The story of John Dillinger (Johnny Depp), the most legally wanted and publicly loved outlaw of the Depression-era 1930s, Michael Mann’s Public Enemies is a movie about one man who thought he could never be caught, another man who was determined that he would (Christian Bale), and a nearly intoxicating optimism that pushed its luck so far it simply could not endure. Filled with no more fireworks than the shots of gangsters’ automatics and G-Men’s rifles, the film may very well by the quietest and most deliberate cat and mouse chase I have seen on screen in years. And focusing more on its characters than its action while bringing to life a plot more about inevitability than clever calculation, it is also a film that serves as a warning that no matter how good at evading the law we may be, it will eventually find us all.
Of course, when Public Enemies begins, John Dillinger’s not as much as criminal as he is a celebrity. In a way, his character is like a filmic argument for the idea that one sin doesn’t define an entire man. Although he may show no concern for officers of the law or leaders of finance, Dillinger will be the first man on the scene to give a lady his jacket. Although he may have long since discarded any sense of allegiance to the laws of his country, his loyalty to his friends and lovers is one that cannot be broken. As for the idea that his crimes should smear him with such grime that you could see coming from five miles away, let’s just say if Dillinger was sitting next to you in a movie theater, you either wouldn’t notice him at all or you would be asking for his autograph.
But more than just a public misconception or personal miscalculation, Dillinger’s charm is one that goes deeper than surface level facade. He doesn’t just say he’ll be loyal; he’ll risk his life for it. He doesn’t just break you out of jail because he needs you; he will hold you while you die because he loves you. And while his refusal to live inside any of the lines his country has drawn may seem just plain rebellious, his determination to not be fenced in by the law or held down by economic despair is one that brings inspiration, hope, and life to nearly everyone he meets.
The problem—as much as he keeps pursuing love and hope and the dream of a brighter tomorrow, he also keeps robbing banks and stealing guns and defying pretty much every law he touches. Although he risks his life to return to his lover Bobbie (Marion Cotillard), he puts their relationship back on the line by signing up for another job. Although he repeatedly talks about how he is a man who can go anywhere, he keeps showing up at one robbery after another. And even though he’s a man who lives by the rule that he only works with people he knows and never works when he’s desperate, with a quickly decreasing list of places to call home and people to call friends, in the end, that’s pretty much his only option.
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