"I'm John Dillinger. I rob banks."

Rating: 7/10 (4 October 2018)

In 1973, American International Pictures (AIP) released "Dillinger", with Warren Oates in the title role and Ben Johnson as FBI Agent Melvin Purvis. The rest of the cast included Harry Dean Stanton, Geoffrey Lewis, and Richard Dreyfuss, with Michelle Phillips as Billie Frechette and Cloris Leachman in the role of Anna Sage. Wouldn't it have been great I thought, if those actors were available for a modern day telling of the Dillinger story. I guess I'm partial to an earlier era in film making; there was nothing wrong with Johnny Depp and Christian Bale, it's just that I felt there was something missing to this story of some of the most infamous gangsters of the 1930's.
I did key in on one of the comments made by John Dillinger (Depp) to his new girlfriend Billie (Marion Cotillard), that being people making judgments about others depending on where they came from instead of where they were going. That was kind of insightful and a good heads up on where Dillinger's time and bank robbing talent was going to take him. One of the things that made Dillinger a hero of sorts, was how he let bank customers keep their own money, a trait that was also honored decades earlier by outlaw Jesse James. Cut from the same cloth, Dillinger targeted banker fat cats that he pursued with confidence and not a little arrogance.
As a fan of gangster dramas, I was happy to catch a nod to James Cagney, who helped initiate the popularity of the crime genre in film with 1931's "The Public Enemy". And since I haven't seen it yet, I'm inspired to look up the 1934 film "Manhattan Melodrama" that Dillinger took in at the Biograph right before Purvis's boys took him out for good. I don't pretend to find it credible that a hard case like Charles Winstead (Stephen Lang) would have delivered that 'Bye, Bye Blackbird' message to Billie Frechette, but it made for a bit of melodrama in it's own right.
Probably what struck me more than anything in this picture was seeing Johnny Depp in a role where he wasn't wearing a pirate outfit, Indian war paint or a pair of Scissorhands. I guess I'm just not used to seeing him in a 'normal' role, as if there was anything even remotely normal about a Public Enemy Number One.