A Must-See John Dillinger Movie

Rating: 10/10 (3 October 2012)

Based on author Bryan Burrough's ambitious tome Public Enemies: America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-43, director Michael Mann's sprawling historical crime drama,Public Enemies follows the efforts of top FBI agent Melvin Purvis in capturing notorious bank robber John Dillinger.It stars Johnny Depp and Christian Bale together Marion Cotillard, Billy Crudup, Stephen Dorff, Stephen Lang, Jason Clarke, Stephen Graham, Rory Cochrane, Branka Katic, Channing Tatum, Giovanni Ribisi and Shawn Hatosy. Set during the Great Depression, the film chronicles the final years of the notorious bank robber John Dillinger as he is pursued by Federal Bureau of Investigation agent Melvin Purvis, and his relationship with Billie Frechette, as well as Purvis' pursuit of Dillinger associates and fellow criminals Homer Van Meter and Baby Face Nelson Also,it was written by Mann, Ronan Bennett and Ann Biderman.
A folk hero to the American public thanks to his penchant for robbing the banks that many people believed responsible for the Great Depression, charming bandit Dillinger was virtually unstoppable at the height of his criminal career; no jail could hold him, and his exploits endeared him to the common people while making headlines across the country. J. Edgar Hoover's FBI was just coming into formation, and what better way for the ambitious lawman to transform his fledgling Bureau of Investigation into a national police force than to capture the gang that always gets away? Determined to bust Dillinger and his crew, which also included sociopath Baby Face Nelson and Alvin Karpis, Hoover christened Dillinger the country's very first Public Enemy Number One, and unleashed Purvis to take them down by whatever means necessary. But Purvis underestimated Dillinger's ingenuity as a master criminal, and after embarking on a frantic series of chases and shoot-outs, the dashing agent humbly surmised that he was in over his head. Outwitted and outgunned, Purvis knew that his only hope for busting Dillinger's gang was to baptize a crew of Western ex-lawmen as official agents, and orchestrate a series of betrayals so cunning that even America's criminal mastermind wouldn't know what hit him.
This is a film worth seeing as it adheres to the historical facts of Dillinger's well-documented tapestry of brazen daylight heists, gritty shootouts and improbable jailbreaks.It was a thoroughly detailed and engaging crime epic, which traces the criminal exploits and pursuit of infamous gangster.It is a competent and technically impressive gangster flick with charismatic lead performances especially from Johnny Depp and Christian Bale.Although Mann wasn't able to recapture the greatness of Heat,this remains a must-see.