Hey everyone. Capone in Chicago here. Although the trailers for Michael Mann's latest slice of magnificence emphasize the more action-oriented scenes from his film about the latter days of bank robber and cultural icon John Dillinger, in truth the strength of PUBLIC ENEMIES is not entirely in those moments. There are certainly a handful of bank robberies and moments where law enforcement corner Dillinger and his gang that feature some ferocious gunplay, but it's what happens between the scenes of bullets flying that impressed me the most and helps this film become of the greatest films about the birth of modern day crime and crime fighting that I've ever seen. PUBLIC ENEMIES also serves as a much-needed reminder that Johnny Depp gained his reputation as one of the greatest actors living today by actually acting and not simply creating real-life cartoon characters with pale skin, funny makeup and wigs. With Mann's guidance, Depp breathes life and soul into a man who has served a lengthy prison sentence and learned much while behind bars about military-style bank heists and what's important to him. Depp doesn't play Dillinger as overly tough or as some ridiculously suave ladies man. His flaws and qualities aren't nearly as easy to spot immediately, but Depp does a fantastic job of parceling out personality details about John Dillinger in a way that we grow eager to discover more as the film goes on. Before seeing PUBLIC ENEMIES, I felt certain that the love story aspect of Dillinger's story would interfere with the story I really cared about. Quite the contrary, Dillinger's whirlwind relationship with Billie Frechette (Oscar-winner for LA VIE EN ROSE Marion Cotillard) was the fuel that propelled his engine. And while Dillinger didn't have a great love for planning too far into his future, it's clear that part of Billie's impact on his life was getting him to consider getting out of the bank-robbing business for good after one big score with the help of cohort Alvin Karpis (Giovanni Ribisi). Cotillard's beauty comes on like a second sun--she's such a natural vision, but beyond the ever-present smile, she gives us a Billie that loves so deeply that she pays an awful price for remaining faithful and loyal to her Johnny. In the end Cotillard might be the finest thing about this film. But all this talk of love doesn't sound like much of an action movie, does it? Mann’s fluid HD cameras glide through the heists and over the shoulders of the robbers so effortlessly that you feel like one of the gang. Sometimes Mann puts the cameras so close to people's faces, you can almost smell the sweat when a character senses that something is about to go wrong or at least not totally right. Watching the Dillinger gang pull off a crime is like watching a great movie about a Special Forces unit begin a covert mission--they move in for the quick strike, every man with his assignment, and move out before the cops can arrive and assess the situation. There's a bit of gunfire, but only enough to cause the right amount of chaos to escape behind. If a skirmish actually does break out with the law, Mann changes gears and shoots the scene like a war movie, hiding behind any protective cover while bullets explode around the actors and the camera. The camera peeks out from behind walls and cars to find out who's shooting, then retreats as soon as fire is returned. The gunplay is a far cry from the sleek, almost-choreographed battles in Mann's HEAT. Don't believe for a second this is a Depression-era version of that awesome movie. PUBLIC ENEMIES is a product of the times it is portraying, and Mann's vision of Chicago and the surrounding areas that Dillinger called home are not particularly glamorous (or even recognizable much of the time), but they do feel damned accurate. On the other side of the law is J. Edgar Hoover (Billy Crudup, complete with a radio- and Movietone News-ready voice) and his newly formed FBI, which was allowed to do something no law-enforcement organization was able to do—chase criminals who crossed state lines as well as compile and analyze evidence in ways that had never been done before. It was Hoover that both created the moniker of "Public Enemy Number One" and assigned Dillinger the title. I was truly intrigued by the birth of procedural investigative methods, and the man who used these new techniques most effectively was Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale), who made his career by capturing or killing the most notorious bandits in the land. As the film opens, we see Purvis personally kill Pretty Boy Floyd (an almost unrecognizable cameo by Channing Tatum). In many ways, the shift Purvis makes is as interesting as the character study treatment given to Dillinger. In order to capture Dillinger, Purvis had to call in a much rougher and more experienced set of agents from Texas (some Hoover was not in favor of) and employ methods of harassment and torture to gather evidence. It's clear that Purvis was a man who knew right from wrong, and Bale does an admirable job showing this slow chipping away at his character's conscience and beliefs. In many ways, he reminded me of Kevin Costner’s Elliot Ness in THE UNTOUCHABLES who “became what he beheld” as he learned how to fight crime “the Chicago way.” One of PUBLIC ENEMIES' greatest assets is the presence of Stephen Lang, who plays one of Purvis' lead investigators, Charles Winstead, a cool-as-ice enforcer who reminds Purvis not only what the job at hand is but how best and most effectively to get it done. Lang has been one of the great character actors for decades, a man who dabbled in lead roles in his career in the stage, TV, and movies, but for whatever reason is called upon to punctuate a production rather than lead it. He previously worked with Mann in MANHUNTER (he was the tabloid reporter set on fire by the Tooth Fairy), and has done devastating work in such films as LAST EXIT TO BROOKLYN, TOMBSTONE, Mann's TV show "Crime Story," and he'll be featured in James Cameron's AVATAR in December. Lang has a scene at the end of the film with Cotillard that will take your breath away with its simplicity and power. And the scene works because of Lang's steely delivery, tipped with just a hint of compassion. Lang is one of the best things in this movie, and I hope to see him a great deal more as a result of this staggering performance. Mann's script (credited to him, along with Ronan Bennett and Ann Biderman, from the book by Bryan Burrough) finds a variety of ways to bring tension and suspense to a film whose ending we already know. The sequence surrounding the events at the Biograph Theatre is shot as only a master could shoot it, but Mann adds a little something to Dillinger's journey. While it is certainly exciting to watch the G-Men plot the capturing of the nation's top criminal, it's also rather touching to see Dillinger wander through his final hours of life having no clue what lies ahead after a showing of Clark Gable in MANHATTAN MELODRAMA, a film based partly on his persona. When gangster Clark Gable tells William Powell that he'd rather be sentenced to death than rot in jail for life, we cut to a shot of Dillinger with a hint of a smile on his face. When he stares at the vision of loveliness that is Myrna Loy, we find out just a little bit more about why he found Billie so appealing. That is the greatest thing about PUBLIC ENEMIES: it's ability to teach us about Dillinger and Purvis and Billie and many other characters without feeling the need to spell out every personality trait or emotion. We watch their behaviors and their reactions, and we are allowed to figure these people out on our own. And then there are the bank robberies and jailbreaks, staged so flawlessly, and punctuated with explosive gunplay and unflinching violence. Mann controls the action and drama in PUBLIC ENEMIES like a master conductor in front of the largest, loudest orchestra ever assembled. With films like THIEF, THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS, THE INSIDER, COLLATERAL, and to a lesser degree, MIAMI VICE, you get a sense that Mann is one of the few directors who cares as much about breathing life into his characters--no matter how much screen time they get--and making even the mundane seem important, as he does about the films money shots. It makes me a little sad that whatever this mature and masterful work makes at the box office, it probably won’t be a fraction of what the new TRANSFORMERS movie had so far (I hope I'm wrong), but this is the world we live in, and I get that. I just hope that when the dust settles, people are still watching and contemplating films like PUBLIC ENEMIES years from now. Anything is possible. A guy can dream, can't he? -- Capone capone@aintitcoolmail.com
