Some folks say that the American West died with the coming of the twentieth century, with its mechanization and automobiles that replaced the horse. Yet the spirit of the American West--at least the rebel spirit embodied by the outlaw cowboys--still thrived well into the thirties, when John Dillinger plied his trade as a bank robber, becoming a hero to the millions who suffered through the worst of the Great Depression. He didn’t wear a cowboy hat, and instead of a horse, he preferred to drive a V8 Ford--yet Dillinger was still every bit a legendary outlaw, whose carefully observed private code endeared him to many who felt that the banks that he robbed were the true enemy.
In director Michael Mann’s stylish Public Enemies, Dillinger is played by Johnny Depp, who, despite being older than Dillinger was, does a very good job at essaying the daring criminal in his last days. Depp plays Dillinger as a ballsy man who not afraid of anybody--thanks to the protection he receives from the public, whom he’s always careful not to incur the wrath of. Dillinger sees his public image as being currency, which he cashes in on whenever he and his accomplices need a place to hide out. But if Dillinger invoked the spirit of the old West outlaw, then Bureau Of Investigations agent Melvin Purvis, also well-played by Christian Bale, is an ominous foreshadowing of the future.
The entire cast is superb. As mentioned before, Depp and Bale are both very good
as the polar opposites: the hunter and the hunted--and, at times, it becomes
unclear as to who’s the true hunter here, since Depp’s Dillinger is such a bold force of nature (a wanted fugitive who brazenly strolls into a police station to casually check on his own investigation in the empty squad room) that he inspires respect--if not outright fear--from many of the lawmen who pursued him. Billy Cruddup is also great as the oily J. Edgar Hoover, who was more concerned with building a powerbase for himself as the head of the nascent FBI than actually stopping crime.
Stephen Lang, who appeared as a hapless sleaze reporter in Mann’s Manhunter,
appears here as a veteran lawman under Purvis’ command (and who shines in the
final scene), and the always good Lilly Taylor shows up as a small town woman
sheriff--a rare exception in the 1930s--from whose jail Dillinger makes a daring
escape. While Mann still directs with a sure hand, he plays fast and loose with
history, such as the exact time when Pretty Boy Floyd was killed. Why even bother
to make a historical film about real people when it will be as riddled with as
many historical inaccuracies as it is with bullets. The acting, production
design and the action are all handled extremely well--making Public Enemies enjoyable
to watch. Yet the film’s ignorance of some of the most basic historical points
in Dillinger’s life (and death) is what prevents this from becoming a true
masterpiece in the crime thriller genre.
--SF
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