The much-hyped TV movie, "Bonnie & Clyde," is a mix of the good and the bad. There is excellent cinematography, sound design, and performance by William Hurt. But, there is also the excessive artistic license and lack of historical accuracy.

The result is a mixed bag that can't be either recommended or asked to be avoided. The movie takes the view that Bonnie Parker was the instigator of everything that went on. She is portrayed as someone who is desperate for glory and is willing to sacrifice whomever has to be sacrificed to get what she wants. This runs counter to what history says, which is that Clyde Barrow was a criminal with little regard for human life, and was going to do whatever necessary so that he did not go back to prison.

The movie was shown in two parts. The first centered a lot on Barrow's experiences in prison, including being raped, which is particularly grisly. You used to have to go to a dark, R-rated film like "Deliverance" for that, but now you can see it on TV! There is a fair amount of bloody violence and PG-rated language. This most likely would be a fairly strong PG-13 or lower-level R, if it were in theaters.

The first part is mostly preamble, and not very interesting preamble at that. The second part is where the movie goes into high gear, with all the shootings and graphic violence I am guessing people came for. The highlight, though, is a great performance by William Hurt! When I saw him in the cast, I was very hopeful, since he just gave an excellent performance in the Discovery Channel film, "The Challenger Disaster." Here, he gets down and dirty as a determined crime fighter, who has no problems killing whomever he gets a chance to, or to union bust for greedy corporations. His telling of why he's come out of retirement to hunt down Bonnie and Clyde to a colleague is chilling.

After four hours, including commercials, the ending to the film comes so suddenly, you wonder how they could spend those four hours on all that came before it, and only spend a few minutes on the ending. Very bizarre!

The movie was directed by Bruce Beresford, who most famously directed "Breaker Morant" and "Driving Miss Daisy." Here, he makes the most of the script he has been given. The cinematography is excellent! Some of the best I have seen on TV in recent memory. The sound design is excellent and is striking through a good stereo set up. There are some real irritants here, though. John Debney's film score is uneven, only working well in the final 40 minutes of the production. The performance by the lady playing the exploitative newspaper woman is highly irritating. The voice over by Clyde, as with all voice overs, demonstrates laziness by the screenwriters. It usually shows a lack of imagination to use cinematic techniques to show what's happening, and instead just tell us with the voice over. Clyde's "second sight" construct by the screenwriters, in which he sees events before they happen is odd, but ironically provides some of the rare cinematic quality the film needed.

In the end, stylized tellings of history can work, when they are done well. Such was the case with Arthur Penn's classic version of the story from 1967. And, was also the case with the Brian De Palma-directed, David Mamet-scripted "The Untouchables" from 1987. There were definite historic liberties taken in both cases. But, since both films were so masterfully done, it doesn't matter! We know that neither was trying to be a documentary from the get go, so it's okay. We know that there are resources where we can learn the true story. The films are there as art, and great art at that. This TV movie doesn't get there, though. And, that's the difference.

******* (7 Out of 10 Stars)

I am an amateur historian who is fascinated with the prohibition/depression era. The criminals and their opposite lawmen are the stuff of legend and this miniseries focuses highly on the legend and less on the facts. In defense of the writers, the facts of this era are often nebulous, contradicting, and confusing, so a little bit of a mythology mindset won't hurt anyone. This miniseries is not completely off base in depicting the most famous criminal couple in US history, especially when compared to the 1967 version. This modern reboot of the famous duo's crime spree was not that bad and was entertaining to anyone who was not highly familiar with the details of the couple's exploits. If you do not care how historically accurate the series is, stop reading here because the spoilers start below:

SPOILER ALERT!!!!

If I were to re-title the series with a more descriptive name I would call it "The Mythmaking of Bonnie and Clyde. The writers of this series focused heavily on the mythology behind the gangster era with an emphasis on fate. The flashes Clyde had all throughout the series such as seeing his brother's head blown open and the bullet holes in the bathtub scene are ominous signs of a violent death. Clyde seems to want to abandon his violent lifestyle, but as 'fate' would have it he is pulled back into it by Bonnie or through circumstances. This mythical quality added to the series is reminiscent to the Greek description of a vision from the oracle at Delphi (minus the fortune cookie like answers from the priests on stones...that part of the oracle always makes me laugh). Clyde meets Bonnie in the series at her wedding when he catches her...garment and Clyde falls under Bonnie's trance. He will later take her to a speak easy where he tells her that the two of them are meant to be. Again, more fate related themes that engulf the series, sadly at the expense of historical authenticity. There is little consensus as to how Bonnie and Clyde met, but the most likely story is that Clyde was helping out an injured friend and Bonnie was also there serving food. Less mythological and dramatic than at Bonnie's wedding, but far more likely. Bonnie's husband, Roy Thornton, was a professional criminal and was constantly in jail. He was believed to have remarked after hearing of the pair's deaths, "I'm glad they died like they did. It's much better than being in jail" or something to that affect. It is clear that Bonnie was hardly a virtuous girl who was caught up by Clyde's smooth talking, but that she was naturally attracted to men of criminal activity. Bonnie was believed to have carried a gun, but was only observed shooting a weapon once by a credible source, a Joplin Police officer who was pinned down by fire from Bonnie using a BAR during the apartment escape. However, the series combines two incidences, the Joplin and the Kansas City getaways into one. The getaway depicted in the series was set in Joplin, but actually depicted the Kansas City getaway since that was the one where Buck, Clyde, and Blanche were all wounded. Also, Bonnie would be burned on the leg in Texas, not in Missouri, before the Kansas City getaway where Buck would be mortally wounded. The series fails to cast Barrow gang trigger man William Jones even though he was highly important to the gang's successful escape. The farmer's account of the Easter Sunday murder of two officers as depicted in the series was found to be highly inaccurate about a month after the incident since all bullets extracted from the officer's bodies matched the same gun, a .45 Colt Automatic that would be found on Clyde at the time of his death. Bonnie never was known to carry a .45, but sometimes carried a .38. It was also determined that the farmer was too far away to accurately hear what Bonnie might have said when she ran over to the dying officer, so it is highly unlikely that Bonnie executed the officer with the remark, "his head bounced just like a rubber ball". However, the press at the time did carry this story and it seriously turned the public against the couple, particularly Bonnie who then had her first murder charge placed on her after this incident. The series also failed to show Clyde's modified "Whip-it guns." He sawed off the butt stock and shortened the barrel of a BAR, which he also fitted with a sling, so he could 'whip it out,' which gave his gang an edge over lawmen. The series did vividly depict Clyde's term in prison at Eastham and historically his time at Eastham is what drove Clyde to kill. Clyde would commit his first murder in prison when he killed a prisoner who sexually assaulted him regularly. Clyde was acquitted of the murder, but harbored a violent hatred for the Texas prison system. If anything other than Clyde's natural propensity for crime is to blame for his targeting of lawmen, it was his hatred for the dysfunctional Texas prison system. The series shows Clyde breaking Buck out of prison, when in actuality he busted out at least five inmates in 1934, after Buck's death in Iowa. During the breakout, one of the escapees (not Clyde) killed a guard. Frank Hamer was hired to hunt the gang down after the Eastham breakout of 1934. Hamer understood that the police had been out-gunned in most fights and that the gang was highly proficient in combat. The machine gun restrictions enacted after the St. Valantines Day massacre were in place and this had not stopped the Barrow gang from breaking into national guard armories to furnish themselves with military grade weapons. Hamer was forced to apply to the federal government for permits to obtain the proper weapons to confront the gang. Hamer was not involved with the Barrow case until 1934.

Holliday Grainger and Emile Hirsch are appealing and exciting as Bonnie and Clyde. Both actors give strong performances. This period piece is done well as far as the weapons, cars, costumes and set design. Even the golden look in certain scenes gives a gritty 1930's feel to the film. William Hurt is wonderful as Frank Hamer, the relentless Texas Ranger in hot pursuit of Bonnie and Clyde. Holly Hunter, as Bonnie's mom also turns in a solid performance. I really wanted to like this film and it is very entertaining. But the story is far from being accurate. There was plenty of creative license taken in this Bonnie and Clyde version. For one thing, portraying Bonnie as the instigator in several bank robberies and whose ego was primarily fueled by being famous and seeing her name in lights is not true. Bonnie's letters to Clyde (in prison) show quite the opposite. She wanted Clyde to "not be a thug" and urged him to go straight. Many of her letters are quoted in published and film biographies of Bonnie and Clyde. As for the witness who initially reported Bonnie shot one of the Grapevine police officers and heard her say, "his head bounced like a rubber ball", was later discredited. That scene in the movie never took place. However, newspapers of the day ran with the first story and helped turn the public sentiment against Bonnie and Clyde. There are documentaries available that give a more accurate historical account of these two notorious outlaws. This version of "Bonnie and Clyde" is compelling. But for historical accuracy, this Roman a Clef is way off the mark. If you want the true story, check out "Bonnie & Clyde: The Real Story" from the History Channel or read John Neal Phillips book "Blanche Barrow, my life with Bonnie and Clyde." Not only was Blanche married to Clyde's brother Buck, she ran around with the Barrow gang and left journals (1933 - 1935) during her prison stint after being shot and captured.