Frequently considered the first modern American film, the revolutionary Bonnie and Clyde has influenced cinema so pervasively that, as with The Birth of a Nation and Citizen Kane, it is impossible to experience it now as did audiences of the day. Still, the strength of Bonnie and Clyde as visual storytelling is readily apparent. Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway play the leads; they excel in these risky roles, bringing a complex texture to the relationship between the characters that hadn't been seen in the movies before and which filmmakers have been trying to duplicate ever since. Also revolutionary and oft-mimicked are the film's machine gun fights, which had a hard-edged realism not seen previously. The haunting final scene is the direct ancestor of one of the most famous moments in The Godfather.