Arthur Penn's 85th Birthday!

Arthur Penn, Born September 27, 1922

Seeing Arthur Penn's BONNIE AND CLYDE in 1967 at the Vermont Drive In Theatre (or was it the Twin-Vue?) in Gardena turned out to be a better education than any junior high school history class I was then taking. As a drama student who had seen a lot of movies (including Penn's 1958 THE LEFT HANDED GUN on TV), I understood this new film was a highly-stylized, dramatic representation of true events. I wasn't looking for the movie to be a documentary. When those groundlings watched Shakespeare's MACBETH do you think they wanted a history lesson?

The movie stimulated my curiousity and from that point on I read everything I could in search of the "true story." Along the way and to this day, I learned that history is relative. Law knows even witness testimony can be innocently distorted. I haven't given up on truth, because essence and context is everything, but I've never expected literal literary or cinematic adaptations. The fun part for me has always been trying to figure out the "truth" (as I see it) compared to the fiction. As a die-hard, lifelong bookworm, I've approached a number of subjects in this manner.

My late father's birthday was 7 days prior to Penn. He would've been 85 this year too, but, for the record, he smoked like a chimney, drank like a fish, and ate like a pig. He loved every minute of it. He stroked out at 70. He loved to read, particularly books on WWII (he served in the Army in Europe), and taught me to love reading too.

Essentially, BONNIE AND CLYDE taught me to how to study history, as well as drama. Penn's work led me to study the "true stories" of BILLY THE KID, HELEN KELLER, ARLO GUTHRIE (his father WOODY), GEORGE CUSTER and the NATIVE AMERICAN HOLOCAUST.

We have a lot to thank Arthur Penn for. Happy Birthday!

Arthur Penn - Senses of Cinema

Arthur Penn - wiki

Arthur Penn - imdb