I went to see Public Enemies last weekend. It feels sort of weird how little Public Enemies seems to have been publicized here in the UK despite being touted as one of this summer’s biggest blockbusters in the US. When I went it had even been moved to the smallest viewing screen.

Maybe people just aren’t interested in old school gangster movies any more, which Public Enemies without a doubt is. Public Enemies stars Johnny Depp as the head poncho for the gangster side playing John Dillinger and Christian Bale as Melvin Purvis the main good guy working for J. Edgar Hoover in the FBI.

The movie itself is as I mentioned before a old school gangster flick with numerous bank robberies and other less legal events taking place while the good guys try to catch up to the bad guys. A main focus of the movie is placing it in a historically accurate setting where new standards are being initiated in forensic investigations by the FBI. The movie also stays close to reality in the story of John Dillinger and he is shown to be a fallible man who is in no way some kind of super gangster. Although famous, John Dillinger doesn’t pull of any kind of major heist in the film so it follows reality closely.

This movie does have a lot of action scenes and the gun fights alone will up the testosterone level in any room the movie is seen in (provided that there is at least one person with a y chromosome there). But the main focus of the film is not the violence but rather the characters, most specifically John Dillinger which Johnny Depp does a fair job of portraying (actually I think this is one of Johnny Depp’s worst performances I’ve seen, excluding Willy Wonka, but I think that was just because he has set his standard so high).

Anyway, go see this movie if you want a down to earth old school gangster flick with a bit too much character development for a blockbuster.

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