He was a bank robber, right?

This weekend I saw Public Enemies…And that is pretty much all I have to say about it.

The movie has left such a small impression on me that I can barely recall the happenings of the film. The movie was just long and drawn out with a mish-mash of people, places, and words but not much of a story to follow.

Public Enemies is about John Dillinger. He was a bank robber. And that is what the movie tells you. There is no introduction to anyone in the movie. You are dropped in the middle of the film with a daring prison breakout and you are left to put the pieces together. There is yelling and names are thrown around but most of the time you don’t know who is being spoken to or what is really happening.

It continues on as if it is a story that everyone is acquainted with. If I had just walked out of a history class I may have had some inkling of what was happening. But most people, like myself, just walked in unprepared looking to see an interesting film about this “legendary” man. But because for most of the movie I was lost I simply lost interest. It is not that the movie is confusing it is just that you have no point of reference.

I stuck it out for the full 140 minutes hoping that there would be some development but there were barely any changes. There was no character growth or change throughout the movie to warrant its length. From what I gathered John Dillinger was a stubborn man and this movie shows his unchanging attitudes to what was happening around him. His friends were dropping like flies and his girl was in prison because of him but he was the same man.

I have no idea if Public Enemies is an accurate depiction of what actually happened but I can say what was shown was not compelling or thrilling. The actors seemed too busy concentrating on their mannerisms and accents to actually act and the director seemed to worry too much about style than story. I wasn’t impressed by any of it. And that is disappointing because I am a fan of Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, and Michael Mann.

I can’t recommend this movie. If you are a history buff and you already know about what happened in this time then you may like it or still rip it apart because of it’s inaccuracies but other than that I see no point in it. It is the kind of movie you have on in the back ground while you do chores at home.

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