The story of legendary Depression-era outlaw John Dillinger (Johnny Depp)—the charismatic bank robber whose lightning raids made him the number one target of J. Edgar Hoover's fledgling FBI and its top agent, Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale), and a folk hero to much of the public.
No one could stop Dillinger and his gang. No jail could hold him. His charm and audacious jailbreaks endeared him to almost everyone -- from his girlfriend Billie Frechette (Marion Cotillard) to an American public who had no sympathy for the banks that had plunged the country into the Depression.
But while the adventures of Dillinger's gang—later including the sociopathic Baby Face Nelson (Stephen Graham) and Alvin Karpis (Giovanni Ribisi)—thrilled many, Hoover (Billy Crudup) hit on the idea of exploiting the outlaw's capture as a way to elevate his Bureau of Investigation into the national police force that became the FBI. He made Dillinger America's first Public Enemy Number One and sent in Purvis, the dashing "Clark Gable of the FBI."
However, Dillinger and his gang outwitted and outgunned Purvis' men in wild chases and shootouts. Only after importing a crew of lawmen from the Dallas bureau and orchestrating epic betrayals—from the infamous "Lady in Red" to the Chicago crime boss Frank Nitti—were Purvis, the FBI and their new crew of gunfighters able to close in on Dillinger.
Public Enemies
Maxabout Review
Machine Gun Seduction
Saturday, July 04, 2009
"Public Enemies," for all its ambition, is basically about dark shadows and photogenic faces. It's about the iconography of Johnny Depp's fine-drawn features.
The thrills are certainly there in the sensationally choreographed prison break that opens the movie under a bright blue Midwestern sky that stretches across the wide screen like a cathedral ceiling.
Based on author Bryan Burrough’s ambitious tome Public Enemies: America’s Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-43, director Michael Mann’s sprawling historical crime drama follows the efforts of top FBI agent Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale ) in capturing notorious bank robber John Dillinger.
You might expect that this vision of the suddenly lone gunman would serve as a prelude to another exciting joy ride about living fast and dying young.
Public Enemies" opens with one of the standards of the crime genre, the prison escape, with Dillinger, just released after nine years inside, returning to break his gang out of the Indiana State Penitentiary. It didn't happen quite that way, but that matters less than the vivid style in which masterful cinematographer Dante Spinotti has shot it. Though the Depression was a major factor in Dillinger's career, we don't see or feel it all that much. What we get instead is the sense of a man whose name has lasted until now for a reason and, if the movies have anything to say about it, will last longer still.
This being a Michael Mann movie, there are some virtuoso set pieces, especially the extended nighttime FBI raid on Dillinger at Wisconsin's remote Little Bohemia lodge, and there are choice supporting players – Stephen Lang's Texas cop being a standout. He brings some hard-worn grit to the proceedings. Public Enemies is overflowing with, a sort of ruthless tenderness.
Depp’s performance of the gangster is first rate. He adds depth to the character and a lot of humor. Even though there is a lot of blood and violence in this film, some of Depp’s scenes are quite humorous. For example, one day he quietly walks into the police department’s “Dillinger Squad” detective office and looks around, unnoticed by any of the officers.
While John Dillinger was not a nice man, Johnny Depp makes him a likeable character. And in the end, the audience might feel a twinge of sadness when he is killed.
Christian Bale plays it smooth as Melvin Purvis, an agent who used his brains and new investigative techniques to try and outsmart Public Enemy Number One. Bale delivers a real grounded performance and his icy demeanor is the perfect counterpart to Depp's more engaging Dillinger.
Public Enemies is a bank robber film with little bank robbing going on. Sure there are a couple of robberies - but nothing on the level of the massive bank siege in Michael Mann's Heat. Most unforgivable, perhaps, is the confusion that spreads like smoke during action scenes that simply have to be shot and edited with more clarity. At the same time, this is still a Michael Mann film, so
most of it is technically proficient. The
period details are exquisite, helped in no small measure by the fact that the picture was shot in the story's real-life locales in Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin. Switch up the cars and put everyone in vintage clothes, and those small towns don't look much different today than they did 80 years ago.
Public Enemies" could have used a lot more grit. Without it, we're left with a crime movie fantasia that slips all too easily into the ether. This was an excellent Gangster film about John Dillinger but disappointingly could have been better. So keeping my fingers crossed for Inglourious Basterds.