Tuesday
30Jun2009
Movie Review - 'Public Enemies'
Tuesday, June 30, 2009 at 10:49PM | Public Enemies
Starring Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, and Marion
Cotillard  |
John Dillinger was something of a 20th century Robin Hood. What separates him from
the infamous 21st century crook, Bernie Madoff, is the romanticized perception that Dillinger was only
ripping off the government, not the common man. That, and Madoff never took anybody's money by gunpoint.
Dillinger robbed a slew of banks in 1933 and 1934. Dillinger became legendary: He broke out of two
prisons, once in full view of the police guarding its perimeter.
He was coronated as Public Enemy Number One by J. Edgar Hoover, the long-tenured director of the FBI, then
known only as the Bureau of Investigation. Dillinger had only been out of prison several months at the
time, but had returned to a life of crime, pulling off heists in over 20 banks between May of '33 and July
of '34.
The nation, however, was fascinated. Throughout the midwest, Dillinger was viewed as a folk hero, living
the kind of life many in this country only dreamed of during the time of the Great Depression. He'd walk
into a bank, walk out a rich man a couple of minutes later, and disappear into thin air. He didn't kill
people or even bother them, unless they happened to know a safe combination. That's the folklore version,
anyway, and as a result of his legendary status, Dillinger is still celebrated in Chicago every July 22nd.
In reality, though, he killed several police officers, which is nothing to celebrate.
Naturally, this is a great idea for a movie; gangsters always are. And if you cast Johnny
Depp as Dillinger an Christian Bale as G-
man Melvin Purvis, deputized by Hoover to capture Dillinger, you'd think you'd have another kind of
robbery: Public Enemies should steal money out of your
wallet just for looking at the poster.
It just doesn't work out that way. I must say in defense of director Michael
Mann, whose work I generally admire quite a bit, that perhaps there was a
projection issue when I saw Public Enemies. The soundtrack cut out abruptly at one point, and most
of the scenes look like you're watching a work print rather than the finished product.
Reader Comments (14)
Wow what's going on with Christian Bale? Eventhough I haven't seen this yet, if he really is that bad in this movie that makes two in a row. I thought he was excellent in The Prestige and The Dark Knight and thought he was starting to become one of the better actors in Hollywood. I hope the fame isn't starting to get to him and now he just doesn't give a s***
Thanks, Colin, for confirming my vibe about the dodgy photography and Christian Bale's descent into anonymity.
This one is now slated for BluRay.
"Dillinger is still celebrated in Chicago every July 22nd."
I'm from Chicago and for over thirty years that I was within city limits there was never a mention of any Dillinger celebration on July 22nd. However, not to just disqualify your comment on my personal recollection alone, I did a search on Google which found yearly celebrations in Tucson, AZ for Dillinger dubbed "Dillinger Days" but nothing similar for Chicago.
Outside of this recent movie I couldn't tell you when or how often I've even heard Dillinger mentioned in the local media. Now Al Capone, there's been plenty of mentions about through the years but no celebrations.
The last paragraph:
http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM64EB_Murder_of_John_Dillinger
No wonder I've never heard of it. It's not so much "celebrated in Chicago" which gives the impression of a notable event rather than a date that fans gather. What happens in Tucson is more what I think of in terms of celebrating.
http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/hourlyupdate/276852.php
What happens in Chicago is more in the realm of the Untouchable Tours that bus people around to old gangster haunts in the city.
Ok my take on the film is...
I thought it was decent like most people when we were really expecting great or fantastic given the posters and trailers and things you Colin have posted....
Johnny Depp - this man is just incredible for the fact that he SAVES FILMS from utter destruction and waste of money, the man was the greatest thing in the film and yes Stephen Lang's performance shined though small, now that I think of it , if only he played Bale's character that would be much better
Bale was a dissapointment and like iv said the man is action movie actor OKAY PEOPLE he is not an Academy Award winnning calibur as others are, BUT
he once was brilliant I mean The Machinist & American Pyscho were great work but since taking a turn for action propelled films he has lost his orginality and hunger, IN MY OPINION and I THINK OTHERS AGREE WITH ME...
Marion Cotillard I ABSOLUTELY LOVE HER but her accent did become a distraction rather than supporting for the film... I hope I just hope her thick accent lessens b/c she truly deserves GREAT WORK in AMERICA
I liked Stephen Dorff, Giovanni Ribisi, and Stephen Graham they supported very well and would like to see them in more ...
More Critiscims
The film was often times too prolonged, it dragged and anyone with a brain can tell
YES COLIN Mann's camera work or whatever handheld stuff whatever he was doing was so unessary and SUCH A DISTRACTION I cant begin to describe it...
- My little brother who doesnt know jack about acting or film even mentioned why is the camera so shaky...lol
Mann whom I love as well did dissapoint me a bit I must say but I still regard him as great but the film wasnt his best or greatest work....
I want someone to answer me please... Colin your included lol....WHY THE HELL DOESNT MANN JUST FILM AND PRINT CHRISTIAN BALE DOING THE ACCENT RIGHT????
- we all know he sucked and it was inconsistent but at times it was there but why not shoot it until BALE did it right???
- I think that fault goes on Mann's shoulders but someone please tell me why???
Oh yeah gotta mention COLIN
All these summer movies such as ...
Year 1
Land of the Lost
Transformers 2
Public Enemies
Angels and Demons
Terminator Salvation
XMEN
Pelham 123
These films are way below average and werent the high hopes you expected, lets be honest some of the above just sucked BUT , what do you have to say or what are your thoughts on that??
- just curious
Some of these above had great trailers and posters and you were RAVING about them until their actual release and we actually saw them... SO WHAT DO YOU THINK WENT WRONG?
LIKE WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON IT??
I think Michael Mann could not decide whether he was making a Love story or a gangster action film.
We would get the GOOD PARTS: the shoot outs, bank robberies and the escape from prison(my favorite scene). Then you got the LOVE STORY which slowed down the entire movie. The scenes with Marie Cotillard should have been cut shorter and the momentum would be better.
Her french accent was distracting. If you want great acting from Christian Bale go see RESCUE DAWN. Amazing I took my uncle who was a POW in Vietnam and he was blown away!!!
"...most of the scenes look like you're watching a work print rather than the finished product"
Those were my exact thoughts when i was watching the movie but then I thought may be because I watched Transformers 2 the day before, and I also felt that Bale wasnt committed.
Completely agree about the cutting part. To me I remain convinced Mann has shot about 3.5 hours of footage and been told to trim it down to 2 hours because frankly I cannot fathom how he could expect to build a love story, a rivalry between Purvis and Dillinger and at the same time cover off the characters of Nelson and Floyd whilst trying to introduce Dillinger as a charming, witty hero of the common folk in that time.
The premise is great but the execution is woefully poor. Depp doesn't get a chance to really do anything other than perfect a slightly quirky accent, Cotillard never gets to act in the film, and Bale is basically playing Bale. The supporting cast were actually quite good but rarely got enough screen time to justify that.
If you didn't know the history of the characters you would come out confused by how or why Dillinger was public enemy no.1 or why Purvis latterly killed himself. It asks more questions than it answers and it feels a little to me as though the studio wanted a Bale/Depp romantic film to sell to women, crossed with a rogueish gangster movie to sell to men. Cut it down to 2 hours, market it well and stick it out in the summer. No doubt the film will earn at the box office and the studio has done it's job but it is a missed opportunity to get some good actors together in what should have been a fantastic story.
One character, very drunk, makes just about the worst James Cagney impression I’ve ever heard. That’s what this movie is. It’s a Universal film pretending to be a revisionist rendition of the Warner Bros. Gangster films. It’s a bad impression of William Wellman’s film The Public Enemy, starring Cagney. If only it had been more homage than revision. This film could have used the other’s gritty realism, instead of the fantasy world in which Public Enemies comfortably resides. I also wouldn’t have minded if someone had shoved a grapefruit in Billie Frechette’s face when she began to cry.
Read my full review at http://cfilmc.wordpress.com/
I just saw this last night. Aside from the verite' video, which I never could get my head around, it occurred to me that the movie is following the wrong guy. Dillinger isn't charismatic, even via Depp; he's a thug. Purvis trying manfully to lead the Gang Who Couldn't Shoot Straight is a much more interesting story.
Johnny Depp is not an actor he's a pretender. So anything that requires actual acting he's not good in, but all the outrageous characters he's been is pure pretending. Hence the reason he's never gotten the oscar. And as far as saving movies there's lists of movies he's been in that aren't good.
I saw the film twice. I think its a very handsome film - all that beautiful 1920's architecture, and Johnny Depp is of course very physically beautiful. However the gent who ventured the opinion that this was was about one and a half hours too short to tell the story properly is about right. Actually the Dillinger story with all its relationships is worthy of a TV mini series.
At three hours plus length- it could have tried to do what Costner/Kasdan achieved in Wyatt Earp - an elegaic piece for an aspect of America that was disappearing. A type of hero that was disappearing. In real life, Dillinger's hero was the Jesse James of the dime novels - not the revisionist Brad Pitt psycho. This film touched on the way crime and robbers were getting more sophisticated -but it only touched
I'm fascinated with the Dillinger story - even to the point of writing a song about Dillinger and making it the title track of my album. Access the song here:-
http://www.bigalwhittle.co.uk/id32.html