Less pseudo reality more myth & legend

Rating: 7/10 (4 July 2009)

The cinematography it had an uneven look definitely due to the HD digital, the biggest noticeable contrast being the Little Bohemia shootout with the rest of the film. The hand held camera-work was way overdone, there was no reason for it in certain scenes particularity during the night club sequence where you had Billie & John tête-à-tête conversing, why, why must the picture be bouncing up and down? Why when Bille is captured do we get a munchkin POV looking up? What's the point of that? Now some complain about this effect making them nauseous for me it just makes me annoyed. I think minimal use in key segments could accent certain sequences but when its continuous it becomes redundant. It also robs us of the appreciation of the props and the art of set design, if everything is a blur or constantly bouncing about it makes set design an exercise in futility. What is the point of showing beautifully restored automobiles as a bouncing blur, at least the shot of the steam engine arriving at the station seemed not to be not hand held. The whole effect gives me a feeling of what I assume someone with HAADD would experience.
There is a current trend in Hollywood in making certain Genres into, historical costume dramas, almost docudramas when dealing with the past, its the same in the Western Genre trying for too much reality takes away the magic of the Western iconography built up over the years. Westerns were about Myths and Legends same as the old Gangster Genre films. Too much reality is killing Westerns and you can see this to some extent in Public Enemies. In the schizophrenic Public Enemies we get a bit more detail and emphasis on accuracy in some areas and then wild fabrications in others but what is lacking in this film is the small touches that give some character development to Dillinger's gang they seemed to all blend in to a blur and the same likewise could be said of the FBI team. Public Enemies spent a bit more time with the Billie-John relationship at the expense of the "Public Enemies", but I somehow get the feeling that that(Billie-John) was all contrived Hollywood BS anyway.
The little extra vignettes that the 1973 Milius' Dillinger had gave a bit of character development to the legend of Dillinger's gang, the gumball machine, Dillinger's visits to his family, Dillinger's sister, the bar scene, Dillinger splitting the money from the robbery that he did at his jail escape with the mechanic the warden and Reese, Purvis' vow of smoking his gift cigars from his shot down buddy "over the dead bodies of every one" of the public enemies gave Dillinger that mythic Gangster Film cachet. Were any of these historical, possibly, but others particularly Purvis was wildly inaccurate. But a larger than life Dillinger needed a larger than life Purvis. In Public enemies neither Dillinger nor Purvis really reaches Iconic status. It also helped that the character actors in Milius' Dillinger were well enough known and in enough prior films to be distinguishable from one another and add gravitas to their roles. When the legend becomes fact film the legend was Milius's MO.
Now let us examine how the two films handled the Little Bohemia Shootout. In Dillinger the FBI arrive just at dawn and the shootout commences when three hapless innocents walk out of the lodge all the action is in the light. In Public Enemies Mann stages the shootout at night the action being ignited by three men leaving the lodge in a car.
Now I'll digress for a moment, let me tell you a little parable, there once was a survey leveling crew on a survey project that was working on the edge of the Bob Marshall Wilderness Area in Montana. They were running a level circuit on a construction P-line and decided to try and finish the three mile project before sunset and the ensuing darkness. In short they didn't make it, finding themselves about 2.5 miles from the existing road on a steep fir pine and spruce covered hillside, and had to continue walking out carrying their equipment. When it got dark it got DARK under the tree cover, pitch black, as if you were in a closet. Besides obviously trees everywhere there was also blow down, underbrush etc., etc., to negotiate around and through. They could not walk normally they had to feel ahead with their feet for any obstacles in their way at the pace of a crawl. Every once in a while they would break into a natural clearing and a sliver of moon lit it up enough so that you could see but as soon as the hit the tree line on the other side again in was back into the abyss.
There is no F-ing way in Public Enemies that anybody is going to be running around in the frickin dark through the woods, its totally ridiculous you would be slamming into trees tripping over logs etc., etc. Its just not believable, but the muzzle flashes of the Tommy guns looked nice, lol. Apparently that is what he was going for.
The film overall was entertaining but it could have been way more than it is, it needed a tad more myth and less reality. 6.5-7/10