Public Enemies (2009)

Release Date: Wednesday July 1, 2009  Genre: Action  Running Time: 139 min.  Director: Michael Mann 

Cast: Johnny Depp,  Christian Bale,  Marion  Cotillard,  Jason Clarke,  Rory Cochrane,  Billy Crudup,  Stephen Dorff,  Stephen Lang, John Ortiz, Giovanni Ribisi, David Wenham, Shawn Hatosy, Branka Katic, Emilie de Ravin, Leelee Sobieski, David Warshofsky  Inspiration: John Dillinger

I was really excited for this movie because of Michael Mann’s avant-guard use of digital in it.  He’s always pushed and chipped at the boundaries of what is acceptable on the big screen.  Public Enemies proves that there is an aesthetic in digital that requires cultivation but is unique and worthy of an audience.   It is not lack lustre or short coming in any way form or fashion: it simply dictates a new way to tell stories with in the already established realm of cinema.  I really don’t think this particular story could have been told in this fashion prior to the digital revolution.  It is the nerd in me that cheered for this movie long before it came out, but, it is the film lover in me that applauds it after I had the privilege of watching this master piece.

Johnny Depp has, in recent years, become well known for his over the top portrayals.  I think his interpretation of John Dillinger takes us back to a Johnny Depp that is the kindred spirit to the every man in us all.  The media spins it, the public consumes it,  and now the image that has been perpetuated for too long has somehow been made right with the very human and relatable representation of a plain man in dire straits.  I’m reluctant to say that this is the best performance I’ve ever seen from Johnny Depp; but I will go so far as to say that this is one of the most important.  I think people will look back at this movie and this performance as being important because of their relevance to time and place.  Perhaps it’s just my romantic notions that have gotten the better of me but for once I truly hope not.

What’s beautiful about this film is that it doesn’t move forward via circumstance but rather via characters.  It is the choices that the characters make that drives this story forward.  In particular the choices of two men who find themselves on opposite ends of the same gun so to speak.  Melvin Purvis portrayed by Christian Bale turns out to be just as much of a catalyst in this story’s progress as Dillinger.  There’s a return to the idea of a protagonist and an antagonist in this picture only there’s a twist; neither is truly good or bad and each is flawed and broken in some way.  I think what Michael Mann managed to portray in this film is that very ordinary people are capable of extraordinary things.  This is something that has been lost in cinema and something that needs a revival of sorts.  If you watch the film you will see over and over again in the framing and cutting that these are simple men faced with brutal realities doing the best they can with what ever means they have available.  In the end both are made to suffer by the establishment: Dillinger by death and Pervis by recognizing the criminal potential of law enforcement.  It’s a fantastic story that takes you into a world and era not unlike our own.

Finally, something has to be said at the love story in this film that actually adds to the story instead of being a contemptuous distraction.  It is through Billie Frechette portrayed by Marion Cottilard that we fall in love with John Dillinger.  It is through the chemistry Cottilard and Depp demonstrate on screen that we as an audience feel a sense of lack and pain in our own lives.  This romance is damned from the start as most great romances are, because, in the realm of reason two well suited people who are happy outside the norm can never truly find peace so long as they interact with a society that is the representation of all that disapproves of them.  We are reminded through this couple of a time when the words people said to each other actually mattered.  So it is at the end of this picture that a few meaningful words are enough to bring most people in the audience to tears. 

This film isn’t just a good film, it is an important one.  If not for its technical innovation, then for its brilliant story telling, and if not for those reasons then simply for its soul.  It is a story about all of us struggling against the odds not knowing if we’ll make it.  I suggest this film to everyone:  you won’t regret it.