Public Enemies (Two-Disc Special Edition)

Public Enemies (2-Disc Special Edition)

Studio: Universal Studios Home Entertainment

US DVD Release Date: December 8, 2009

Theatrical Release Year: 2009

Rated: R (for gangster violence and some language)

Running Time: 140 minutes

Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1 anamorphic widescreen

Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1 (English, Spanish, French), Dolby Digital 2.0 (English DVS)

Subtitles: English (SDH), Spanish, French

Movie: 2.5 out of 5

Michael Mann has made a name for himself directing crime dramas (Thief, Manhunter, Heat, Collateral) and biographical dramas (The Insider, Ali), and with Public Enemies he tries to meld those two genres together to tell the story of noted gangster John Dillinger (played by Johnny Depp) and his capture by a team of FBI agents lead by Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale). Rounding out the cast, Marion Cotillard as Dillinger's love interest Billie Frechette, Stephen Dorff as Homer Van Meter, Billy Crudup as J. Edgar Hoover, Giovanni Ribisi as Alvin Karpis, and Stephen Lang as Charles Winstead, the agent who shot down Dillinger.

The film opens in 1933, with Dillinger breaking members of his gang out of the Indiana State Prison, culminating in a gunfight and eventual escape. Shortly afterwards, agent Melvin Purvis is promoted to head up the Chicago office of the FBI after capturing (and eventually killing) Pretty Boy Floyd. One would expect that the next two hours would be an exciting, riveting cat and mouse game as Purvis tries to hunt down and capture Dillinger. What follows is a pretty standard crime drama, with action set pieces that come off like actors getting to play cops and robbers with 1930s era replica guns.

Depp is okay, but he doesn't really bring anything special to the role of Dillinger. It is a fairly straight-forward performance. Much of the same can be said of Christian Bale's performance as Purvis. Neither roles are very memorable. The standout, though, was Billy Crudup as J. Edgar Hoover. He brought a lot of fun to the role, and is one of the few memorable characters from the film. I'm a bit disappointed that Michael Mann was able to make a film about legendary gangsters so uninteresting.

Video: 2.5 out of 5

Shot with high definition video and Super35mm, the 2.40:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer is a mixed bag. At times, details are quite good, but during many of the darker sequences in the film, much of everything pretty much gets lost in the shadows. At first, I thought my display had become miscalibrated. Ten minutes into the film, I ejected the DVD and ran my Digital Video Essentials HD Basics Blu-ray disc, and found everything on my display was set correctly. I continued viewing Public Enemies at this point, and have to agree with colleague Kevin Koster in his Blu-ray review that the digital intermediate and source material are likely to blame for the issues associated with this transfer. Also, much of the film appears to have been shot hand-held with natural or existing light, which adds to the abundance of noise in some shots.

Audio: 2.5 out of 5

The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, encoded at 448 kbps, is also a mixed bag. When J. Edgar Hoover responds to Melvin Purvis during a phone call “I can't hear you,” that sums up how I felt regarding the inconsistent dialogue levels. I assume very little of this film was ADR'd, if at all, as dialogue levels can fluctuate drastically within a scene, as if the person operating the boom mike on set was not fast enough to keep up with the actors. The gunshots used in the film have a more realistic sound, so don't expect much LFE action during the shootouts, but it does kick in occasionally when appropriate.

Special Features: 3 out of 5

The Special Features are spread over two discs.

Disc One:

Audio Commentary by Director Michael Mann: Mann discusses the choices of shooting on high definition or film, casting choices, production design, what intrigued him about Dillinger and Purvis, and other items related to the production of the film. I found the commentary, at times, more interesting that the film itself.

Larger Than Life: Adversaries (10:21): Michael Mann, Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, and Alston Purvis (son of Melvin Purvis) discuss some of the history behind the two main characters in the film.

Disc Two:

Michael Mann: Making Public Enemies (20.32): Mann, along with the cast and crew, discuss making a period gangster film in 2008/2009, the importance of costume and production design, and the research involved in making this film.

Last of the Legendary Outlaws (8:45): This featurette begins with a brief history of legendary outlaws, then goes into detail why Dillinger was such a legendary “outlaw hero” in his time, through newsreel archive footage and interviews with Public Enemies novelist Bryan Burrough, director Michael Mann, technical advisor Jerry Scalise, actors Jason Clarke, Stephen Lang, Marion Cotillard, Johnny Depp, and Christian Bale.

On Dillinger's Trail: The Real Locations (9:49): This featurette covers some of the sequences that were filmed in the actual locations where they took place, and how the film crew restored some of those locations.

Criminal Terminology (9:41): The cast and crew discuss the various guns and cars used in the film.

Digital Copy: On the DVD-Rom portion of the disc are copies of the film compatible with both iTunes and Windows Media Player, and can be transferred to your portable device.

Overall: 2.5 out of 5

Public Enemies is, perhaps, one of Michael Mann's weakest films, marred by a distracting video and audio transfer, with Special Features that I found to be more interesting than the film itself.