Dillinger And Purvis

Rating: 7/10 (7 July 2009)

When The Petrified Forest was on stage and later on the screen, there was no doubt that Duke Mantee for the movie going public was based on John Dillinger. This bold and lawless man captured the imagination of the Depression era like none other, especially in that bold and lawless time. Banks and those that ran them were not the most admired folks of the time, many a person's life savings went down the drain in bank failures. A lot of the public saw Dillinger and his kind as just giving a little vicarious payback.
What Public Enemies does do very well is show how J. Edgar Hoover used the tales of these people to publicize and modernize his Federal Bureau Of Investigation. That they put these folks out of business is beyond question. Billy Crudup as Hoover and Christian Bale as Melvin Purvis show the difference between the straight arrow G-Men of popular fiction that Hoover had popularized and the very real ruthless men looking to put the outlaws out of business.
In the career of Johnny Depp I count five real life characters he's brought to the screen, Lord Rochester, Ed Wood, James M. Barrie, Joseph Pistone, and now John Dillinger. Depp seems to be making a movie to surpass Charlton Heston for portraying the most real life people. Of course this is far more eclectic list than Heston ever considered. Everyone of them different and yet all bear the stamp of Johnny Depp's persona in them. It's what I've always liked about Depp, he likes challenges and he meets those challenges.
I can't say too much for historical accuracy here. John Dillinger met his fate before Pretty Boy Floyd and Babyface Nelson. And Melvin Purvis was not in on the killing of Nelson at all.
Still the era is nicely captured by director Michael Mann. We might see an Oscar nomination or two for the technical awards and maybe for acting for Johnny Depp. Maybe he'll win this time.