Michael Mann, Johnny Depp and Christian Bale team for the true story of America’s gangster mastermind.
Pairing a director who’s perfect for its true story and a theme that’s dead-on resonant for our troubled times, July’s Public Enemies tells the true story of the hunt for John Dillinger, possibly the smartest and almost certainly the most daring of the criminals who fascinated the American public during the 1930s. It’s also got Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Marion Cotillard, and rising star Channing Tatum, making it a can’t-miss summer epic for just about everybody. That’s appropriate, since its subject matter helped shape the very form and style of the crime movie itself, in important ways that continue to this day.
During the early 30s, as America suffered through the worst of The Great Depression, a nationwide outbreak of well-executed but often astonishingly violent crime swept the nation, particularly the Midwest. Far from reacting with shock and revulsion at the audacity of the crimes, most often involving bank and payroll robberies, the public came to see the men and women responsible as something akin to modern day outlaws. Much of the public, primarily the poor and middle class, received the criminals like modern day Jesse James or Robin Hoods, outlaws who (regardless of whether their beliefs were accurate or not) struck blows for the common man against the financial and government systems responsible for the nation’s collapsing economy. The government, slow to react, bolstered its fledgling Federal Bureau of Investigation to reign in the crimewave, with decidedly mixed results.
Meanwhile Hollywood, eager for ways to utilize their relatively-new sound technology and to stimulate audiences without running afoul of the sanitizing Production Code, took to the “gangsters” as a means of attracting male audiences. In short order a number of classic films, including The Public Enemy, Little Caesar (both 1931) and Scarface (1932) introduced audiences to the criminal “underworld.” Long on screeching tires and machine gunfire but demure on racy language or sexual content, the films provided escapist entertainment for millions of unemployed Americans and shaped the forms of the crime movie genre.
Has much changed in seventy five years? Audiences this summer, unemployed or otherwise, will see Depp portray Dillinger, the brazen criminal who, among other adventures, once robbed a bank by posing as a Hollywood location scout and simply walking out with its money. Bale plays Melvin Purvis, the FBI agent who drove Dillinger into hiding for months, eventually gunning him down outside a movie theatre. Cotillard (La Vie En Rose) appears as Dillinger’s love interest, while Tatum (Fighting) plays explosive Oklahoma “Robin Hood” bank robber Charles “Pretty Boy” Floyd. Rounding out the supporting cast are Billy Crudup (Watchmen) as FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover as well as Rory Cochrane, David Wenham, Leelee Sobieski, Giovanni Ribisi, and Emilie de Ravin.
Director Michael Mann (Heat, Manhunter) has established himself as the auteur of modern American crime movies, so his tackling the impetus of America’s fascination with criminals seems both natural and long overdue. Yet the trailer below promises, despite the action and suspense, something of a more accessible tone, a divergence from the polished but brooding atmosphere that’s largely defined his style since his debut feature Thief (1981). Mann co-wrote the script with TV screenwriter Ronan Bennett and Southland creator Ann Bidermanm, based on the 2005 book by Bryan Burrough.
The real Dillinger
As for the stars, Depp’s an unusual choice to play the methodical Dillinger, a man who in real life often resembled Humphrey Bogart. Depp is the sixth actor to portray the gangster, including most famously Lawrence Tierney (Reservoir Dogs) in 1945′s overheated Dillinger. Having conquered the Joker, the Terminator, and his own body weight in his last several roles, Bale is a more logical choice to play the relentless agent Purvis, and it’s his first time as a straightforward antagonist since John Singleton’s Shaft remake nine years ago. They’re well-supported by the expansive cast: Mann has a habit of overstuffing his rosters (Heat and The Insider especially), and the multinational ensemble he’s built this time is no different.
Public Enemies opens nationwide July 1.
- Michael Kabel
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