Public Enemies (2009)

We had planned to see this anyway, but the rave review in Rolling Stone (spoiler alert--read it later) convinced me to go sooner rather than later. It's almost 2-1/2 hours long, so be prepared for that, and it could have been trimmed here and there, but we had a good time. There were high production values in set design and props. The 1933 technology was the coolest: banks of telephone switchboards, whirling tape recorders and vinyl records, hand-cranked movie cameras, prop airplanes, steam engine trains, glinting chrome of the picture cars, discussion of a Ford with V-8, and scenes lit by fiery camera flashes and automatic gunfire explosions. Yes, there was a high body count and plenty of blood--this is not for the faint of heart.

But the principal actors, Johnny Depp (more in a moment) as John Dillinger, Christian Bale (I didn't see him as a 12-13 year old in Empire of the Sun (1987), but I really liked Laurel Canyon (2002), Batman Begins (2005), I'm Not There and The Prestige (both 2007), and The Dark Knight) as Dillinger's pursuer, G-Man Melvin Purvis, and Marion Cotillard (Oscar winner for La Vie en Rose (La môme) (2007), and the unexpectedly lightweight A Good Year (2006), unexpected, considering that Ridley Scott directed Russell Crowe and Cotillard from a novel by the readable Peter Mayle) as Dillinger's girlfriend Billie Frechette, and Billy Crudup (I liked Inventing the Abbotts (1997), Almost Famous (2000) where he played rock star Russell, and Robert de Niro's The Good Shepherd (2006)) as J. Edgar Hoover (playing him a bit on the prissy side, perhaps in light of the rumors that recently came to light about Hoover's cross-dressing) were so pretty that I could ignore the gore. 

Johnny Depp, nearly as pretty as Cotillard, gets more than parentheses today. Looking at his list of credits I'm hard pressed to find one I didn't like. In Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow (1999), for which I won't forget the effects of the Headless Horseman galloping full speed, his sword slicing off others' heads, Depp portrayed Ichabod Crane as a squeamish investigator, and I predicted his next role would be more effeminate. Was I ever right! The following year he played a full-on drag queen, Bon Bon, a supporting role, in Julian Schnabel's deservedly praised Before Night Falls, in which Javier Bardem played real-life writer Reynaldo Arenas, who was persecuted for being gay. Depp can do butch, kinda, if he has to (Chocolat (2000), Sweeney Todd (2007), and this one, where he plays Dillinger as a ruthless dandy), but there's always something gender-bending about his characters (think Jack Sparrow in all three Pirates of the Carribbean (2006-7)).

Michael Mann (Oscar nominated for directing, producing, and co-writing The Insider (1999); I liked Ali (2001) and he co-produced Ford v Ferrari) directs from a script co-written by him, Ronan Bennett (new to me), and Ann Biderman (co-wrote Primal Fear (1996) and Smilla's Sense of Snow (1997) and just a few others). 

The music was great fun, with songs by Billie Holiday, Diana Krall (who appeared on screen singing "Bye Bye Blackbird"), Otis Taylor, Benny Goodman, and the Bruce Fowler Big Band (a plug for my friend, who is usually a film orchestrator these days, though he was on screen as the trombone player with Annie Ross & the Low Note Quintet in Robert Altman's Short Cuts (1993)), as well as some banjo and guitar work that I enjoyed. I could see Oscar nominations for music, set design, wardrobe, cinematography, and sound, to name a few, at this early date. History teacher Jack wondered who paid for the property damage done by Dillinger and his merry men in the real-life robberies.