Public Enemies

    Public Enemies
    2009

    Synopsis

    Depression-era bank robber John Dillinger's charm and audacity endear him to much of America's downtrodden public, but he's also a thorn in the side of J. Edgar Hoover and the fledgling FBI. Desperate to capture the elusive outlaw, Hoover makes Dillinger his first Public Enemy Number One and assigns his top agent, Melvin Purvis, the task of bringing him in dead or alive.

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    Cast

    • Johnny DeppJohn Dillinger
    • Christian BaleMelvin Purvis
    • Marion CotillardBillie Frechette
    • Jason ClarkeJohn 'Red' Hamilton
    • Rory CochraneAgent Carter Baum
    • Billy CrudupJ. Edgar Hoover
    • Stephen DorffHomer Van Meter
    • Stephen LangCharles Winstead
    • John OrtizPhil D'Andrea
    • Giovanni RibisiAlvin Karpis

    Recommendations

    • 100

      Empire

      Intelligent and challenging: Mann's crime epic could take two viewings to fully absorb, but it's worth every devoted minute.
    • 88

      Chicago Sun-Times

      This is a very good film, with Depp and Bale performances of brutal clarity. I'm trying to understand why it is not quite a great film. I think it may be because it deprives me of some stubborn need for closure.
    • 88

      Miami Herald

      Michael Mann's extraordinary Public Enemies is an unusual sort of gangster picture, a near-impressionistic recreation of the last year in the life of one of American history's most notorious bank robbers.
    • 88

      Rolling Stone

      Public Enemies comes at you like Dillinger did: all of a sudden. It's movie dynamite.
    • 75

      Chicago Tribune

      It's a fascinating bundle of contradictions -- authentic in a million details, deeply romanticized in others. Cool, calm and collected, this is more love story than gangster picture.
    • 60

      The New Yorker

      Yet, for all its skill, Public Enemies is not quite a great movie. There’s something missing--a sense of urgency and discovery, a more complicated narrative path, a shrewder, tougher sense of who John Dillinger is.
    • 50

      The Hollywood Reporter

      The film lacks the juice promised by the teaming of such extraordinary filmmakers with a cast as large as a Hooverville encampment.
    • 50

      Variety

      Oddly, too, the film is somewhat shortchanged by its great star, Johnny Depp, who disappointingly has chosen to play Dillinger as self-consciously cool rather than earthy and gregarious.

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