Film Review

~ Public Enemies ~

Robin Hood or public enemy number 1? Either way John Dillinger's (Johnny Depp) highly publicised eight-week crime spree was the bane of FBI boss J. Edgar Hoovers (an excellent Billy Crudup) quest for a new kind of American law enforcement. Led by new G-man Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale) we see the genesis of the FBI, tracking Dilligers brief and frenetic life in Michael Mann's stunning biopic.

After receiving a maximum sentence for a petty crime we join Dillinger after 9 years of crime school, released into an existential wasteland of Technicolor and short skirts as he oddly appears to be breaking into prison. It's one of many daring acts that go to show how confident and untouchable he must have thought he was. The break out is fantastic and a bold opening statement as we let the super-high def wonder of Mann's digital cameras take us to new levels of realism while still managing to keep it feeling like a 1930's film, it's quite brilliant.

As Dillinger and gang, including Baby Face Nelson (Stephen Graham), Pete Pierpoint (David Wenham) and pretty Boy Floyd (Channing Tatum) take down scores across Chicago and the Midwest Mann cleverly keeps the robberies as slick and short as the operations themselves. Never once spending time padding out the act of robbing, choosing to focus on the robber instead. He was very much a 19th century bandit working in the 30's and the public loved him for it, he never once took cash from the customers, only ever going after the banks money - sticking it to the man as it were.

In one true story the real life John Dillinger walked right up to a police officer at a crowded public event with his old brown-box camera asking if he could take his photo, shortly after requesting the policemen take his and his girlfriends picture in return; this at a time where he was top of the FBI hit list! It's a great example of two things, that Dillinger had brass ones and a sense of humor to go with it. In the film the same unquenchable confidence is demonstrated when he saunters straight into a quiet Chicago police department, ignored by police to busy listening to a ball game to pay him any attention. He's left to look through files on his entire gang, his mug shot pinned to every board. As he leaves he pushes it even further by asking what the score is. It's a role perfect for Jonny Depp with his underlying, mesmorising charm mixing equal parts good and bad.

Christian Bale is back on top form as the elite cop tailing our elusive anti-hero. Playing Melvin Purvis who may be the one man smart enough to equal Dillingers talents - although with the constant battles he had to face with a government unwilling to give him the resources he needed, a lot of men were lost in his fight to track him down. The comparisons to Heat are numerous with the man on man chases and the psychological insights into the male psyche mixed with some of the greatest shootouts imaginable. Although Bale and Depp are effectively playing two sides of the same coin they only share one major scene together, Purvis remaining very much a secondary character.

It's difficult to imagine another director handling this material with such obsessive control. Mann rewrote novelist Ronan Bennett's screenplay based on Bryan Burrough's history into a brilliant and intelligent script which is both ambitious and sophisticated. Nobody can do it like he can; As the Mann himself say’s “everything has to do with visualization”. Ultra loud blasts coming from the iconic tommy guns, vivid yellow muzzle flare lighting the scenes in momentary flashes while clinging to the roof of a 1934 Pierce-Arrow Coupe. As with every Mann film each area of the production has been looked at in minute detail, months of work going into bringing this world to life. It's amazing to think no sound stages were used; instead filming took place at the actual Biograph Cinema, Crown Point Jail and Little Bohemia Lodge.

Anything from the 30's and 40's seems to wrap around me like a warm blanket, the romance of the time is intoxicating and it's easy to get swept up by it. The film even manages to work in a love story with Dillinger's moll Billie Frechette (Marion Cotillard) providing equal parts his biggest reason to stay and contributing to his inevitable downfall. Cotillard is absolutely stunning and very much the heart of the movie. She has an honest and mesmorising quality that gives weight to some very heavy scenes later in the story, at times so disturbing they will bring tears to your eyes.

It's hard not to ask yourself a lot of questions throughout the film, trying to work out who this man really was, what were his motivations? Why didn't he just pick up and leave when the heat got turned up? In an ever changing world where the introduction of crime syndicates started pushing out his style of working, he never had a getaway plan, living moment to moment with his life seemingly left up to fate. He could plan the perfect heist but could never plan ahead, not knowing what he would be doing next Thursday.

At just 31 the bank robber was eventually shot dead outside the Biograph Cinema after watching the Clark Gable/W.S Van Dyke film Manhattan Melodrama. There's an uncanny likeness between Gable and Depp's Dillinger, watching as his true life plays out on the big screen. But in a dramatic end, waiting in the wings were the FBI led by G-man Purvis after a tip off from turncoat companion Anna Sage. As they strolled along in the summer night air a bullet from the pistol of Agent Charles Winstead pierced the back of his skull, ending his life.

Perfectly encompassing everything I love about the movies, Public Enemies is a surprising addition to the summer blockbuster fare we've been used to over the past few weeks. It's an epic film and lot to take in one sitting, but manages to remain complex without ever becoming complicated. Ultimately worth a second and third viewing for a number of reasons. For me, this is the best film of the year so far!

*****