Public Enemies

Public Enemies

Written by: Ronan Bennett, Michael Mann
Directed by: Michael Mann

Starring: Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Marion Cotillard, Billy Crudup, Stephen Graham

Rated R for gangster violence and some language


Public Enemies is a look at about a year and a half in the life of John Dillinger (Depp) as a notorious bank robber during the Great Depression in 1933. He likes movies, fast cars, robbing banks, and Billie Frenchette (Cotillard). Pretty simple guy. J. Edgar Hoover (Crudup) is a government guy who is trying to start what is now the FBI. He gets Melvin Purvis (Bale) to head up the Chicago division and gives him the difficult task of capturing Dillinger, ?Baby Face? Nelson (Graham), and ?Pretty Boy? Floyd.

Dillinger is a pretty quiet guy. He has a few close friends. He?s loyal to them. And it seems as if he has a few principles. He won?t take any of the customers or tellers money, only the banks. Purvis is determined to get his man and J. Edgar Hoover is making it a national campaign to stop the crime spree in the Midwest.

It was a great change to see Johnny Depp play a role that didn?t require makeup. Don?t get me wrong, I loved?ok well I generally liked all of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, and I watch Edward Scissorhands whenever it is on. But Johnny is a good actor period. I liked his Dillinger. He was a cool bad guy. Like you wanted to be friends with him. He was charming and thought things through and was smart. Plus anyone who can successfully rob a bank in under two minutes, with no casualties, without casing the joint, and give the hostage a souvenir is certifiably awesome.

Christian Bale was good in this too, just like he is in the other billion movies he?s been in the past couple years, but I wouldn?t call this a particularly stand out role for him. He kinda seemed like a dick, but I guess its because the guys he were working with pretty much botched every task they had before them.

I really liked Marion Cotillard?s Billie. She was young and was totally smitten with Dillinger, but she wasn?t stupid. She knew what was at risk when getting involved with such an infamous guy, but she went for it anyway. I think Stephen Graham had a great time playing the crazy ?Baby Face? Nelson. I was dying for him to say something along the lines of ?I believe you, but my Tommy gun don?t.?

Normally I don?t pay much attention to the cinematography, but it was pretty cool in this movie. I read that Mann uses HD cameras to do the filming, and its very noticeable. Sometimes I couldn?t tell if they used actual old footage, or just were able to make the print look that authentic. Mann also gives you a great car chase in the woods and plenty shootouts (I guess that?s what ?gangster violence? is to the ratings board). I did have some problems with the audio and at first I was pissed thinking that Bale was using his ?Batman growl? but the sound was just low on what everyone was saying. I actually read a lot of people?s complaints about this.

Overall I give the movie a B. Mann does a good job showing you a general overview of crime in 1933, so we don?t get much background info on why Dillinger is who he is, but we?re also introduced to all these other gangster guys that you?ve heard about in rap songs (as soon as they mentioned Frank Nitti, the ?I Got 5 On It? remix wouldn?t get out of my head) and have seen in Bugs Bunny cartoons, but its too many guys and nobody really gets the focus they deserve. The 2.5 hours runtime actually flew by for me and it would be a great BluRay buy.