Review: Public Enemies

Character posters here and here.

Pete Takeshi and I went to see Public Enemies last Thursday afternoon (July 2) at Tanforan Century. He was in town for Cisco Live and finally arrived home in New York on Saturday morning at 3:00 AM, after delays at the airport and on the subway (due to a lock-down of the train when a fight broke out in his car). After a quick run to the airport, Pete and I met up with KK and her family at T-28 for dinner. I then took Pete to the Pig & Whistle (yelp), KK's favorite undergrad bar, where there were some cute girls. I suppose if I get a real job I'll hang out in bars more, but I'll need a wingman. Where's the Philosopher when you need him? hahaha. As I took Pete back to the hotel, we drove up Van Ness, and saw some real ladies of the night... I don't think I've ever seen any in San Francisco, but I'm usually not driving around that part of town at 12:45 A.M.

On to the review...




(source: Yahoo! Movies)

I think the technical aspects of the movie bothered me more than the story. Director Michael Mann once again employs HD photography. They enable the director to film at realistic light levels? But some scenes looked like they could have been in a made for TV movie, while other scenes seemed unnaturally bright. Some have complained about the grainy texture of scenes shot with a very low level of light, but these didn't bother me as much, as I had seen them before in Miami Vice (and in Collateral, too?). Perhaps I will get used to HD photography with time.

Many of the negative reviews have been complaints about the lack of characterization or purpose to the movie. Was it an accurate re-telling of Dillinger's final days? I have no idea. Some details about his childhood and inner life thrown in. Dillinger's motivation for his crimes is somewhat clear -- he wants everything, now. Why was such a criminal idolized by the masses? An explanation is not really shown by the movie. Perhaps those who want something more than a crime story for their $10 rightly complain about the movie. I just don't understand their complaints well. Were reviewers expecting a documentary? Something more sensationalistic or overwhelming? I haven't read any reviews in which another movie is held up to be the model, and I myself am not familiar with any movie which is comparable. Maybe I should watch Bonnie and Clyde. From the trailer for that movie alone, I'd say that movie features a lot of old Hollywood story-telling.

Given Michael Mann's visual style, does the movie's focus on crime and celebrity end up glamourizing crime? The review in Chronicles of Mann's Miami Vice took issue with that movie precisely because of this. Is there a danger of this? The medium is the message? Reason may be circumvented, as images can persuade us to some degree that something evil is actually good. Perhaps if I were younger I would find the criminal side, as depicted by Miami Vice, Heat, and Public Enemies, more attractive.

Does the Golden Age of Bank Robbery mark the end of the Wild West? The movie does a good job in showing the continuing rise of organized crime, as well as the ambion of J. Edgar Hoover (wiki) and the early history of the FBI as a national police force, an agency that Hoover wanted to be surpass Scotland Yard (?). We are presented with the question: what can law enforcement be permitted to do, in order to prevent crime? We are not given a clear answer.

As for the performances -- it took me a long time to get past Johnny Depp--it wasn't until the last 1/2 hour that I I could shake the feeling that I was watching Johnny Depp and not John Dillinger. Does he capture enough of Dillinger's charisma? Maybe not enough for those of us who watch too much reality TV. But what if there isn't much substance to a criminal alpha male, after all? And how many truly charismatic people are there in public life? I can't say that I've met anyone who meets the definition offered at wiki.

Christian Bale was serious and intent, speaking in his low, almost growling voice, but with a Southern accent this time. Stephen Lang is underused as a FBI agent from the Dallas office who is more of a hired shooter/gunman but is good at what he does. Leelee Sobieski and Emilie de Ravin have minor roles in the movie--I enjoyed their 30s look. They should have had more screen time.

It is a movie for those who want to have some exposure to the John Dillinger story, but don't want anything complicated. When will Michael Mann direct something more like Last of the Mohicans, a sword and sandals movie perhaps?

I would like to read the book (movie tie-in version and audio).

Two fathers(?) brought their children to the movie. Why would they do something like that?
They clearly showed a lack of judgment. One of the children, perhaps the youngest, commented out loud when Dillinger was shot, and a lot of the audience members were stunned that a child was in the audience. The man in the couple behind us said, "What is this, Ice Age?" The same kind of parents let their younger impressionable children watch violent horror movies... unbelievable. And yet they are permitted the right to vote.

Steve Sailer's review
Decent Films

website
Apple trailer
Public Enemies Movie Blog
IGN review (photos)
New Yorker review
Rotten Tomatoes
Yahoo! Movies

Images:
Movieweb gallery
Empire Movies
Cinemablend
Theiapolis Cinema

Premiere Photos:
Monsters and Critics: LA
Depp Impact: LA
flickr
Yahoo! Movies
Moving Pictures
Exposay
Celebuzz
Starpulse
Showbizspy
AceShowBiz
Absolutely
Hollywood.com
Zimbio
Just Jared

On the Red Carpet: Chicago
Yahoo! Movies
PopSugar
Monsters and Critics: Chicago
Magnifique Marion Cotillard
Zimbio: Red Carpet Arrivals

PopSugar: London
Monsters and Critics: London
Socialite Life
Magnifique Marion Cotillard
Yahoo! UK
Zimbio

Depp Impact: Paris
Celebrity Gossip
Zimbio: Inside Arrivals

Started on July 5.