Johnny Depp as John Dillinger, America’s first Public Enemy Number One. |
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Michael Mann has a mixed track record, with films of real acclaim like Heat and Last of the Mohicans, but also with some duds such as Miami Vice. Public Enemies appears to have a lot to offer – the star power of Johnny Depp and Christian Bale, and rising star Marion Cotillard. Mann returns to Chicago, his favourite location. Set in depression-era America, John Dillinger (Depp) carries out a series of bank robberies and becomes the man of the moment – newspapers can’t get enough of him, and the public are fascinated. Melvin Purvis is the man appointed by J Edgar Hoover to hunt Dillinger down and clean up the reputation of gangster-ridden Chicago. The feel of the time is well captured – nothing is spared to immerse us in the world of 1930s America, from the cars and the clothes, to the mood of a country deep in financial gloom. Criticism has been levelled at the film being shot in High Definition video instead of film. Even if you know nothing about the different ways to shoot a film, look carefully and you will see the difference in image quality. This will probably come down to taste, but digital video captures a lot of detail. The way the action is shot is often by handheld camera, in close proximity with the subjects – during a shoot out or a prison escape we as the audience are in the thick of it, getting a sense of the panic and mess of it all. This is a nice technique, and is not done so often that you get motion sickness. It is refreshing to see this era shot in an irreverent way which captures something of the chaos instead of only the pretty buildings and costumes. Christian Bale’s performance is intense as Purvis, but he is never really stretched as an actor. Depp has more range in his role, but both play complex men who have conflicting feelings. The performances are subtle but solid. Cotillard shines as the love interest, victim to Dillinger’s forceful charm. When she joins him there is a sense that their love will not last long, as with Bonnie and Clyde. The film could have been shorter, and despite all it has going for it will probably not count as a truly classic gangster film. However, it is very high quality, complex and thoughtful. Perhaps Mann was trying to make the Gangster film’s version of what the western genre got recently in The Assassination of Jesse James, and there are parallels. But ultimately Public Enemies is not an exceptional piece of cinema. It is, however, a very good one. Russell Thompson, 06/07/09 Depp is Dillinger directed by Michael Mann. That’s the double-hook for Public Enemies - a depression-era gangster movie about the cat-and-mouse attempt to capture or kill the infamous bank robber J Edgar Hoover wants the budget to build the FBI. But the government won’t budge until John Dillinger – daring bankrobber and doyen of the public – is brought to book. But Dillinger (Depp) is a mercurial will ‘o’ the wisp who hits and runs with bravado. Breaking his boys from prison, bouncing over counters tommy-gun in hand, Dillinger’s derring-do extends to sweeping a coat-check girl (Marion Cotillard, La Vie en Rose) off her feet. But Mann’s movie is mythic – and its hero has just revealed his Achilles heel. Michael Mann’s Heat is one of the best crime movies in cinema – an intense cat-and-mouse cop-on-robber thriller. Aiming for the same with Public Enemies was always a tall order. And while Public Enemies’ period-feel looks a million dollars, it only scratches the surface of greatness compared to its forebear. Depp is never less than enthralling as Dillinger, a steelier version of his quirky screen persona, making you think you’ve got depth when you’ve only got Depp. But while Christian Bale is fine as Dillinger’s determined nemesis, he’s only a mask away from his Batman image, cleaner-cut but a bit cardboard cut-out too. And although, Heat-style, there’s a two-minute face-off between the two, there’s none of the De Niro-Pacino intensity between them. Still, unlike Heat, Public Enemies is a ballad not an opera. Mann knows it, the song Bye Bye Blackbird thrumming away purposely throughout. So, the comparison is unfair if inevitable. But the emotional longeurs between Depp and the engaging Cotillard, lyrical though they are, slow things a bit. Mann’s always been attracted to the doomed, caged-bird romantic storyline – Heat had it, ramping up the tragedy; so too Miami Vice, pointlessly. But in Public Enemies, Cotillard falls for a handsome face and the stuff of danger. ‘I’m John Dillinger’, he tells her on their first date, ‘I rob banks’. It somehow doesn’t seem deep enough for what follows. But Mann’s trademark blam-blam earsplitter action scenes are top notch in Public Enemies. Beautifully violent, the tommy-gun flares light up the night like flowers. And the hammer-home bullets wreak some serious damage. It’s all of a piece with Mann’s exceptional cinematography. And the clarity of the picture is out of this world – the texture of skin, the weave of a coat, the sheen of a polished floor – you’d think you were there. Public Enemies is more like Bonnie and Clyde. A mythic story, beautifully shot, redolent of the period and riffing on a romance. Mann’s just upped the violence and the beauty – and made a better film. But it’s not Heat. And that – even though it shouldn’t be – is a disappointment. Glenn Watson, 06/07/09 |
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