No Ordinary Fool

We’re having too good a time today. We ain’t thinking about tomorrow.

Although lazy comparisons will inevitably be made to Michael Mann’s earlier direction of Heat, this melodramatic work feels closer in spirit to Sam Peckinpah’s Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid or Andrew Dominik’s The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Although Public Enemies is less lyrical in nature than the other two, all three portray in open-ended terms the ruthlessness of men prepared to kill and steal in order to get what they want. All three protagonists live life on their own terms and enjoy a degree of popular acclaim as anti-heroes with a common touch. Equally, each is a man running a losing race against the changing times.

Public Enemies is, of course, a reasonably accurate account of the final months in the relatively short life of the infamous Great Depression-era bank robber and gunman John Dillinger. He is represented here by Johnny Depp as a man in a perpetual hurry. Having endured a tough upbringing at the hands of his single father and having spent many years in prison for a bungled first attempt at robbery, his re-emergence into society is as a hardened criminal determined to seize everything at once and with whatever force is necessary.

If you detect an immature character to such ambition, then you will appreciate the manner in which Depp portrays his namesake. In one scene, Dillinger outlines his life’s story to Billie Frechette (Marion Cotillard) in a sparse rat-a-tat-tat of sentences. As a wooing technique, it is straight from the films that he sits so intently through. Although prepared to indiscriminately open fire in public places, there is something of the swashbuckling romance of Errol Flynn as Robin Hood in Dillinger’s behaviour. He terms his relationship with Billie in the manner of an epic romance, he tells frightened bank customers to put their money back in their wallets, and he remains painfully loyal to those closest to him. Throughout, Depp plays the character with great intensity, combining sadness, boyish charisma, and brooding malevolence in what is another fine performance from this fascinating actor.

At the same time, Dillinger’s high profile leads to him being declared “public enemy number one” by the fledgling FBI, led by J. Edgar Hoover (Billy Crudup in a very different role to Dr. Manhattan in Watchmen). The latter sees such interstate bank robbers as the perfect foil for his own agenda of expanding the remit of his office and the media attention lavished on the likes of Dillinger sees that he ultimately gets his way. Yet, the real river of money earned through organised crime flows away quietly in the background. As always, it is the perception rather than the actuality that matters. Indeed, how much repressive legislation has been passed in the face of what people think that they should be afraid of, rather than what they ought to be?

Christian Bale, as Melvin Purvis, plays the other main lead with an impressive-sounding Southern accent. For the most part, his character does not surprise, though, as an ambitious, dedicated, and thoughtful agent. Unfortunately, this seems to be because Mann does not give Bale enough time to properly develop some of the more ambiguous aspects of his otherwise stock character. There are also a couple of good minor parts played by both Stephen Lang, as tough and craggy G-Man Charles Winstead, and Peter Gerety, as a Mob lawyer, who makes the most of an amusingly verbose courtroom cameo.

The reason that I like Public Enemies most though is the fact that Mann was able to surprise. I just did not expect him to turn a summer blockbuster into a sad, understated, and humane ballet that would wring much of its emotional intensity from a sultry song called Bye Bye Blackbird! Speaking of music, Elliot Goldenthal’s score works well, especially with its atmosphere-inducing strains during the final street scene. Equally, the attention to detail when recreating the time period is on a par with any of Clint Eastwood’s recent early-to-mid twentieth century films. On the whole, it is a picture made for the big cinema screen and the power of the moment. By a distance, it is the best Michael Mann film that I have seen to date.