Public Enemies a review by Greg Arganda "I'm John Dillinger, I rob banks," a symplistically beautiful line from Michael Mann's new crime-drama "Public Enemies" entailing the late life of the famous bank robber John Dillinger, played by Johnny Depp. We follow the Dillinger gang as they kidnap, rob and murder their way into the public eye of America in the 1930's, inciting the wrath of the FBI's director J. Edgar Hoover, played by Billy Crudup. His plan is to hire the bull dog lawman Melvin Purvis, played by Christian Bale to assemble a crew of crime-fighters to take down John Dillinger and his gang by any means necessary. From different sidelines, these two incredibly violent people are on a crash-coarse of bullet riddled bodies of comrades as Dillinger flees and Purvis pursues relentlessly. Dillinger himself seems to see himself as an American anti-hero, but the violence and tragedy that surrounds his life is all to real. This film is beautifully realistic, from gunfights that place the audience right into the film, to the ringing sounds of bullets being fired and incredibly terrifying performances by Johnny Depp and Christian Bale. Michael Mann's direction of the gunfights in this film takes us into the realm of the robbers and lawmen firing their guns by giving us an intimately close over-the-shoulder view of guns being fired. It feels as though we the audience are actually there, from the view of a another Public Enemy behind John Dillinger as he fires his gun at his enemies. The sound in this film is beautifully scary in that every single bullet gives a loud thud and makes holes in the set, giving a much more realistic sense of danger. Every shot fired is terrifying sounding, and being so up close and personal to the men shooting can make the audience feel unsafe like the characters. Finally the terrifyingly simple representation of John Dillinger and Melvin Purvis by Depp and Bale is incredible to watch. Depp's hardened presence in the film is incredibly convincing, this is a dangerous man. Bale's quiet presence as Melvin Purvis can make anyone uncomfortable once he begins killing people without remorse. This lawman is not a normal one, Melvin Purvis was an incredibly violent, terrifying individual who was a walking reminder of how serious J. Edgar Hoover was about catching The Public Enemies. There is a miniature problem that I had with this movie's pace during the scenes not involving violence, mainly with the love between Dillinger & Billie Frechette, played by Marion Cortillard. Though these scenes are pertinent to the life of John Dillinger so they had to be showed. It simply felt slow and relaxed during the scenes not involving violence, but they were short and far apart in the film, so they weren't really a problem. Every quiet scene in this film leads to incredible action sequences of beautifully directed violence. I give Michael Mann's "Public Enemies" two huge thumbs up for being a beautiful looking and sounding movie with acting that sets your mind straight, these were people who lived for the thrill of stealing money and killing. Their lives altered human history and this is as real as it gets. I fully recommend it to everyone. IMDB Rating: 8.7/10

• published: 02 Jul 2009
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