Public Enemies

[2.0 stars] [IMDB Link]

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The second part of our Johnny Depp weekend movie festival, in which he plays notorious criminal John Dillinger.

I won't bore you with the plot details: it's a moderately-fictionalized story of Dillinger's rise and demise. That's a fascinating story, and this movie put a lot of talent to work in telling it: directed and co-written by Michael Mann; Channing Tatum as Pretty Boy Floyd; Christian Bale as G-Man Melvin Purvis; Marion Cotillard as Dillinger's main squeeze, Billie Frechette; Giovanni Ribisi as Alvin Karpis; and many more. They took pains (according to IMDB) to film at some of the actual historical locations.

But… eh. Nobody seems very interested in what they're doing. Prevailing attitude: Let's just get this over with. Even a philistine like me noticed Michael Mann's visual flair in his previous movies (Heat, etc.); that doesn't show up here.

The movie shows a few scenes of the actual flick Dillinger attended at the Biograph Theatre on the last night of his life: Manhattan Melodrama, with Clark Gable, William Powell, and Myrna Loy. I kind of wished we'd rented that instead.

If you want to see a Dillinger movie, I suggest instead Dillinger from 1973. Warren Oates as the bad guy himself, up against Ben Johnson as Purvis. Michelle Phillips as Billie, Richard Dreyfus (!) as Baby Face, Cloris Leachman (!!) as the Lady in Red. Written and directed by John Milius. Free to stream if you're an Amazon Prime customer.


Last Modified 2024-01-28 7:51 AM EDT