Hey. You done just perfect.
CLYDE
I did, didn’t I? I mean I did, I really did. I did it, I did, I mean this as my first time and it was just like rollin’ off a log. When it comes right down to it, it was easy, I mean I didn’t even have to try.
So, now the subtext became clear: Clyde was unsure and afraid that he wouldn’t be able to do it right for Bonnie. Clyde, in the script, is a virgin.
The film shifts this subtext. Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway look older than early 20s, so there seem to be other reasons for the lack of sexual activity between them. It is clear throughout the script that Bonnie is frustrated by Clyde’s lack of sexual response. After he robs the grocery store, their first robbery together, they hole up in a house out of town. Bonnie sleeps inside and Clyde sleeps out by the car. Immediately, we might wonder why. Over and over again, Clyde will start making out with Bonnie, and then stop.
At various times in the film, Clyde makes comments about his sexuality. Shortly after they meet, as they start to make out and it’s clear that Bonnie is eager and willing, Clyde tells her:
CLYDE
I ain’t much of a lover boy… Ain’t nothing wrong with me, I don’t like boys…
Later, he tells her:
CLYDE
If all you want is a stud service you get on back to West Dallas and you stay there the rest of your life…. You could find a lover boy on every damn corner in town.
Out of Bonnie’s frustration, she accuses him:
BONNIE
Your advertising is just dandy. Folks never guess you don’t have a thing to sell.
Bonnie wants to be alone with Clyde, but over and over again, he makes sure they aren’t. C. W. is around and so is Buck, his brother. Bonnie tells him:
BONNIE
Always somebody in the next room… Don’t you just want to be alone with me?
CLYDE
I always feel like we’re alone.
BONNIE
Do you, baby?
Then Clyde changes the subject:
CLYDE
I’m hungry.
Later, Bonnie tells him outright:
BONNIE
The only special thing about you is your peculiar ideas about love-making which is no lovemaking at all!
Although ambiguity surrounds Clyde in the film version, several viewers I spoke to reached the conclusion that he is impotent until Bonnie writes the “Bonnie and Clyde” poem. Then he feels like he’s finally somebody.
CLYDE
You told my story. One time I told you I was gonna make you somebody, that’s what you done for me!
After they make love, they seem to have finally come together as a couple in love. Clyde expresses tenderness and Bonnie shows obvious satisfaction. He still expresses uncertainty, but the motivation for this sexual ambiguity is not because it was his first time, as in the script:
CLYDE
Hey, how you feel? I mean you feel like you’re supposed to feel after you… ?
BONNIE
You did just perfect.
CLYDE
I did, didn’t I?
It’s not unusual for sexual information about a character to be hidden in the subtext, as it is in Bonnie and Clyde. The truth usually comes out with more clarity later in the story. This information still needs to be implied so we can begin to guess about what is going on. It’s layered throughout – a little here, a little there. Another hint here. A bit of nuance there.
In Thelma and Louise (1991, by Callie Khourie), Louise reacts with rage to Harlan’s attempted rape – she kills him. As the story goes on, we get hints that Louise was raped in Texas some time before, and that clearly justice had not been served. Before shooting Harlan, she tells him that when someone is crying, she’s not having any fun. When she tells Thelma that she’ll head to Mexico, she also explains that she won’t go through Texas. She says, “I’m not talking about it.” She understands a great deal about how the law works, and about the lack of evidence to indicate that the killing was done in self-defense. She understands the deep trouble they’re in. Finally, Thelma mentions the word “rape,” as she clearly adds up the subtext:
THELMA
It happened to you, didn’t it?… You was raped!
As the story proceeds, even the detective is clear about what happened, and feels sympathy for both women.
Just as underlying sexual problems can be in the subtext, so too can underlying attraction. True, most of the time the attraction between two people is fairly clear – to them and to the audience. It’s in the text. But, sometimes it’s in the subtext. Perhaps two characters seem to dislike each other, but we know that they’re truly attracted to each other. Maybe there’s an underlying conflict, but we know it’s really because there’s so much electricity between them.
Or, sometimes the attraction is clear, but it’s expressed in both the text and the subtext. Sometimes we sense the meaning of the subtext in a scene between two attractive people, even though they’re talking about everything but their attraction to each other. In Up in the Air (2009), the initial flirtation consists of two people showing each other their credit cards in their wallets, a scene suggestive of “You show me yours, I’ll show you mine.”
In many James Bond films, the initial meeting, as well as some of the repartee in other get-togethers, clearly contains subtext. In the remake of Casino Royale (2006, by Neil Purvis, Robert Wade, and Paul Haggis), James Bond meets Vesper Lynd in the dining car of the train. She’s attractive (of course) and has been assigned to work with him and be the money source so he can take part in a high-stakes poker game. The scene moves between text and subtext, with James Bond usually lacing his lines with subtext. I’ve inserted the subtext throughout the scene, which begins as she joins him at his table:
VESPER
I’m the money.
Note: This is a straight statement. It seems to be text without subtext. She’s stating the reason for their meeting, but the text is still slightly provocative. She doesn’t say “I’m in charge of the money,” but “I’m the money,” which is more personal and gives Bond entry into the subtext.
BOND
Every penny of it.
James immediately turns the scene into subtext. Yes, she looks like a million – every inch of her. He clearly is attracted.
VESPER
The
