The first thing I noticed about Public Enemies was the sound. Sound can define a movie. The orchestrated approach of Jaws, the crack of Indiana Jones' whip, definable moments that can be identified with barely a note played. Public Enemies left me wanting. At first I thought it was the theater I was in; I thought the surround sound wasn’t operational. It seemed as though everything was being piped through the center channel. I realized this was not the case though as the first bullet fired zoomed past my right ear. Like any good moviegoer however, I pushed through and eventually grew accustomed to the sound and actually enjoyed the wonderful score that accompanies the film.

If you can completely discount historical fact, character exposition and plot continuity, you might just find this one of the more entertaining movies of the year. The story itself picks up with Dillinger already well into his criminal career, with the FBI formed and already hunting down criminals. In the first scene, Melvin Purvis (Bale) takes down Pretty Boy Floyd with one shot from his rifle. This would be our only introduction to the man who would hunt down and kill some of the nation’s most notorious criminals (already historically inaccurate, Floyd was killed AFTER Dillinger, but I digress).  In the following scenes, we are treated to a jail break and meet a bunch of guys that live and die for Johnny, some of which are notorious in their own right. Unfortunatly for us, we are never really told who or what they are beyond thier given names. I actually had to go home and look it up online in order to make sense of the whole thing. Don’t even get into the romance aspect of the film, a theme that Mann is intent on pursuing with diligence. Dillinger was a playboy – many girlfriends in many places. The film tries to depict Dillinger and Freschette as a Bonnie and Clyde-esque relationship, over emphasizing the importance of Billy Freshette in Dillinger's life and completely ignoring his connection to his family and other women (we never even see any part of his family). I don't know if this was an attempt to make Dillinger more appealing as a human, but as far as murderous crooks go, Dillinger was one of the most beloved in his own right. There's no real need to embellish. 

Okay, so we have the main points down – Inaccurate, sound was poor and complete lack of character development/exposition.  Did I mention inaccurate? Holy crap it’s like Mann decided the REAL past wasn’t exciting enough, let's make one up! While it wouldn’t be the first time for a director by far, THE HISTORICAL CHANGES ACTUALLY MADE THE STORY LESS INTERESTING.

Where in all this are the good points?

Johnny Depp. While I do believe it is difficult to watch a movie Depp is in and not see “Johnny Depp," he does a great job of capturing the charisma of Dillinger, no matter how shallow his part was written.

Gun Fights – Awesome. One thing Mann knows is gun fights, lots of bang, chasing and more bang.

For a 2.5 hour movie, Public Enemies feels rushed, poorly edited and leaves the viewer completely clueless as to the true events surrounding the 13 month crime spree that captured a nation.

Rating - 4/10

Public Enemies

Director:

Michael Mann

Writers (WGA):

Ronan Bennett (screenplay) and
Michael Mann (screenplay) ...

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)