Public Enemies (2009)

Michael Mann is always a reliable source of ‘cops & robbers’ action, and this film about famed gangster John Dillinger is no exception. Several vintage Mann action sequences are complimented by the subtle performances of Johnny Depp as Dillinger and Christian Bale as Melvin Purvis, the G-man personally tasked by FBI director Hoover to bring the famed gangster down. Depp has said in interviews that he views Dillinger as a man of the people, and the idea of the gangster as a sympathetic 'Robin Hood figure' has been around since Cagney. Though Dillinger largely tried to avoid the taking of innocent life, and only took money from banks never directly from average citizens, he did use people as human shields, and while not a crazy bastard like Baby Face Nelson, he hardly counts as a hero. Dillinger is however (in this film at lest) largely likable, and one can understand how he came to be what he was (he tells us briefly, and in such a way that if your not paying attention you might not catch it). The lovely Marion Cotillard plays Johnny’s half Indian love interest. Grade: B. Film shows us an unusually long sequence of clips from Manhattan Melodrama (1934), the movie which the gangster finished just minutes before he died.