Movie Review - Public Enemies

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Johnny Depp stars as Depression era gangster John Dillinger in Michael Mann’s hotly anticipated Public Enemies.  It’s interesting to note that, in spite of countless gangster films, Hollywood has never made a truly great Dillinger movie.  These sort of films were all the rage in the early 1930s: The Public Enemy, Little Caesar, Scarface.  But by the time of Dillinger’s death in 1934 (oh yeah…um, spoiler alert) criminals of this type had become folk heroes.  They were seen as bank robbers first and murders second (if at all).  Times were tough and banks were foreclosing on honest, hardworking Americans.  So the people stealing from newly FDIC insured banks seemed more like Robin Hood than hoods robbing.  His popularity was so threatening that Hollywood censorship czar Will H. Hays expressly forbid the production of a John Dillinger film.  While he has popped up as a minor character in a few films and been the subject of a handful of low-budget indies, no major studio has ever produced a true Dillinger movie, great or otherwise.  That is, until now.

Mann’s take on the story is surprisingly subdued.  Typically films of this nature follow one of two paths: grand crime epic (The Godfather) or rousing tale of scoundrels on the run (Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid).  Public Enemies major flaw is that it attempts to be both with the “epic” portion accounting for the bulk of the film.  Little, if any, effort is made to romanticize the life and times of John Dillinger.  This would be admirable if the film wasn’t so dry.  While Johnny Depp’s performance is restrained but effective, we’re allowed virtually no insight into why he does what he does.  That’s not to say that all criminals need to be shown as victims of society or stark-raving psychopaths.  But we never really see what drives him.  Rage?  Greed?  Boredom?  Even the love story between Dillinger and Billie Frechette (Marion Cotillard) leaves us wondering just why these two were so loyal to each other. 

The performances are strong all around.  Christian Bale plays Melvin Purvis, the officer assigned with catching Dillinger due to his success rounding up the likes of Baby Face Nelson (Stephen Graham) and Pretty Boy Floyd (Channing Tatum).  Purvis chafes under the pressure of J. Edgar Hoover, played by an almost unrecognizable Billy Crudup.  As Purvis and his men feel mounting pressure to apprehend Dillinger, their tactics become increasingly barbaric. 

Just to be clear, this isn’t a bad film. It’s been meticulously researched and lushly photographed.  The performances are strong.  There are flashes of wit throughout and though the film never consistently takes that course it is quite effective when it does.  But when a director of Mann’s caliber is given access to a cast this strong in order to capture such an intriguing true story, we expect something more than a mere chronicling of events, regardless of how beautifully those events are chronicled.  Ultimately, Public Enemies is a good movie that stubbornly, maddeningly refuses to be great. 

On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being Bonnie And Clyde and 1 being Johnny Dangerously, Public Enemies gets a 6.

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