Public Enemies

Public Enemies, starring Johnny Depp and Christian Bale and directed by Michael Mann, has been getting pretty mixed reviews. The film is basically the whole story of John Dillinger (played by Johnny Depp) and federal agent Melvin Purvis (played by Christian Bale). 

The biggest problem with the film that I can figure out is the type of camera used to make the movie. Director Michael Mann decided to use a type of camera that he has been hooked on recently, a digital high definition camcorder. Traditionally, movies are shot with film, which responds to light and motion much better than digital. The movie is like watching a behind the scenes featurette; the sound echoes and is inconsistent, and the lighting is too natural and not deliberate at all. This is Michael Mann's style though; he wants the audience to feel like the movie is really happening in front of you, like it is a documentary rather than a film. Unfortunately, while that style works in gritty war movies, some have found that it takes away from the effect of a period piece like this one. While some can't into the film because everything looks fake, some are able to get into it. Personally, I think the style Mann used causes me to detach from the film. Those cameras aren't used for a reason.

But, aside from that aspect of the film, every performance in the film, especially Depp and Bale, is extraordinary. Mann was of course able to hire big names for all the small roles in the film, so every performance was dead on. They also filmed directly on location for the big shoot outs in the movie, so the actors are shooting out of the same windows and woods that John Dillinger and Baby Face Nelson and all of them shot out of, and so on. That ads a sense of, I guess legitimacy and accuracy, that I think the film needed. The film is 2 and a half hours long, but moves along a good pace and it doesn't seem like it's that long.