Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Public Enemies (2009)

6/24/2023

Public Enemies (2009) - Mann heads to the 1930s

♥♥♥

Star Johnny Depp looking tough in layered period clothing and a semi-automatic riffle on this poster for Michael Mann's Public Enemies

The story of the legendary John Dillinger, who escapes prisons, murders and robs banks, becoming America's public enemy #1 in the 1930s - as well as the young FBI's greatest early catch.

Public Enemies is written by Ronan Bennett (Lucky Break (2001)), Ann Biderman (Copycat (1995)) and great Illinoisan filmmaker, co-writer/co-producer/director Michael Mann (Thief (1981)). It is based on Bryan Burrough's (Forget the Alamo (2021)) same-titled 2004 non-fiction book.

Mann gives himself free reins to experiment with digital photography, (the film was his first fully digitally shot, done by cinematographer Dante Spinotti (Black and Blue (2019))), giving the film a documentarian, minimalist distinction that can definitely (regrettably) also be experienced as; 'it looks like crap.'

The soundscape is characterized by the same minimalism; mostly only a bit of jazz and besides that totally deafening salvos of cool firearm discharges, (what remains of the film is often hard to hear at all.)

Johnny Depp (Mortdecai (2015)) is stiff and distanced as Dillinger. Christian Bale (Amsterdam (2022)) and Marion Cotillard (The Dark Knight Rises (2012)) do what they can, but Public Enemies is a strangely unengaging, unexciting 'modern' period crime thriller.

Related posts:

Michael Mann: Top 10: Best drama-thrillers reviewed by Film Excess to date

2004 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

2004 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

Collateral (2004) - Great, urban, digital age thriller from Mann in his right element

1995 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

Heat (1995) - Mann's superb masculine thriller showstopper

Manhunter (1986) - Perhaps the best criminal profiling picture ever

Watch a 2-minute clip from the film here

Cost: 100 mil $

Box office: 214.1 mil. $

= Flop (returned 2.14 times its cost)

[Public Enemies premiered 18 June (Chicago, Illinois) and runs 140 minutes. Burrough had first attempted to write the story as a miniseries for HBO, failing at the discipline and instead writing it as a non-fiction book. Shooting took place from March 2008 - ? in Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Illinois and Indiana. The film is believed to be fairly historically accurate. It opened #3, behind holdover hit Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and fellow new release Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, to a 25.2 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent one more weekend in the top 5 (#4), grossing 97.1 mil. $ (45.4 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were France with 12.9 mil. $ (6 %) and the UK with 11.3 mil. $ (5.3 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 3.5/4 star review, translating to 2 notches over this one. Mann returned with Luck (2011, TV-series) and theatrically with Blackhat (2015). Depp returned in Alice in Wonderland (2010). Public Enemies is fresh at 68 % with a 6.40/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Public Enemies?

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

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Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

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6/24/2023

Public Enemies (2009) - Mann heads to the 1930s

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