Movies Review
Public Enemies by T. A. Moreland
This is the often told story of the depression era exploits of bank robber John Dillinger (Johnny Depp) and his battle with FBI agent extraordinaire, Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale).
A lot was at stake. Dillinger was making a fool out the nation’s law enforcement, robbing banks and no jail seemed to be able to hold him. J. Edger Hoover was trying to federalize law enforcement and build a reputation for the fledging FBI and the key to gaining the nation’s and Congress’ confidence was to catch Dillinger, dead or alive.
Public Enemies fails to deliver and gets a Rent It rating. Neither Johnny Depp’s Dillinger nor Christian Bale’s Purvis creates the necessary emotional bond with the viewer. As I have said before, love them or hate them, viewers have care about the people on the screen. And I found that I neither rooted for nor cared about either character. And it didn’t help that the FBI used tricks to capture criminals that were almost as bad as what the criminals had done.
Further neither Depp nor Bale’s performances were particularly strong. The top performance was by Billy Crudup would mastered the role as the enigmatic J. Edgar Hoover.
Public Enemies focuses upon Dillinger’s relationship with his longtime girlfriend, Billie Frechette (Marion Cotillard). Even this is poorly done. Dillinger sees her in a club, talks to her for a few minutes and they’re in love. There is no real development of this very important relationship.
One aspect of the film that I did like was that fact the film featured blacks in several scenes. Movies set in the 20s and 30s; even those in urban areas often have no black people. As if black people only arrived on the scene in the 60s.
Public Enemies is 2 hours and 23 minutes and rated R for gangster violence and some language. And gets a wait and Rent It rating.
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