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How Public Enemies Kills Its Gangsters
Nothing messy is attempted, meaning anything that would lead us away from a one-dimensional vision of the robbers and the cops. Dillinger is the country boy gone wrong, and Hoover is another prissy remake of Captain Bligh as delivered by Charles Laughton. In fact, the robber was quite charismatic, but he also had racist tendencies that were not as severe as Hoover’s but right in there. Dillinger explained to his younger brother the threatening actions of a black prisoner with whom he made his most famous jailbreak by saying, as Burrough records in Public Enemies, “You know how a nigger is.” Yikes: Not Johnny, too. He may have been more like the racist and terrorist the real Jesse James was than we would ever suspect.
Hoover, of course, is now considered a repressed homosexual, which might explain why only white men, preferentially bachelors, were hired by the bureau. No other types needed apply. Perhaps the crime fighter could then have more pleasant fantasies about the boys in the federal law-and-order band. Burrough also documents Hoover’s brilliant organization of resources, technology, manipulation of media, and the director’s willingness to encourage his agents to kidnap and brutalize anyone suspected of withholding information.
But Burrough also impressively details the shifting careers of those federal employees working under Hoover. They were happy to have a bureaucratic job during the Depression, but were not quite ready for what they would have to do under the pressure of murderous conflict with serious criminals. Before they knew it, those employees were turned into men trained to stop pushing pencils and serving summons in favor of learning to shoot pistols, shotguns, and machine guns. Once they had shifted form, Hoover had them, and they soon had the bad guys in place on marble morgue tables.
Hoover was a small and short man who never met a camera that he did not like. He also worked the seat off his pants, was forever a natty dresser, lived with his mother until she croaked, and would have given totalitarianism a worse name had the man come to power under Lenin, Hitler, Stalin, or Mao.
Michael Mann chose not to do much with what he had in compelling and thoroughly exciting narrative examples from the very beginning of Public Enemies to the end. Every person depicted in the film was far, far more interesting or terrifying or something else altogether than what we see on the screen. Yet what he did is right in the tradition, all the way in the tradition.
Part of our American story is how badly we handle our natural resources and Mann is one who does not appreciate the resource of natural actors as fine as his international cast, who were chosen not to work against type, but against humanity itself.
Stanley Crouch's culture pieces have appeared in Harper's, The New York Times, Vogue, Downbeat, The New Yorker, and more. He has served as artistic consultant for jazz programming at Lincoln Center since 1987, and is a founder Jazz at Lincoln Center. In June 2006 his first major collection of jazz criticism, Considering Genius: Jazz Writings, was published. He is presently completing a book about the Barack Obama presidential campaign.
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Stanley Crouch's culture pieces have appeared in Harper's, The New York Times, Vogue, Downbeat, The New Yorker, and more. He has served as artistic consultant for jazz programming at Lincoln Center since 1987, and is a founder of Jazz at Lincoln Center. In June 2006 his first major collection of jazz criticism, Considering Genius: Jazz Writings, was published. He is presently completing a book about the Barack Obama presidential campaign.
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Stanley Crouch's culture pieces have appeared in Harper's, The New York Times, Vogue, Downbeat, The New Yorker, and more. He has served as artistic consultant for jazz programming at Lincoln Center since 1987, and is a founder of Jazz at Lincoln Center. In June 2006 his first major collection of jazz criticism, Considering Genius: Jazz Writings, was published. He is presently completing a book about the Barack Obama presidential campaign.
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Stanley Crouch's culture pieces have appeared in Harper's, The New York Times, Vogue, Downbeat, The New Yorker, and more. He has served as artistic consultant for jazz programming at Lincoln Center since 1987, and is a founder of Jazz at Lincoln Center. In June 2006 his first major collection of jazz criticism, Considering Genius: Jazz Writings, was published. He is presently completing a book about the Barack Obama presidential campaign.
Still looking forward to seeing it.
Mr. Crouch - This would hardly be the first time that the depth and richness of an author's words (be they fiction or non-fiction) were not successfully translated by a director to the screen. It is unfortunate, but true, that very often a film will lead a viewer to the original book source rather than the other way around, but this is as much the fault of the culture at large as it is the power of film over text.
I would have to imagine, Sir, that almost ALL gangsters, and most American populations, harbored racist attitudes in the days of the Depression PARTICULARLY because of the severity of the economic climate (the current manifestation of that racism is the 'war on immigration').Your admonishment of Mr. Mann for not including this character tidbit seems somewhat racist on the face of it, as does your comment about the 1930s FBI not hiring black agents - hello, it was the 1930s!
And..."Hoover, of course, is now considered a repressed homosexual..." - Mr. Crouch, Mr.Hoover is now KNOWN to have been homosexual, PERIOD. The 'repression' of his homosexuality was, like the racism of the times, a product of the times.
What's your REAL beef, Mr . Crouch? It appears to be with Mr. Mann, and it seems to be personal. Your film criticism suffers greatly at this 'reveal'.
I thoroughly agreed with this article; Michael Mann really dropped the ball on this film. I really wanted to enjoy this film. It is an interesting story and they had very good actors lined up to portray the interesting characters (Depp, Bale, Cotillard, Crudup). Those actors did deliver on their performances but Mann wasted those performances by presenting a very dry, long motion picture.
Mr. Crouch is correct in stating that Mann did not take advantage of the complexity of the people involved as described in Burroughs' Book. Had he done so, audiences would have been much more interested in the story. Instead, Mr. Mann chooses to focus on the simple story of a famous bank robber that was finally shot leaving a theater showing a gangster movie.
When I watched this movie I can honestly tell you that one of my favorite parts was when the credits finally rolled up.
This movie has to be good, it's got Johnny Depp looking fabulous.
This movie is 2 1/2 hours and doesn't pad any of the numerous gunfight scenes with dynamo action. The movie isn't fluff. It's almost boring. Not to mention I don't believe I've ever seen a gangster pic with no explosions.
Michael Mann is one of the best filmmakers alive. And, while I think Heat, Collateral, and Miami Vice were better than his newest I still very much enjoyed the way that Public Enemies crystallized the last great bank robber with the rise of federal investigation.
I agree that the movie was a bit flat inspite of the fine performances of Depp and others. However, the fine filmaking, set design and sweeping musucal score build a realistic picture of the times that Dillinger operated in. You actually feel that you are an observer in this saga. It left me wanting more of Depp. Go see it. It is worth the time and money.
While I like a good old shoot em up, and like to see Depp flex his talent, as a gang abatement specialist, recently horrified to find out how bad it is not only with the up to 54% in one state and close in others drop out rates, but in the schools with the "good" kids as well, I would like to see film makers and stars find something to inspire these kids besides their low self esteem and anger being fueled by such offerings to go out and be foolish. Most end up dead or in jail, but take a lot of innocent people along with them, ruin their own lives and those of their children. Large numbers of them have "gangsta" wanna be parents rotting in cemetaries and prisons.
There must be a great movie script out there somewhere to help young people address the reality of our own time and their own need to be the super heroes of our own communities, schools and families.
Mr. Crouch, there is no other way to put this; You are full of yourself.
After readling the review in the New York Times, I was really looking forward to it. Boy was I dsappointed. It was flat and there was no nuance or anything that made it memorable.
Thank you.
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