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The movie was partly filmed in and around Dallas, Texas, in some cases using actual locations that the real Bonnie and Clyde either robbed or used as hide outs.
On its release, the film was extremely controversial for its unprecedented violence--an honor which has since gone on to Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch, and then to other, even more graphically violent (but largely forgotten) films. Bonnie and Clyde was innovative in its character's gunshots--the squibs commonly used today, where a charge causes a small bag of red liquid to explode out of the clothes, were invented for the movie. The movie took great liberties with the facts about Barrow and Parker. The real life couple were really vicious killers who murdered as many as thirteen people. The movie was also false in the way it portrayed Texas Ranger Frank Hamer (Denver Pyle). The movie played him as vindictive and none too bright. The real Frank Hamer was the most famous Texas Ranger of all time and was known by all as a brave and just man.
Estelle Parsons won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in the film, and Burnett Guffey won an Academy Award for Best Cinematography for his work in the film. The film is #27 on the American Film InstituteThe American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1965 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act. The Ame's 100 Years, 100 Movies, #13 on its list of 100 American thrillers, and #65 on its list of 100 American romances. The film has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film RegistryThe National Film Registry is the registry of films selected by the United States National Film Preservation Board for preservation in the Library of Congress. The board, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized in 1992.