Editorial
Front Page - Friday, July 10, 2009
The Critic's Corner
David Laprad
The author of the book on which the new movie, “Public Enemies,” is based said there were scattered boos at the screening he attended when the end credits rolled. He even overheard one viewer admit he didn’t “get” the film: “So he robs banks, dies and that’s it?”
As John Dillinger, a bank robber in the U.S. during the early 1930s, actor Johnny Depp admits as much, saying to his girlfriend, “I like baseball, movies, good clothes, fast cars and you. What else do you need to know?”
After seeing “Public Enemies,” I wanted to know a lot more, partly because writer and director Michael Mann (“Miami Vice”) gives us only a snapshot of Dillinger, and in so doing, avoids romanticizing a man who was, at the end of the day, willing to kill innocent people to get what he wanted.
“Public Enemies” is no “Bonnie and Clyde,” which drew on legend rather than facts. And it doesn’t keep company with the countless Westerns that lionize murderers like Billy the Kid and Jessie James. Rather, it aims a 1921 Colt Thompson right between your ribs and shoots straight.
Mann wisely begins with a 30-year-old Dillinger breaking a group of fellow criminals out of jail. During this scene, we get a good feel for what will follow. For example, Mann is an ace when it comes to filming and editing gun battles. Throughout “Public Enemies,” shotgun blasts punch through wood, bullets shatter glass and wayward slugs ricochet off metal. Even more remarkable than the gut-punch clarity of the audio are reactions of the actors, who wince with each narrow miss.
We also get a glimpse of the film’s remarkable art direction in that first scene, although what follows is even more impressive. There isn’t a lock of hair, a stitch of clothing or a prop on a desk that would seem out of place in the Depression Era. From the warm lighting, to the old cars, to the classic architecture, Mann transports viewers back to the 1930s without using showy establishing shots, creating a masterwork of visual design in the process.
Mann is more than a proficient technical director, though; he also knows how to tell a captivating story. We see Dillinger at the peak of his craft, breaking out of jail, leaping over high counters in banks during robberies, courting the press, winning the adoration of the public and stealing the heart of a lady named Billie Frechette. The high point comes as he waltzes untouched through the Dillinger Bureau in Chicago. He even goes as far as asking a group of clueless agents listening to a baseball game about the score.
Then we watch as some in the criminal contingency turn against Dillinger and he’s forced to team up with the psychotic Baby Face Nelson. And there’s a heartbreaking scene where Dillinger and Frechette are huddled together in a field of snow at 4 a.m. They have nowhere to go and they have no future. They have only that cold, desolate place and that short-lived moment together.
Mann also shows how Dillinger’s crime spree helped to evolve the Bureau of Investigation into the modern FBI. In an interesting subplot, we see J. Edgar Hoover’s number one man on Dillinger, Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale), go from squeaky-clean G-Man to reluctant thug. Early on, as he’s chasing Dillinger, Purvis waits by the side of a man dying from a gunshot wound before continuing his pursuit; later, he doesn’t even blink as he leaves one of his men to die in the woods to continue chasing Dillinger.
In terms of the acting, Depp is fantastic as Dillinger, Bale is good as Purvis and Marion Cottilard makes you believe a woman could fall for a guy like Dillinger.
There are problems. In a couple of scenes, Mann fails to clarify what happened. As Dillinger escapes imprisonment in the scene I mentioned earlier, for example, he uses a fake gun to encourage the guards to let him go.
Perhaps the reason Mann doesn’t explain what he’s holding is that even history isn’t sure; a quick Google search yielded two explanations: a piece of wood and a bar of soap, both painted with black shoe polish. I also couldn’t tell who took shots at Dillinger outside the Biograph movie theater, where he dies.
In addition, I was surprised at how Mann avoids showing the effects of the Great Depression. If “Public Enemies” were the only record we had of that era, we’d think it was all “good clothes and fast cars.”
These are minor complaints, though, about a tremendously entertaining movie. After two months of robots, Terminators and Romulans, I was ready for “Public Enemies.” Like the other summer movies, it has fun action and great visuals, but it offers those things without treating you like an idiot. And that’s a rare thing when it comes to summer blockbusters. Rating: See it.
Email David Laprad at dlaprad@hamiltoncountyherald.
com.
|
|