Public Enemies

[Ethan Bentley]

I very much enjoyed it, like many others, in particular the costumes and such.
A real treat was how many location I recognised. I went into the cinema without the knowledge that a lot of it was filmed in Madison, WI. Including the Capitol building.

 

[John in Covina]

A judge repeatedly says "okay" to the lawyers in his courtroom. An African-American shoeshine man says "How ya doin'?" to white Texan customers whom he'd never met before. On point for the era? Heck no. .

It should have been in GERMAN!

 

[Big Man]

I just got back from seeing the movie. I enjoyed it very much and did not find anything to "pick apart" like some reviews I've read here. I wasn't looking for a "documentary", but just to be entertained. My wife went with me to the movie (she has NO historical knowledge [huh] ) and enjoyed the movie as well. If she liked the movie, then anyone should.

 

[Atticus Finch]

I saw it Monday night while I was visiting in Milwaukee. Apparently, much of Public Enemies was filmed in southeast Wisconsin and my friends who attended the show with me were able to identify many of the scenes in the movie.

At first, I was a bit put off by Christian Bale's "Southern accent" and his mumbling of his lines. In all fairness, though, I think that a Southern accent is very difficult for a non-Southerner to execute properly...especially to the ear of someone who grew up in the rural South. As to his mumbling, I found this in a biography of Purvis....

Small in stature (one newspaper account measures him at five-feet-four-inches, weighing 127 pounds), Purvis spoke softly and with a mellifluous Southern drawl. He was famously frugal with words, often refusing to comment on spectacular cases in which he played a part.

AF

 

[scotrace]

Be sure to see Bale in Little Women. An early film in his career. He mumbles and whispers throughout. It's at its worst in The Prestige, in which he cannot be heard or understood for much of the film. It seems that somewhere in his early training he got the message that delivering lines quietly somehow makes them more important or dramatic, which is so, in the right moment. At least in the new Terminator flick, he seems to have occasion to shout, so he is the owner of a voice that can make itself heard.

My bias is complete, though. He should have been halted in high school and directed to a career without the need to speak. Just plain awful in everything I see him do.

On another interesting note, my neighbor told me last night that he wanted to see Public Enemies because it was his great-uncle who Dillinger killed in escaping from the Lima, Ohio stir!

Wiki: Three of the escapees arrived in Lima on October 12 where they impersonated Indiana State Police officers, claiming they had come to extradite Dillinger to Indiana. When the Sheriff asked for their credentials, they shot him and beat him unconscious, then released Dillinger from his cell. The four men escaped back into Indiana where they joined the rest of the gang.

His great-uncle was that Sheriff.

From a recent Cleveland.com article:

LIMA -- Sheriff Jess Sarber reached for his snub-nosed .38-caliber Colt just as a bullet pierced his left side.
Sarber dropped to the floor of his tiny jail office, but the three men posing as cops weren't done. They wanted the key that would spring bank robber John Dillinger from his Lima jail cell, and they began pistol-whipping the sheriff to get it.

 

[Levallois]

My bias is complete, though. He should have been halted in high school and directed to a career without the need to speak. Just plain awful in everything I see him do.[/I]

I like Mr. Bale in Batman because he is large enough physically to look like he could take on the bad guys. Michael Keaton, George Clooney??? Are you kidding me? But the mumbling doe get old in PE.

LIMA -- Sheriff Jess Sarber reached for his snub-nosed .38-caliber Colt just as a bullet pierced his left side.
Sarber dropped to the floor of his tiny jail office, but the three men posing as cops weren't done. They wanted the key that would spring bank robber John Dillinger from his Lima jail cell, and they began pistol-whipping the sheriff to get it.

These guys are romanticized in films like PE but we should remember they were, for the most part, psychopaths and killers with no conscience or remorse.

John

 

[Cricket]

I myself find that I romanticized them as well. I was sad watching Dillinger's fate at the end of the movie. Then I had to remind myself, wait a minute, he was the bad guy. The same thing happened when I watched Bonnie and Clyde. I felt sorry for them at the end. I am reading a book now on Dillinger cause the bug hit me after watching PE. Hopefully, the book will shed some light on the real Dillinger and not the romantic version that I tend to love. What can I say, I always liked bad boys lol

 

[Atticus Finch]

I myself find that I romanticized them as well. I was sad watching Dillinger's fate at the end of the movie. Then I had to remind myself, wait a minute, he was the bad guy. The same thing happened when I watched Bonnie and Clyde. I felt sorry for them at the end. I am reading a book now on Dillinger cause the bug hit me after watching PE. Hopefully, the book will shed some light on the real Dillinger and not the romantic version that I tend to love. What can I say, I always liked bad boys lol

I think in tough economic times, like the depression years, folks generally (and often correctly) blame the government for their misfortunes. From that mindset, it is only a short step to embracing the cause of anyone---even that of a violent criminal---who defies and/or openly attacks the current establishment.

Without political comment, I must sadly report that I am seeing a touch of this phenomenon in our court system, now.

AF

 

[John in Covina]

I think in tough economic times, like the depression years, folks generally (and often correctly) blame the government for their misfortunes. From that mindset, it is only a short step to embracing the cause of anyone---even that of a violent criminal---who defies and/or openly attacks the current establishment. Without political comment, I must sadly report that I am seeing a touch of this phenomenon in our court system, now.
AF

***********
One thing that the bank robbers that were given safe haven tended to be in the Midwest. There the farming community had been hit hard by the dust bowl and depression as such their nemesis became the banks that held the morgages and loans of the farmers. So robbers would destroy the documents to help the farmers and nuch like mao's peasant sea that guerillas could turn to the robbers could turn to the rural populace for support. (Until the tide turned in publicity and they were shown in a really bad light as mad dogs.)


As to today, I am afraid people don't learn from the past at all. Protectionism hurt us more than helped last time so the Buy American stimulus is repeating that mistake. Confidence in the future is what is lacking, spending money we did not have got us here and spending money we don't have won't get us out of it either. The last depression did not end because of spending, it ended because WWII drafted enough men into service that unemployment was not the problem, it went so far the other way that women were sought to fill jobs traditionally held by men.

 

[Widebrim]

***********

As to today, I am afraid people don't learn from the past at all. Protectionism hurt us more than helped last time so the Buy American stimulus is repeating that mistake. Confidence in the future is what is lacking, spending money we did not have got us here and spending money we don't have won't get us out of it either. The last depression did not end because of spending, it ended because WWII drafted enough men into service that unemployment was not the problem, it went so far the other way that women were sought to fill jobs traditionally held by men.

Regarding the end of the Great Depression, that is very true, John, and I've told others the same. As far as "Buy American" is concerned (if by that we mean supporting U.S. businesses by buying their products), that is a philosophy which was put into practice for many decades. A study of history shows that high tariffs was one of many reasons this country flourished economically for much of its existence. That's all I'm going to say, because I don't want to be accused of getting...political.

 

[Widebrim]

I think in tough economic times, like the depression years, folks generally (and often correctly) blame the government for their misfortunes. From that mindset, it is only a short step to embracing the cause of anyone---even that of a violent criminal---who defies and/or openly attacks the current establishment.

Without political comment, I must sadly report that I am seeing a touch of this phenomenon in our court system, now.

AF

So true, which is why my father, a farmboy in '30s Pennsylvannia, named his dog...Dillinger (who by the way was a good thief, at least when chickens were concerned).

 

[texasgirl]

This is some film footage that was taken directly before and after Dillinger and his gang came to Mason City, Iowa. The bank managers and clerks were all smiling and laughing. I think they thought it was quite something. I'm sure the fact that they got away with $52,000 eventually came into play. BTW, we will be reenacting this on Sept 19 at the exact location.

http://videos.globegazette.com/p/video?id=2195899

 

[John in Covina]

Regarding the end of the Great Depression, that is very true, John, and I've told others the same. As far as "Buy American" is concerned (if by that we mean supporting U.S. businesses by buying their products), that is a philosophy which was put into practice for many decades. A study of history shows that high tariffs was one of many reasons this country flourished economically for much of its existence. That's all I'm going to say, because I don't want to be accused of getting...political.

The problem with Buy American is the fact that it doesn't support Sell American overseas high tariffs begat trade wars and make our goods unsellable.

 

[Widebrim]

The problem with Buy American is the fact that it doesn't support Sell American overseas high tariffs begat trade wars and make our goods unsellable.

Well, if it doesn't support Sell American, then I suppose it is counter-productive.

 

[kuwisdelu]

This is some film footage that was taken directly before and after Dillinger and his gang came to Mason City, Iowa. The bank managers and clerks were all smiling and laughing. I think they thought it was quite something. I'm sure the fact that they got away with $52,000 eventually came into play. BTW, we will be reenacting this on Sept 19 at the exact location.

Aye, though he might have been the "bad guy," Dillinger was pretty well-liked. Sure he was a bank robber, but he wasn't the same cold-blooded psychopath as Baby Face Nelson (who really was). According to the Public Enemies biography, the time he killed a police officer while escaping after a bank job,
he was haunted by it for a long time afterward, and would deny he had killed anyone. Dillinger decided shortly after he began his bank robbing career that if he was going to be an outlaw, he would be the kind of outlaw people could look up to.

 

[thunderw21]

This is some film footage that was taken directly before and after Dillinger and his gang came to Mason City, Iowa. The bank managers and clerks were all smiling and laughing. I think they thought it was quite something. I'm sure the fact that they got away with $52,000 eventually came into play. BTW, we will be reenacting this on Sept 19 at the exact location.

http://videos.globegazette.com/p/video?id=2195899

They were all smiling and laughing because nothing ever happens in Iowa!

 

[Blackjack]

I loved the movie, went to see it last night. Although there are a few historical mistakes, I don't think it detracted from the movie one bit. Kudos to Johnny Depp and the whole crew on a fine job!!!

 

[Norumbega]

Just got back from this movie........and I liked it. I went seeking to be entertained, and had no preconceived notions or historically accurate expectations, so I didn't leave disappointed. Secondly, what a good film does, at least for me, is provoke discussion and further research.

I like Johnny Depp anyway so it wasn't hard to like him in this-----I could never be a film critic I'm afraid. I did note the Depp sunglasses and fedora influence, he is well documented for both.

One question this film did generate for me regarding the "public enemy" era of the 1930's is whether this was a uniquely American institution or did other countries have simlilar accounts of gangster activity during this time period with equally famous crime figures?

 

[DanielJones]

Saw it at the late show last night & rather enjoyed it. As said above I went into it seeking to be entertained nod educated. I know some of the history & I know they took several liberties with history, but as an entertainment piece I thought it was good. I do agree however with some of the thoughts on the cinematography, especially the footage at Little Bohemia, it had that made for tv/HBO camcorder feel to it & I think that had a lot to do with the lighting & not so much the filming. The director of photography, not the director seemed a little lacking in this one. But other than that distraction I enjoyed the experience & it is engaging enough for me to want to do more research on the subject & the phenomenon of that era.

I also agree about Christian Bale. Like my wife said after the film (she enjoyed it too), his mumbling put her off. And his accent coming & going really set her off on the character. I know a good southern accent is hard to affect, but if other english actors can do it with consistency why couldn't he? Maybe they needed to get him a better dialect coach?

Now down to the costumes (my favorite part). I want every outfit Depp had. Seeing some of those overcoats & suits made me yearn for winter. The summer outfits were good too, light & breezy. The proliferation of sunglasses were fantastic & his hats were something to covet to be sure. I especially like that unique boater that he wore in the end. It was different in the fact that it was soft, not stiff, as most are that I have seen & the edges of the crown were rounded instead of squared off. Now that one I would definitely want for a summer hat. :eusa_clap

Oh, and the ties. I only hope Magnoli can pour over this film and be able to recreate those lovely ties that were in this film. They would be well worth it.

So, all in all it was a good experience for me & I can't wait for the release of the DVD, I'm hoping for the director's cut as well.

Cheers!

Dan

 

[MrNewportCustom]

I saw it last night and I enjoyed the movie; probably because I didn't go for a history lesson. But I did notice a couple small gaffes: the FDIC sign in the bank, for instance.

Since I'm no expert on vintage clothing, no comments there. I do have one complaint, though, and it's based on a number of the few recent (non-animated) movies I've seen: Whatever happened to the StediCam? Was The Blair Witch Project really that iconic?

Purvis' mumbling didn't bother me; I heard him clearly. Besides, not everyone speaks stentoriously, thank goodness.


Lee
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