Directed by Michael Mann
Starring: Johnny Depp, Jason Clarke, Christian Bale
Other Actors of Note: Channing Tatum, Stephen Dorff, Billy Crudup
Plot: The Feds try to take down notorious American gangsters John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson and Pretty Boy Floyd during a booming crime wave in the 1930s. Taken from www.imdb.com.
There's something to be said for romanticism. Without it, "Hoosiers" would be a boring piece of shit, "Rudy" would be more of a sniveling dingus than even Sean Astin could have played him, Johnny Cash would've gotten along with his father, and "Walking Tall" would have had to have been 97% less bullshit... well, that might be okay.
Romanticism is what separates "American Outlaws" from "The Assassination of Jesse James" while one embraces explosions, gunfights, and Timothy Dalton the other is a more realistic take on the story of Jesse James. Because he was totally sexy like Brad Pitt in real life, right?
WrongThe point I'm trying to illustrate with Kevin Bacon: Gunslinger up there is that even when movies stay true to their subject matter they're still made with a healthy dose of bullshit. But imagine if you will, that "The Assassination of Jesse James" ended with Jesse, Billie the Kid, Doc Holliday, and Wild Bill Hickock go on a rampage and then all fucking die. You would probably wonder what the fuck was going on, right?
Ladies and gentlemen, you are now prepared to see Public Enemies.
So if you were to make a movie about the life of John Dillinger, you would have to be mentally insane to cast anyone OTHER than Johnny Depp to play him. Handsome, charismatic, charming, mustachioed, this is the role that Johnny Depp was born to play. Depp doesn't just play Dillinger, he for all intents and purposes is Dillinger. If anything saves this movie it's its lead role and how flawlessly it's played by the starring actor.
Marion Cotillard plays Dillinger's last true love, Billie Frechette, in many ways Billie is the most interesting character of the movie. I can't help but wonder if a movie about a half-native American social outcast who found not only love but acceptance from a man who just happened to be one of the most notorious criminals in the country. Billie is a main character but she gets thrown by the wayside for parts about Dillinger's criminal career.
*sigh* Christian Bale. I am getting sorely fucking tired of seeing Christian Bale angrily glare at things. Yes he's a good actor, but you wouldn't know it from his last crop of films. Bale glowers and frowns his way through the movie with as little acting as possible. The part where he and Dillinger "face off" (and by "face off" I mean he says intimidating things to Dillinger who is inside a jail cell grinning like a bastard) is easily one of the least climactic moments in the film. To be honest Bale barely has any purpose in the movie at all so I'm really not sure why they got him to play the part of Melvin Purvis when just about anyone would've done.
Speaking of excessive roles. Anyone not Dillinger, Purvis, and Billie everybody else is unimportant and it's very hard to piece together who's who. It took me till much later to figure out that Stephen Dorff was Homer Van Meter.
I'm Christian Bale, and I've come to intense this movie the fuck up.
"Public Enemies" is a rise and fall biography where we see the character's rise to power and their ultimate fall from reality. The problem is there is no rise, the movie starts during the high point in Dillinger's career and then careens horribly down into oblivion.
For those with no imagination, this would be like if "Boogie Nights" just featured Mark Wahlberg jerking off for a guy in a pick-up truck and then pulling his dick out in front of a mirror.
So we start out at the midpoint of Dillinger's career and follow his exploits as he goes around robbing banks, romancing women, and doing other things of that nature. But here's where the historical inaccuracy comes in.
When we're first introduced to Melvin Pervis it's as he shoots and kills Pretty Boy Floyd. The problem? Pretty Boy Floyd died AFTER John Dillinger, though his killing of Floyd is given as the reason why J. Edgar Hoover picks him to catch Dillinger. We're also treated to the deaths of Homer Van Meter and Baby Face Nelson... in the same scene, within minutes of each other... BEFORE Dillinger! They might as well have had Bonnie and Clyde ride up out of nowhere and get shot to death too.
Of course there are some truly great things this movie does. John Dillinger was a cocky fucker, but with good reason, he had incredibly good luck. His luck and cockiness are both showcased in several scenes where the man literally hides in plain sight, and at one point even walks into the area of the police station dedicated to catching him. It's a wonder the man's balls could even fit through a conventional doorway.
The other theme is about J. Edgar Manhattan and how the bad supreme court man hurt his feelings so he puts the clamps on the then non-federal FBI who are composed of a bunch of stupid violent ham-fisted psychopaths (just like they are now.) Purvis appears to be torn with his role of a glorified mob hitman when it comes to taking out criminals but he never appears to be torn enough to not just start killing people.
There are interesting dynamics and the movie is never boring despite its long run-time, it's just that it doesn't do anything interesting with what they've got and Johnny Depp is the only really entertaining thing in the whole movie.
"Public Enemies" is a well made and deeply flawed film. Johnny Depp and Marion Cotillard give great performances but Christian Bale can't act his way out of a paper bag and between the weird plot points and the glaring historical inaccuracy hold it back from being anything other than a movie you would watch on a Saturday afternoon on TV.
I give "Public Enemies" a 3 out 5. It's a mediocre film that's too good to be bad, and too dull to be good.
Ladies and gentlemen, you are now prepared to see Public Enemies.
So if you were to make a movie about the life of John Dillinger, you would have to be mentally insane to cast anyone OTHER than Johnny Depp to play him. Handsome, charismatic, charming, mustachioed, this is the role that Johnny Depp was born to play. Depp doesn't just play Dillinger, he for all intents and purposes is Dillinger. If anything saves this movie it's its lead role and how flawlessly it's played by the starring actor.
Marion Cotillard plays Dillinger's last true love, Billie Frechette, in many ways Billie is the most interesting character of the movie. I can't help but wonder if a movie about a half-native American social outcast who found not only love but acceptance from a man who just happened to be one of the most notorious criminals in the country. Billie is a main character but she gets thrown by the wayside for parts about Dillinger's criminal career.
*sigh* Christian Bale. I am getting sorely fucking tired of seeing Christian Bale angrily glare at things. Yes he's a good actor, but you wouldn't know it from his last crop of films. Bale glowers and frowns his way through the movie with as little acting as possible. The part where he and Dillinger "face off" (and by "face off" I mean he says intimidating things to Dillinger who is inside a jail cell grinning like a bastard) is easily one of the least climactic moments in the film. To be honest Bale barely has any purpose in the movie at all so I'm really not sure why they got him to play the part of Melvin Purvis when just about anyone would've done.
Speaking of excessive roles. Anyone not Dillinger, Purvis, and Billie everybody else is unimportant and it's very hard to piece together who's who. It took me till much later to figure out that Stephen Dorff was Homer Van Meter.
I'm Christian Bale, and I've come to intense this movie the fuck up."Public Enemies" is a rise and fall biography where we see the character's rise to power and their ultimate fall from reality. The problem is there is no rise, the movie starts during the high point in Dillinger's career and then careens horribly down into oblivion.
For those with no imagination, this would be like if "Boogie Nights" just featured Mark Wahlberg jerking off for a guy in a pick-up truck and then pulling his dick out in front of a mirror.
So we start out at the midpoint of Dillinger's career and follow his exploits as he goes around robbing banks, romancing women, and doing other things of that nature. But here's where the historical inaccuracy comes in.
When we're first introduced to Melvin Pervis it's as he shoots and kills Pretty Boy Floyd. The problem? Pretty Boy Floyd died AFTER John Dillinger, though his killing of Floyd is given as the reason why J. Edgar Hoover picks him to catch Dillinger. We're also treated to the deaths of Homer Van Meter and Baby Face Nelson... in the same scene, within minutes of each other... BEFORE Dillinger! They might as well have had Bonnie and Clyde ride up out of nowhere and get shot to death too.
Of course there are some truly great things this movie does. John Dillinger was a cocky fucker, but with good reason, he had incredibly good luck. His luck and cockiness are both showcased in several scenes where the man literally hides in plain sight, and at one point even walks into the area of the police station dedicated to catching him. It's a wonder the man's balls could even fit through a conventional doorway.
The other theme is about J. Edgar Manhattan and how the bad supreme court man hurt his feelings so he puts the clamps on the then non-federal FBI who are composed of a bunch of stupid violent ham-fisted psychopaths (just like they are now.) Purvis appears to be torn with his role of a glorified mob hitman when it comes to taking out criminals but he never appears to be torn enough to not just start killing people.
There are interesting dynamics and the movie is never boring despite its long run-time, it's just that it doesn't do anything interesting with what they've got and Johnny Depp is the only really entertaining thing in the whole movie.
"Public Enemies" is a well made and deeply flawed film. Johnny Depp and Marion Cotillard give great performances but Christian Bale can't act his way out of a paper bag and between the weird plot points and the glaring historical inaccuracy hold it back from being anything other than a movie you would watch on a Saturday afternoon on TV.
I give "Public Enemies" a 3 out 5. It's a mediocre film that's too good to be bad, and too dull to be good.
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