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

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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?