It was confronting back then, and remains so today. In fact, it is hard to believe Bonnie and Clyde is now half-a-century old, given the gut-busting impact this scene (and others in the film) still has. Its director, Arthur Penn, intended the shot depicting a part of Clyde's brain being blown away by a bullet to remind audiences of the JFK assassination, providing some indication of the creative mentality behind it.

The film had a profound impact on cinema and popular culture more broadly. Bonnie and Clyde rewrote the rules on screen violence, paving the way for a new and more liberal film classification system in the US, introduced the year following its release: the Motion Picture Association of America ratings guidelines, still in effect to this day.

Countless films took cues from it. It is virtually inconceivable that Sonny Corleone would have experienced his rain of bullets in The Godfather, for example, if Bonnie and Clyde hadn't swallowed lead before him. Likewise for Tony Montana in Brian De Palma's Scarface.