Public Enemies

A "Michael Mann film" with everything there is to love and hate about it. It's probably going to have a hard time getting through the movie theaters, judging by the reaction of the Johnny Depp fans sitting next to me when I was sitting in there, but it's a hot contender for the title of "film of the year." (10/07/2009)

There’s no need to hide it under a mountain of text, when one word is enough to describe Public Enemies to the tee: borefest; maybe extended with the adjective digital. It’s hard to say why this flat gangster flick needed to be so long, when not a single one of the protagonists develops in any noticeable way (Purvis has only goal for the entire film and Dillinger doesn't evolve at all after meeting Billie). The biggest problem is how uninteresting both of the main characters are; what can you do when you don’t have anyone to root for (because both of them can be seen negatively) and you don’t give a toss about their fates? A weaker 6/10. (18/08/2009)

Mann continues where he left off with Miami Vice – in raw and unadorned filmmaking, in which there is sharp sound and naturalistic image of a digital camera. He once again helps himself wonderfully with music that gives the sequences a gradient and atmosphere. Unfortunately, the intention to make a 1930s version of Heat failed due to the script, and because of Christian Bale. I don't know who is to more blame, but Depp's thug is the main character, and the sleek man of the law is absolutely unable to handle any problems or ambiguities. It’s all about John Dillinger, and Michael Mann, with his foppish and gentleman-like nature, pays tribute to all of the mustachioed gangster melodramas from the past. It works great, including the ending. The motif of Dillinger as the last representative of gallant robbers, which is destroyed by an inconspicuous mafia racketeering, brings a certain depth to the film. For two and a half hours, Public Enemies kept me entertained, because Depp and Cotillard work well together, and Mann is able to dive right into the middle of the events. But there is something magical missing – in this case the poignant tension between law and crime, good and evil. Dillinger and Purvis are both far too unambiguous to form as explosive a pair as Hanna and McAuley. (01/07/2009)

On the one hand, the digital camera (I don't get it, but by the end I got used to it), the drawn-out plot and several historical inaccuracies, on the other hand, the perfect actors and especially the actress, the excellently filmed shootouts, very suspenseful scenes and Goldenthal's magical music. Public Enemies is good, even very good, but it’s not perfect. If Michael Mann had wanted to make something like Heat from the 1930s (and he probably did, given how sympathetically or unsympathetically Dillinger and Purvis are portrayed), he didn't succeed. But nobody expected that anyway, did they? (12/03/2013)

I don’t know if it makes any sense to play a trailer to an audience about the movie they are about to watch, but since it’s a well-made trailer, no harm's done. The fact that Mann is a perfectionist and shot the movie precisely in the locations where the events took place probably doesn’t need a further explanation, but because of this Public Enemies gains an indescribable atmosphere, that captured me from the beginning and didn’t let me go until the door closes, which happens to be the ending shot of the movie. The digital camera was able to squeeze something different from a “retro" gangster movie than I’m used to. On top of that, Mike knows how to surprise in very unexpected places and sometimes he creates something memorable from a very ordinary scene. And I haven’t even started about the action sequences. To put a movie about bank robbers into hands of a man responsible for the best ever scene about robbing a bank was a golden move. Mostly, they are presented in a “matter of fact" kind a way, but executed with an absolute virtuosity and the icing on the cake is a shoot out in (hands up, patriots ;-) Little Bohemia. Depp and Bale are both awesome, Depp maybe a bit more, but also maybe because he gets more space in the story. The music, as usual with Mann, is perfectly selected and Elliot Goldenthal almost like he’s picking up on his previous collaboration with Mann. I hope there’ll be a purely orchestral soundtrack too. Despite having a lot of common, another Heat isn’t happening, but that’s logical. Every good movie should be unique. (09/07/2009)