Public Enemies (Blu-ray) (2009)

"Intelligent and challenging: Mann's crime epic could take two viewings to fully absorb, but it's worth every devoted minute.  Ian Nathan, Empire
"A grave and beautiful work of art.  Manohla Dargis, The New York Times
"This is the purest of American narratives, and this, indeed, is one of our finest storytellers.  Matthew Sorrento, FilmThreat.com

Editor's Note Johnny Depp and Christian Bale emerge from two of the biggest blockbuster series of all time (Pirates of the Caribbean and Batman, respectively) to star in this crime drama from HEAT director Michael Mann. Depp stars as charismatic 1930s gangster John Dillinger, whose notorious bank robberies have turned him into a celebrity during the Depression era. The rise in crime has J. Edgar Hoover (Billy Crudup) desperate to have his newly created FBI take down gangsters such as Dillinger, "Pretty Boy" Floyd (Channing Tatum), and "Baby Face" Nelson (Stephen Graham). Enter Agent Melvin Purvis (Bale), an ambitious crimefighter sent to Chicago to capture Dillinger and his gang. The criminal has evaded the law before, but he is drawn to the Second City by the beautiful Billie Frechette (Marion Cotillard). Though PUBLIC ENEMIES boasts big names, it feels more like an arthouse offering than a typical gangster picture. With its intimately shot violence and 1930s setting, the film is more BONNIE AND CLYDE than GOODFELLAS. Mann and director of photography Dante Spinotti alternate between hand-held, high-quality digital cameras and more traditional film stock, giving this crime drama a carefully composed, thoroughly modern look. But the casting of the leads is vintage Hollywood: Depp could be the modern incarnation of silent star Rudolph Valentino, and Cotillard?s wide-eyed beauty--and talent--would fit right in with the starlets of the golden age. Everyone else, including Bale, fades into the background, but it?s hard to complain when Depp and Cotillard give such magnetic performances.

	Christian Bale
	Johnny Depp
	Marion Cotillard
	Jason Clarke
	Rory Cochrane
	Billy Crudup
	Stephen Dorff
	Stephen Lang
	John Ortiz
	Giovanni Ribisi
	David Wenham
	John Michael Bolger
	Bill Camp
	Matt Craven
	Emilie de Ravin
	Don Frye
	Spencer Garrett
	Shawn Hatosy
	Peter Gerety
	Stephen Graham
	Ronan Bennett - Screenwriter
	Michael Mann - Screenwriter
	Ann Biderman - Screenwriter
	Kevin Misher - Producer
	Michael Mann - Producer
	Bryan Burrough - Source Writer
	G. Mac Brown - Executive Producer
	Jane Rosenthal - Executive Producer
	Elliot Goldenthal - Composer
	Dante Spinotti - Director of Photography
	Michael Mann - Director

Rolling Stone
3.5 stars out of 4 -- "Depp and the vibrantly touching Cotillard give the relationship a potent intimacy....It's movie dynamite." 07/09/2009

USA Today
3 stars out of 4 -- "Director Michael Mann mounts a technically proficient, visually enthralling crime drama anchored by the low-key but captivating performance of Johnny Depp..." 06/30/2009

Chicago Sun-Times
3.5 stars out of 4 -- "This Johnny Depp performance is something else....This is a very good film, with Depp and Bale performances of brutal clarity." 06/30/2009

Los Angeles Times
"[A]n impressive film of great formal skill, one that inescapably has a brooding dark-night-of-the-soul quality about it....The beauty and skill of the filmmaking keep you tightly in its grasp." 07/01/2009

New York Times
"Michael Mann's PUBLIC ENEMIES is a grave and beautiful work of art....It revisits with meticulous detail and convulsions of violence a short, frantic period in the life and bank-robbing times of John Dillinger..." 07/01/2009

Wall Street Journal
"[M]arvelously detailed and meticulously crafted, an elegant evocation of Depression-era America and its fascination with crime." 07/02/2009

Premiere
3 stars out of 4 -- "Johnny Depp continues to make great choices and plays Dillinger as both charming and sinister." 06/30/2009

Total Film
4 stars out of 5 -- "[O]rdinary scenes become electrifying experiences as Mann takes an old story and makes it feel new and unexpected....Packed with fresh tension and atmosphere..." 06/16/2009

Uncut
4 stars out of 5 -- "[Mann] has a strong eye for forensic detail that ramps up the vividness of the film." 06/26/2009

ReelViews 8 of 10
There's something almost old-fashioned about Michael Mann's Public Enemies, a mostly factual re-telling of the descent and death of John Dillinger (Johnny Depp), one of the 1930s most infamous bank robbers. More drama than thriller, the movie does a slightly better job with period detail than with character building. While Dillinger is sympathetically portrayed, he falls just short of full three-dimensionality, with the character never quite emerging from the shadow of the real-world legend. Dillinger's pursuer, Federal agent Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale), fares worse: he's a perfect stereotype of the grim, humorless lawman, bent on delivering justice to criminals by using the business end of a firearm. That's not to say Public Enemies is by any means a bad film; on the contrary, it's quite engaging. It is competently constructed and often compelling, but it will not be mentioned in the same breath as some of its classic predecessors...Bryan Burrough, the author of the source material, has admitted that, although the movie takes a certain amount of artistic license with history, it is the most factual telling of Dillinger's story thus far to appear on screen. Mann does not overglamorize the bank robbing lifestyle, although he shows the gap between how Dillinger is viewed by law enforcement officials (as a dangerous man who needs to be stopped at all costs) and by the general public (as a Robin Hood-like figure). Public Enemies also touches none-too-subtly on a topic of some contemporary concern: what constitutes an "unacceptable practice" in extreme interrogations. This is raised twice during the course of the film, most notably when Frechette is battered and beaten in an attempt to force Dillinger's location from her. Finally, there is a nod to America's fascination with the lurid. After Dillinger is shot dead, a massive crowd gathers to view the spectacle...Although Public Enemies does not ascend to the heights of Bonnie and Clyde or The Untouchables, it is nevertheless an effective depiction of the final months of the life of one of the United States' most infamous criminals. Of all the cinematic versions of Dillinger's life and/or death, this is the most dramatically compelling. It's an imperfect motion picture but Depp and Cotillard are compulsively watchable and there's enough intrigue and historical veracity to make the 140 minutes pass quickly. If you can overcome issues associated with the hand-held camerawork, Public Enemies is solid in both its storytelling and the way in which the narrative is represented on screen. - James Berardinelli

Chicago Sun-Times 9 of 10
"I rob banks," John Dillinger would sometimes say by way of introduction. It was the simple truth. That was what he did. For the 13 months between the day he escaped from prison and the night he lay dying in an alley, he robbed banks. It was his lifetime. Michael Mann's Public Enemies accepts that stark fact and refuses any temptation to soften it. Dillinger was not a nice man...Here is a film that shrugs off the way we depend on myth to sentimentalize our outlaws. There is no interest here about John Dillinger's childhood, his psychology, his sexuality, his famous charm, his Robin Hood legend. He liked sex, but not as much as robbing banks. "He robbed the bankers but let the customers keep their own money." But whose money was in the banks? He kids around with reporters and lawmen, but that was business. He doesn't kid around with the members of his gang. He might have made a very good military leader...Johnny Depp and Michael Mann show us that we didn't know all about Dillinger. We only thought we did. Here is an efficient, disciplined, bold, violent man, driven by compulsions the film wisely declines to explain. His gang members loved the money they were making. Dillinger loved planning the next job. He had no exit strategy or retirement plans...Mann is fearless with his research. If I mention the Lady in Red, Anna Sage (Branka Katic), who betrayed Dillinger outside the Biograph when the movie was over, how do you picture her? I do too. We are wrong. In real life she was wearing a white blouse and an orange skirt, and she does in the movie. John Ford once said, When the legend becomes fact, print the legend. This may be a case where he was right. Mann might have been wise to decide against the orange and white and just break down and give Anna Sage a red dress...This is a very good film, with Depp and Bale performances of brutal clarity. I'm trying to understand why it is not quite a great film. I think it may be because it deprives me of some stubborn need for closure. His name was John Dillinger, and he robbed banks. But there had to be more to it than that, right? No, apparently not. - Roger Ebert