Public Enemies is a film directed by Michael Mann and is an adaptation of Bryan Burrough's non-fiction book Public Enemies: America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933–34. Chronicling the thieving escapades of John Dillenger (among others) and the pursuit of him by FBI agent Melvin Purvis, the film is set in the "public enemy era" of 1931-1935. Although the film doesn't depict any exact date or passage of time, we can assume it takes place in 1934 via the ending.I’m just going to get straight into it
Pro’s
Johnny Depp: As always Johnny Depp does a fantastic job and brings a lot to the John Dillenger character making him have far more depth and dimension then anyone else in the film. Nearly every scene in the film in which Dillenger is shown he grabs your immediate attention and interest with what he might do next . I personally thought it was one of the best parts of the movie
Intensity: Michael Mann and his team do this quite well in their films, and Public Enemies is no exception. From the brutality of both the FBI and the Robbers to the jailbreaks and shoot-outs this movie definitely does NOT hold back.
Fact to Script: This movie is very well written and in that regard very realistic in its portrayal of the near sighted and scared FBI agents, Dillenger’s all in, balls out attitude (which as I said above Depp brings out to full effect) and Billies infatuation with the exciting and dangerous Dillenger
Period Props: Public Enemies makes great use of the 30’s period and most if not all the costumes, props, cars and locations all fit in quite well but that along with the Pro above this lead to a bit of an issue…
Cons:
Cinematography: Michael Mann’s handheld digital style has work very much to his advantage in his past films such as Collateral and Miami Vice but here it sets a modern tone which doesn’t mix very well with a period film such as this. Apparently I’m not the only one that feels this way as many others around the net agree, so I suppose it really depends on the person.
Boring and Predictable: This is what happens sometimes when fact meets film, things just tend to drag on and in the case of Public enemies they drag on A LOT. Since I’m nice I won’t spoil anything but still you can see everything in the movie coming from miles away. This isn’t really aided by the fact that pretty much everyone but Dillenger and some of his comrades are all very flat and uninteresting. I thought Christian Bale would have at least brought some intensity and fire to his role but he just strolled thru the whole movie which was disappointing to say the least.
Cold Open: This might just be me being me but the opening to the film didn’t really make much sense and maybe the cut of Public Enemies I saw was bad but, starting out without any introduction to anyone or anything just doesn’t work well when you don’t know the characters already or the situation. It didn’t really help that none of the beginning or introductory characters were given any chance to be explained or developed, why should we care as an audience if we have nothing to care about?
If you’re in the mood for an intense period film, by all means don’t wait to see Public Enemies but if any of the above Con’s bother you in anyway, I’d save your cash and wait for the DVD
Regretfully yours,
Rex
