Michael Mann’s latest offering Public Enemies starts off brilliantly with a messy escape scene that is at once gripping and real. And it serves as a useful indication of things to come, even though the wonderful opening gambit is rarely ever equaled again. Like most movies by Mann, this is a mainstream movie, capable of entertaining, but also not without elements separating it from the slew of “shoot-‘em-kill-‘em” stuff made in the gangster genre – the documentary/TV footage-like photography in a number of scenes, the generous length, elaborate and deliberately bloody gun-fight sequences, and a deceptively unspectacular climax. Johny Depp, as “public enemy no. 1” John Dillinger, whose audacious bank robberies and slippery nature tuned him into a celebrity and an icon, more so when the FBI decided to bring him down, is impressive as the dandy gangster in a dapper suit. Well, to be honest, this isn’t a great movie for those looking for thunderous individual performances, or for that matter those looking for moral/philosophical overtures. Rather, in most parts it is a fine movie given its mainstream ambitions, yet with enough signatures to ensure that the director’s touch never gets lost in the ensuing blaze of gun fires.
Director: Michael Mann
Genre: Crime Drama/Gangster/Biopic
Language: English
Country: US
