? Or Night Moves? Or Mickey One?
great movie
Faye was so yummy...sexy...the style she carried in that film is still emulated today along with her haircut
only pity was Estelle Parsons survived...God was she nutty in that one...someone shoot her and shut her up
I saw Estelle Parsons on stage recently in a play. She was great.
Little Big Man was distortion...B & C simply glorified a couple of psychopaths.
It was a pretty good movie tho I hated the way they portrayed Frank Hamer who was a great man, one of the greatest law men ever.
My Father was born in the same tiny town, (Bascom, Florida) as Faye Dunnaway.
Little Big Man was supposed to be a fairly accurate version of the novel it was based on. B&C simply amplified the ‘Lovers on the Lam’ subgenre that Hollywood had been doing for decades (You Only Live Once, They Live By Night, Gun Crazy). It was intended to be a sujbjective look at how ‘rebels’ saw themselves no matter eveil they were...not how others see them.
Penn was a propagandist.
The REAL Bonnie and Clyde were sociopath killers.
Bonnie on one occasion just for amusement one day while driving with a confederate saw a cop directing street traffic, turned and said, “watch this”. She placed a sawed off shotgun between her legs, rolled up to the cop and innocently started asking for directions. When the cop came close enough she blew his head off as he fell dead on the street where he stood. Bonnie laughed as she sped off in the car.
The film wasn’t about the REAL Bonnie and Clyde. See my post above.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.