Public Enemies

[scotrace]

Ditto! And welcome, Mark.

Saw it again last night at the $2 second-run place. Liked the clothes even more, the film less.

 

[Mossyrock]

I took the day off for my birthday and caught it the second time in an early matinee....by myself in an empty theater! Being 1/2 way through reading the BOOK "Public Enemies" made me watch the film with a more historically critical eye. It also made me wonder if whoever wrote the script even bothered to read the book!

The jumpy camera action bugged me more the second time around.

Very well done on MOST of the clothes and hats. I didn't like the hat worn by Charles Winstead (Stephen Lang). It just seemed too fuzzy. The guns were EXCEPTIONALLY well done. It was like a homage to John Moses Browning! :eusa_clap Much of the casting was also exceptional....especially Giovanni Ribisi as Alvin Karpis! Looking at the pictures in the book, Karpis and Ribisi could be brothers!

But, even with all of that gushing praise, I was largely disappointed in the movie...ESPECIALLY for a Michael Mann film. I REALLY wanted to like this film...I REALLY did...but I left disappointed and feeling a little off both times. It was like there was SO much potential there that just wasn't used. Oh well...There is still "Miller's Crossing" and "Road to Perdition"....

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Saw it again last night at the $2 second-run place. Liked the clothes even more, the film less.

Scotrace, I'm going to lend you a DVD of Francis Coppola's The Cotton Club ... which has, in my opinion, the very best costuming, sets, lighting, props, music and golden era lingo of any modern film which takes place in the '20s-'30s.


Is it a great movie? No. Is it breathtakingly beautiful? Yes!



.

 

[Tomasso]

breathtakingly beautiful? Yes!

.

Yes, she is!

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Not to mention Richard Gere's splendid fedoras:

.

 

[Ghostsoldier]

Great first post Mark. And, welcome to the Lounge. If you get the chance please take pictures on one of your next excursions up there for a meal. Would love to see them.

Cheers!

Dan

Yes...especially of JD's bathroom at the lodge...I would like to see that!
Rob

 

[Magic Mark]

Great first post Mark. And, welcome to the Lounge. If you get the chance please take pictures on one of your next excursions up there for a meal. Would love to see them.

Cheers!

Dan

Thanks ... and I have pics but I am not sure how to post them. I think I need to store them somewhere online first.

There are also some new holes at Little Bohemia along one of the balconies from the filming. They started doing "Dillinger Tours" this weekend.

 

[John in Covina]

Thanks ... and I have pics but I am not sure how to post them. I think I need to store them somewhere online first.

There is a tutorial someplace.

But if you down load them to photobucket it will give 3 choices, in my set up, I copy and paste the bottom one on their site to the thread I am writing and it should go up.

 

[Levallois]

I better get a move on and see the movie for the second time in the theater. Me thinks it's fading fast.

Stephen Dorf as Homer Van Meter pointing a modified 351 Winchester during a bank job in Public Enemies:

 

[Magic Mark]

Little Bohemia

Here are a couple pics from Little Bohemia.

The one of the window are real bulletholes from the Dillinger-FBI shootout. The glass is protected by acrylic panels on each side. Bulletholes are also in the walls on the inside and out, and I would assume that the bullets are still lodged in the walls somewhere. There are several windows likes this, and even the chimney behind me shows signs of the fight.

It's my understanding that the balcony holes were not from the original shootout, but rather from the Hollywood filming of "Public Enemies." I guess they are both attractions for people, whether real or special effects.

Incidentally, Little Bohemia serves great food, too, overlooking a beautiful lake. Plus, you can drink in the bar that is in the film, see Dillinger's personal affects there were left behind, and see JD's bedroom (well, his bedroom for two days, anyway!)

 

[Forgotten Man]

Hold on to yer hats ya mugs!

Straight from the Underwood of yours truly, I give my thoughts and grips about the “Depp Depiction” of the times and life of bank heister John Dillinger!

The film maker Michael Mann “Mann-gled” this what could have been a fun and accurate look at the bank robber’s life but, with such obvious period film making “don’ts”… he did. Making one of the get away cars a post Dillinger ’36 model Chevy and also a few other post ’34 era cars throughout the film makes a blatantly obvious statement that the public who will watch this movie doesn’t know a hill of beans when it comes to accuracy to a period. They didn’t even make such mistakes in Bonny and Clyde staring Warren Beatty and Fay Dunaway.

I wanted to really enjoy the film but, then comes a scene where a radio is featured… nothing but 1936-39 Zenith’s and even a 1946 Philco floor model… Radios of the earlier 30s were very much different in design.

Mann did very little to build the story of John, it was just a typical Hollywood shoot’em up gangster pic. Johnny Depp was a good pick for Dillinger however, if Mann wasn’t directing this tragedy, then he may have been able to be more “Dillinger” then he was in this flicker.

A friend of mine was an extra on “Public Enemies” and said that Depp was the most kind and classiest actor on the set. He’d stay late to shake everyone’s hands as they left the set! EVERYONE! As for Mann, he blew up at extras and made an ass of him self… and Christian Bale is an arrogant worthless soul from what I was told.

The costuming in this film wasn’t as bad as it may have been. I enjoyed a few parts of this film but, the “Bye, Bye Black Bird” number was a joke… The music in this film was anything but fun for me. Great ’34 Buick coupe though, and the gun battles weren’t bad... Oh and they used nice telephones... I liked the telephones.

In the long and short of it, I’ll say that this film is a typical “Mann Matinee”… Not to be missed… but if you do, you’re not missing much.

 

[Ghostsoldier]

Thanks, Mark...those are great photos!
Rob

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Mann did very little to build the story of John, it was just a typical Hollywood shoot’em up gangster pic.

Yep.

.

 

[Wolfmanjack]

I have posted this pic on the Boater faction! thread, but I thought those here would like to see it as well.

This is a photo of Dillinger's boater and other personal effects found on his body after the shooting at the Biograph Theatre. The boater sure took a beating; so did the specs. Note the little round photo, that must be Billie. Quite touching.

 

[Benny Holiday]

They happened to have an Edward Hopper exhibit at the Art Institute right when we were here shooting and I spent a lot of time looking at Hopper?s paintings from the 1930s. There are a couple of images in the film that are a direct homage to Hopper, particularly when Dillinger goes and calls Billie on the pay phone after he breaks out of Crown Point jail, that's us trying to imitate Hopper. The grimness and how that impacts on a human being. That?s what I was trying imagine and trying to convey and build into the attitudes of all the characters.

Mann's comments on Melvin Purvis' FBI file are very telling.

http://myprops.org/content/People-John-Dillinger-scholar-of-crime-The-Michael-Mann-transcript/

Story, thanks a heap for posting this link. I saw the flick on Saturday night, and this interview helped me understand so much of where the director was coming from and what he was trying to say. My wife and friends and I really enjoyed the film, although some of the shaky camera work was distracting to the point of annoyance.

 

[Mr. 'H']

I wanted to really enjoy the film but, then comes a scene where a radio is featured… nothing but 1936-39 Zenith’s and even a 1946 Philco floor model… Radios of the earlier 30s were very much different in design.

One thing I didn't like was that the tube radio on Depp's bedside locker started playing immediately he turned it on.

This would not happed with a tube radio. I am referencing the tube sonomatic radio Ihave in my '41 Buick.

 

[Ghostsoldier]

I have posted this pic on the Boater faction! thread, but I thought those here would like to see it as well.

This is a photo of Dillinger's boater and other personal effects found on his body after the shooting at the Biograph Theatre. The boater sure took a beating; so did the specs. Note the little round photo, that must be Billie. Quite touching.

Thanks for the pic, Wolf. That's probably Polly Hamilton in the small photo.
Rob

 

[Wolfmanjack]

Thanks for the pic, Wolf. That's probably Polly Hamilton in the small photo.
Rob

Here is a photo of Evelyn "Billie" Frechette:

They look very similar.

 

[Wolfmanjack]

Ooops, I spoke too soon. You're right, Rob, the photo is Polly Hamilton. Here is an enlargement of the actual photo:

 

[Ghostsoldier]

Yeah...despite Michael Mann's romanticism, it seems the real John Dillinger was quite the ladies man, and didn't waste too many tears on Billie as she languished in the stir....
Rob