tMF | The Movie-Fanatic

Starring: Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Marion Cotillard
Director: Michael Mann
Release Date: July 1, 2009
Running Time: 143 min
MPAA Rating: R
Distributor: Universal Pictures

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What lives in almost all Michael Mann movies is an entire generation, a lifestyle, of crime. Nearly every movie of his resembles an epic compilation of criminalities. Mann is best at evoking a dark, glamorous criminal world that initiates a mental and physical battle between willing individuals ready to undergo the consequences of pulling the trigger on any artillery device. His characters have an occurring eruption of violence wielded to them and all are saddled with bravado. Each of them has a boisterous attitude to defy excitement and challenge the dangerous.   From Robert De Niro in Heat, Tom Cruise in Collateral to Colin Farrell in Miami Vice, Mann’s characters have an overwhelming need to exemplify their feelings which ar e as highly charged as Mann’s in-your-face filmmaking. 

And that is exactly what we get with his newest feature Public Enemies. The movie is as stylized a film can get, digging deep into history to recreate Chicago in 1933 with a particular verve and dynamic spirit that hasn’t been captured on film before in any gangster picture.  Mann’s source material is “Public Enemies: America’s Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-34” as he brings to screen the true life account of the last year-and-a-half of notorious bank robber John Dillinger’s hectic and troubled life (1933-34). A life mainly consisted of robbing banks.
 
Johnny Depp excels as Dillinger, a tortured soul addicted to the drug that would eventually kill him. Depp’s cold and isolated looking eyes summon a complex and sorrowful character without the help of any substantial back-story. He feels the way the film looks; unhealthy with a complexion of pallor.
 
This particular bank robber is brought to life differently than previous bank robbers who received the silver screen treatment. Not only is Dillinger visually different, thanks to Mann’s modernized high-def digital filmmaking, but he is more emotionally inclined to fathom what exactly is missing in his life. Depp’s face is a portrait of a rebel with sympathy and sorrow outweighing flamboyancy and wildness. With this particular character Mann has at his disposal an individual that lacks no qualities the formal Mann character has become associated with. Perhaps Depp’s Dillinger may have more complexities than Mann knows what to do with. 
 
Dillinger, to the authorities and banks, is a living nightmare, a walking thief who is unable to be contained. FBI had to change state laws in order to nab him. At one moment in the beginning of the film he is firing a gun all alone at a police officer stationed uncharacteristically high in a booth on the wall of the Indiana State Penitentiary. We at first sight believe he may be firing up into the impressionistic looking blue sky littered with white puffy clouds, signifying his attitude towards this world. This particular shot by Mann eclipses Dillinger’s entire persona; alone with no environment able to encapsulate him. 
 
The newspapers and society try to label Dillinger as a “hero” or “modern day Robin Hood.” He is the newspaper’s paycheck and society’s flicker of a flame amidst the enormous shadow of the Great Depression. Just like the papers, society and authorities, Mann wants to pinpoint only Dillinger’s addiction – robbing banks – which leads to the cause of the film’s lack of a compelling drive. Mann allows Public Enemies to venture only so far until the film itself realizes it has a resistance to battle against. While Mann only wants the subject to be on Dillinger’s escapades of thievery and the authorities attempts in capturing him, Depp is ripened to tear into more complex ideas than just robbing banks. 

Some of those ideas involve Dillinger’s fetish morphing into a living disease that curls and gnarls his insides, and drowns out all the necessities that life promises to those who are able to control their lives; freedom and relationships.
 
Mann showcases heavy artillery being fired without any true vibe (except for a hip soundtrack) while minutely passing on the romance and human drama as a mere side story. The film’s emotional center occurs only when Marion Cotillard’s Billie, Dillinger’s romance, is at the center of discussion. She represents what his fetish has deprived him of; freedom and love.  
 
Don’t see Public Enemies for thrills or the sheer of excitement. Each bank heist is void of any suspense and ultimately meaningless in the long run. Christian Bale’s officer Pervis is the only thing interesting when Dillinger is fleeing authorities. Pervis has something to prove after leading some of his inexperienced men to death while chasing Dillinger. The two connect for a psychological battle that involves each to use their wits and bravado. Depp and Bale succeed as charismatic individuals working in opposing fields but still comparable due to their innate ability to be the best at what they do. 
 
Depp, with limited resources, is able to create a persona we become more and more interested in as the film expands. His performance is an intricate one because he keeps the traits of the typical Mann character while at the same time taking an initiative to defy the corrupted and adrenaline filled world that Mann characters find so inhabitant.  Dillinger wants out of this criminal world, but Mann doesn’t allow for us to see the full angst of that character, only intermittent sud den flashes of it, like bullets out of a Tommy gun firing at a rapid pace.

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