Public Enemies

Director: Michael Mann (Heat, Collateral, Manhunter)

Screenwriters: Michael Mann (Heat, Miami Vice), Ronan Bennett, Ann Biderman (Primal Fear); Book: Bryan Burrough, Public Enemies: America‘s Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-34

Cast: Johnny Depp (Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy), Christian Bale (The Dark Knight), Billy Crudup (Big Fish, Mission: Impossible 3), Marion Cotillard (La vie en Rose)

Length: 2h 20m

Synopsis: The year is 1933. Long time criminal John Dillinger (Depp), after escaping from prison following years of incarceration, sets out to become one of the most famous bank robbers in American history. Aided by a team of cunning crooks he enjoys success in his illegal endeavors, falls in love with a coat check girl named Billie (Cotillard), and due to his achievements inadvertently helps propel J. Edgar Hoover’s (Crudup) efforts to federalize the Bureau of Investigations. The Bureau’s main task force, headed by ex-policeman Melvin Purvis (Bale), gets hot on Dillinger’s trail but suffers embarrassing failures as the criminal continually slips through their fingers. Read the rest of this entry »