![]() This Johnny Depp performance is something else. I saw more than you will unlike some directors, he doesn't indulge in beauty shots to show off the art direction. Mann redressed Lincoln Avenue on either side of the Biograph Theater, and laid streetcar tracks I live a few blocks away, and walked over to marvel at the detail. He shot in the Little Bohemia Lodge in the same room Dillinger used, and Depp is costumed in clothes to match those the bank robber left behind. Mann shot on location in the Crown Point jail, scene of the famous jailbreak with the fake gun. It even bothers to try to discover Dillinger's speaking style. The movie is well-researched, based on the book by Bryan Burrough. There's an extraordinary sequence, apparently based on fact, where Dillinger walks into the "Dillinger Bureau" of the Chicago Police Department and strolls around. It is him against them, and the bastards will not, can not, win. He probably hates the government too, but he doesn't think that big. He needs someone to protect, in order to affirm his invincibility.ĭillinger hates the system, by which he means prisons, that hold people banks, that hold money, and cops, who stand in his way. She needs to be protected, because she is so vulnerable. He is particular about the way he presents Dillinger and Billie. You might not think it was possible to make a film about the most famous outlaw of the 1930s without clichés and "star chemistry" and a film class screenplay structure, but Mann does it. He allows himself a tiny smile when he gives her the coat, and it is the only vulnerability he shows in the movie. Against what? Against the danger of being his girl. It is all about his vow to show up for her, to protect her. They had sex, but the movie is not much interested. That is, he took her out at night and bought her a fur coat, as he had seen done in the movies he had no real adult experience before prison. He had no exit strategy or retirement plans.ĭillinger saw a woman he liked, Billie Frechette, played by Marion Cotillard, and courted her, after his fashion. His gang members loved the money they were making. Here is an efficient, disciplined, bold, violent man, driven by compulsions the film wisely declines to explain. Public Enemies is a film with real depth - and a welcome chance to engage in a film during the summer season of shallow blockbusters.Johnny Depp and Michael Mann show us that we didn't know all about Dillinger. But the technique is immediately apparent, and the textures hidden in the story reveal themselves as more and more interesting the more you think about them. Public Enemies may have a few too many stories in it, and it's hampered a bit by the lack of a clearly defined arc outside of Dillinger's romanticized rise-and-fall. Marion Cotillard plays the love of Dillinger's life, and she walks a careful line in depicting both a starry-eyed woman seduced by Dillinger's dangerous charms and a fully actualized person well aware of what she's doing. It's also a film in search of a story to tell - Depp's Dillinger exists without a past, and Bale's Purvis is a cipher. But Mann's more interested in ethics, morals, and society than he is in simple run-and-gun action - even if he can, and does, deliver incredible action sequences as part of making his deeper dramas. Director Michael Mann has made more than just crime films like Heat, Collateral, and Manhunter - but, of course, those are the ones we remember him for. But it's also a much darker, more complex film than the Tommy-gun-toting action in the trailers and the posters would suggest. PUBLIC ENEMIES is a thoroughly watchable piece of thriller cinema, anchored by a great star turn in Depp's John Dillinger. Expect lots of period-accurate smoking and drinking. Some law enforcement officers are depicted as corrupt and cruel, while others are dedicated, dignified, and diligent similarly, there are cold, calm professionals among the film's criminals, as well as hair-trigger sociopaths. Although there's not too much in the way of sexual content (aside from one somewhat steamy love scene with no nudity) or language (there's one use of "f-k," plus a smattering of other salty words) for an R-rated film, the movie's focus on the differences and similarities between cops and crooks yields complex role models and messages. A woman is beaten during an interrogation scene other characters are shot down in cold blood. Gun battles are frequent and intense, and characters suffer gory wounds and die. Parents need to know that this 1930s-set crime drama starring Johnny Depp as infamous bank robber John Dillinger is full of very realistic violence that some will find hard to take. ![]() Extensive, period-accurate smoking plenty of drinking (hard alcohol, beer) in nightclubs and bars, etc.ĭid you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.
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