J. Edgar Hoover was willing to liquidate the Midwest to "get" Dillinger

Rating: 9/10 (3 July 2009)

J. Edgar Hoover (played by Billy Crudup in PUBLIC ENEMIES) was the John Ashcroft of his time, willing to tear up the U.S. Constitution at the drop of a hat to satisfy his personal whims and prejudices. ENEMIES writer\director Michael Mann makes this clear in his film, based on Bryan Burrough's book of the same name. This movie is not for the faint of heart, or J. Edgar fans. Here's the basic story line (SPOILERS): Hoover's machine-gun slinging "G-men," working initially outside their jurisdiction, took an exceptional dislike to Dillinger (Johnny Depp), whom the public perceived as someone who was spreading the ill-gotten loot from voracious banks among ordinary folks during the depths of the Great Depression in the American Midwest. Because Hoover had declared Dillinger as the country's first official "public enemy #1" in a failed PR move to milk more money from Congress, Dillinger sent J. Edgar a courtesy Christmas card in December, 1933. Hoover responded by having all known men, women and children connected to Dillinger tortured for "leads," which he followed up by sending an army of FBI special agents to a Wisconsin vacation resort, where they machine-gunned to death three young workers on break from President Roosevelt's Civilian Conservation Corps, while letting Dillinger slip through their fingers. Unperturbed by this "collateral damage," the G-men quickly ambushed their #1 target again in front of a crowded Chicago movie theater, putting three bullets in his back and two bullets into the backs of women happening by. Of course, the movie does not reveal Hoover for the cross-dressing eccentric he was, a "bachelor" employing his life-long male companion in one of the highest-paid FBI positions, or that there are reams of proof that Hoover personally blackmailed six U.S. presidents, and that he devoted even more resources to destroying Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., than he did to doing in Dillinger, because these are beyond the scope of Michael Mann's expose. But the fact that Hoover was REWARDED, rather than fired, for his reckless lynching of his self-proclaimed "public enemy #1" insured a level of vicious mob-rule mentality at the highest levels of the U.S. government for 38 years beyond John Herbert Dillinger's public assassination July 22, 1934.
The only criticism to be made of Mann's movie is that it is too "fair and balanced." While Hoover clearly is portrayed as the man "pulling the strings" behind the scenes, FBI special agent Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale) has his real-life role in the Dillinger case inflated, with the help of numerous anachronisms (some of which are detailed here in the "Goofs" section), making it look like Purvis "got" Dillinger virtually single-handed, as opposed to a corrupt Jabba-the-Hutt type venal bureaucrat wreaking havoc indiscriminately against Midwest civilians like some Captain Ahab run amok, all in a drive for his own personal glory. And, of course, being a Hollywood movie, Dillinger's relationship with Evelyn "Billie" Frechette (Marion Cotillard) becomes one of the greatest love stories of all time in PUBLIC ENEMIES, whereas the real life bank robber reputedly had a "special gift," which makes one lady hogging him for herself a ludicrous proposition.