Public Enemies [DVD]

This film stars a wonderful Johnny Depp who pretty much carries the film for most of its near 2 1/2 hours. It is visually stunning (with a few caveats, of which more later) often compelling, but there seems to be something missing. A lack of "back-story" is not the problem as Depp makes clear in his own mini auto-biography delivered to Billie "What more do you need to know?". It seems to be a problem with tempo and the development of drama. There are too many shoot-outs, too much of a concentration of the scenes dealing with character in the early part of the film, and too little organisation of the order of scenes, leaving the viewer with a film that lurches from one thing to another rather than allowing a dramatic line to unfold.

Christian Bale as Melvin Purvis plays a rather dull character, and Billy Crudup (who "Watchmen" fans might recognise despite his failure here to turn blue and expose his genitals) was more engaging and watchable, for me. But there is no real sense of a dynamic, dramatic conflict between Purvis and Dillinger. Marion Cotillard is quite good as Billie, without conveying much of what is supposed to make her relationship with Dillinger work. It is a film with lots of great scenes, which don't add up to a great whole. Most viewers will surely empathise with Dillinger (the aspect that he is more hated by much worse criminals than by ordinary citizens no doubt helps) but since towards the end he doesn't seem that bothered about what happens to him, it becomes harder for the viewer to care.

On the BD side, this film was shot on HD cameras (apparently the 35mm scenes were tests and did not make it into the film). This makes for outrageously good visuals at times. Winstead bending down to the pavement in close-up, or in the interrogation room with Billie are about as good as HD gets. Almost hyper-real in the sense of depth, plasticity and three-dimensionality. When Mann wants it so, the film showcases the format with natural colours, sharpness and brilliance of image. But at times there is quite heavy filtration, mainly yellow for darker, indoor scenes. And despite the much-heralded grain-free guarantee from going all digital, some of the night scenes have very aggressive digital noise which is more unsightly than most grainy night-time scenes I have recently seen. Audio quality, as another reviewer mentions, is a mixed bag. The soundtrack is 5.1 DTS HD Master Audio - DTS HD here appears to stand for Dialogue Towards Silence Hail-of-bullets Deafening. Every shotgun shell here would do duty for a nuclear explosion in many other films, while the dialogue is far too quiet. I was constantly adjusting volume, which was very annoying.

What remains is an entertaining but imperfect film which has a hollowness, the sense that something is missing and this prevents the film from being as great as Depp's performance deserves. As a BD the sound issue is annoying, but the picture quality is very good, bearing in mind the few caveats above. Worth a look, but don't put it top of your list.

An enjoyable gangster flick with a good cast, Mann's latest effort is however no Goodfellas (or even Heat for that matter). We do get wonderful, believable performances from all, although Christian Bale's hotshot FBI agent far outshines Depp's Dillinger in my humble opinion. Stephen Lane also excels as Bale's quiet, cold as ice, hard as nails, second in command (with a heart of gold too it seems by the end of the film). It was also nice to see Stephen Graham make good use of his perfectly cast role as Baby Face Nelson. In general, I believe this movie certainly has enough weight and quality to reward repeated viewings.

However, I don't like the digital video process Mann has used in some scenes, and think they clash rather severely with the standard film stock shots (particularly in the nighttime shootout in the forest - an action packed highlight). They lack the warmth of 35mm, and any bright light sources seem to burn unpleasantly across the screen whenever digital video is used. I have a feeling that we'll just have to get used to it, as we have done for CGI effects - another step back in movie making IMO.

Blu-ray presentation is strong; image quality is excellent with superb detail, although a little inconsistent (grain level can change from shot to shot, and not just because of switching from video to film stock either). Colours are well defined, although (deliberately) muted and slightly sepia toned. Sound quality is hit and miss; dialogue is clear, but the surround treatment lacks a sense of space. Bass extension is also a little disappointing; the horse race scene almost promises to bring the thundering of hooves into the living room, but doesn't quite deliver. Gunfire however, does have a realistic crack and pop in the action scenes.

I found the disk took AGES to load into my Sony player - the longest I have ever experienced. Subtitles (of which there is a good choice), cleverly appeared at the side of the screen where the dialogue (or sound descriptions) were coming from, this must have taken some care and deserves credit. Mann's commentary is also worth a brief mention, although he seems to dote too much on the historic facts of the story rather than his film-making. Ironic, as there are many important factual errors in this telling of the tale. Whatever, he has plenty to say and most of it is interesting - there are no embarrassing silences either for a change.

I don't know what it is that's missing from this film but there's definitely something, Johnny Depp's pretty good, Christian Bale does his stock U.S. accent and Michael Mann could've left 15 minutes on the cutting room floor but what is actually missing, I'm not too sure.
If you want to watch something about this era of gangster, I'd recommend De Niro and Costner in The Untouchables or go right back to James Cagney but Public Enemies is a bit of a so what film.