Public Enemies
by Michael Mann (2009)
New installment of this column dedicated to films about criminal enterprises.
Plot
Public Enemies narrates the events surrounding John Dillinger, the number one criminal in the United States during the 1930s. Hot on his trail is the young agent Melvin Purvis, assigned by the FBI under the direction of Edgar Hoover.
“I grew up on a farm in Mountsville, Indiana. My mother died when I was 3, my father beat me because he didn’t know a better way to raise me. I like baseball, cinema, fine clothes, fast cars, whiskey, and… you.
What else is there to know?”
(Johnny Depp – John Dillinger, speaking to Billie Frechette)
Bye Bye Blackbird.
Every era has its heroes.
It has always been this way, and it always will be.
The world needs them, especially in the most dramatic moments.
Heroes provide oxygen and new vitality.
Think about what happened in the United States and the rest of the world after the Wall Street crash during that Black Tuesday in 1929.
They called it the “Big Crash,” and it was the spark of what would become known as the “Great Depression.”
The economy collapsed after years of prosperity, with all the consequences: business failures, middle-class crises, layoffs, unemployment, reduced consumption, and suicides.
It was in this context that John Dillinger became Public Enemy Number One for the FBI and entered the collective imagination with his elegant clothes and his Thompson submachine gun.
But who was John Dillinger?
His charming style and mannerisms contributed to making him a myth, a figure seen with great sympathy by much of the public opinion.
A sort of modern Robin Hood who, during his robberies, burned the accounting records of many people burdened with debts and mortgages.
And then John had a love: Billie Frechette. The woman who pushed him to abandon his philosophy of life, that famous “𝘷𝘰𝘨𝘭𝘪𝘰 𝘵𝘶𝘵𝘵𝘰 𝘦 𝘭𝘰 𝘷𝘰𝘨𝘭𝘪𝘰 𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘰,” that urgency of the here and now.
For her, he would plan a future together and an impossible escape attempt.
Michael Mann diverts attention from the figure of the famous gangster to avoid any form of mythologizing. His intent is clear from the original title that speaks of “public enemies.”
The plural, used deliberately, aims to highlight the entire range of characters surrounding the story.
Men who make history, positioned on opposite fronts, with an obsessive search for a goal, wanting to prove they are better and smarter than others.
No moralizing and no psychological explanations, just a description of the facts, the characters, their states of mind, and their feelings.
A film that flows quickly despite its length, with high-level action scenes and truly remarkable cinematography, both in daytime and nighttime scenes. The reconstruction of the era is perfect down to the smallest details.
Johnny Depp is truly skilled at portraying the main character without overdoing it, striking the right balance, but the entire cast, in general, delivers a great performance, from Agent Purvis (Bale) to the enchanting Billie (the stunning and talented Marion Cotillard).
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