Release CalendarDVD & Blu-ray ReleasesTop 250 MoviesMost Popular MoviesBrowse Movies by GenreTop Box OfficeShowtimes & TicketsIn TheatersComing SoonMovie NewsIndia Movie Spotlight
    What's on TV & StreamingTop 250 TV ShowsMost Popular TV ShowsBrowse TV Shows by GenreTV NewsIndia TV Spotlight
    What to WatchLatest TrailersIMDb OriginalsIMDb PicksIMDb Podcasts
    OscarsBest Picture WinnersBest Picture WinnersEmmysAPA Heritage MonthSTARmeter AwardsSan Diego Comic-ConNew York Comic-ConSundance Film FestivalToronto Int'l Film FestivalAwards CentralFestival CentralAll Events
    Born TodayMost Popular CelebsMost Popular CelebsCelebrity News
    Help CenterContributor ZonePolls
For Industry Professionals
  • All
  • Titles
  • TV Episodes
  • Celebs
  • Companies
  • Keywords
  • Advanced Search
Watchlist
Sign In
  • Fully supported
  • English (United States)
    Partially supported
  • Français (Canada)
  • Français (France)
  • Deutsch (Deutschland)
  • हिंदी (भारत)
  • Italiano (Italia)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Español (España)
  • Español (México)

Public Enemies

  • 20092009
  • RR
  • 2h 20m
IMDb RATING
7.0/10
298K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
349
13
  • Cast & crew
  • User reviews
  • Trivia
  • IMDbPro
Johnny Depp in Public Enemies (2009)
FBI agent Melvin Purvis (Bale) sets his sights on American gangster John Dillinger (Depp) and others in an attempt to curb a rampant Chicago crime spree during the 1930s.
Play trailer2:33
6 Videos
99+ Photos
  • Action
  • Biography
  • Crime

The Feds try to take down notorious American gangsters John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson and Pretty Boy Floyd during a booming crime wave in the 1930s.The Feds try to take down notorious American gangsters John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson and Pretty Boy Floyd during a booming crime wave in the 1930s.The Feds try to take down notorious American gangsters John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson and Pretty Boy Floyd during a booming crime wave in the 1930s.

IMDb RATING
7.0/10
298K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
349
13
  • Director
    • Michael Mann
  • Writers
    • Ronan Bennett(screenplay)
    • Michael Mann(screenplay)
    • Ann Biderman(screenplay)
  • Stars
    • Christian Bale
    • Johnny Depp
    • Christian Stolte
Top credits
  • Director
    • Michael Mann
  • Writers
    • Ronan Bennett(screenplay)
    • Michael Mann(screenplay)
    • Ann Biderman(screenplay)
  • Stars
    • Christian Bale
    • Johnny Depp
    • Christian Stolte
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 678User reviews
    • 359Critic reviews
    • 70Metascore
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 1 win & 14 nominations

    Videos6

    Public Enemies
    Trailer 2:33
    Public Enemies
    Public Enemies: Crime Technology
    Featurette 2:23
    Public Enemies: Crime Technology
    Public Enemies: Character profiles
    Featurette 3:04
    Public Enemies: Character profiles
    Public Enemies: Actual locations
    Featurette 2:40
    Public Enemies: Actual locations
    Public Enemies: London Premiere
    Interview 3:39
    Public Enemies: London Premiere
    Public Enemies: Press Conference
    Promo 3:05
    Public Enemies: Press Conference

    Photos225

    Marion Cotillard in Public Enemies (2009)
    Johnny Depp in Public Enemies (2009)
    Johnny Depp in Public Enemies (2009)
    Johnny Depp in Public Enemies (2009)
    Johnny Depp and Christian Bale in Public Enemies (2009)
    Michael Mann in Public Enemies (2009)
    Johnny Depp in Public Enemies (2009)
    Johnny Depp in Public Enemies (2009)
    Christian Bale in Public Enemies (2009)
    Billy Crudup in Public Enemies (2009)
    Christian Bale and Billy Crudup in Public Enemies (2009)
    Michael Mann in Public Enemies (2009)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Christian Bale
    Christian Bale
    • Melvin Purvisas Melvin Purvis
    Johnny Depp
    Johnny Depp
    • John Dillingeras John Dillinger
    Christian Stolte
    Christian Stolte
    • Charles Makleyas Charles Makley
    Jason Clarke
    Jason Clarke
    • 'Red' Hamiltonas 'Red' Hamilton
    Stephen Graham
    Stephen Graham
    • Baby Face Nelsonas Baby Face Nelson
    David Wenham
    David Wenham
    • Harry 'Pete' Pierpontas Harry 'Pete' Pierpont
    John Judd
    John Judd
    • Turnkeyas Turnkey
    Stephen Dorff
    Stephen Dorff
    • Homer Van Meteras Homer Van Meter
    Michael Vieau
    • Ed Shouseas Ed Shouse
    John Kishline
    • Guard Dainardas Guard Dainard
    Carey Mulligan
    Carey Mulligan
    • Carol Slaymanas Carol Slayman
    James Russo
    James Russo
    • Walter Dietrichas Walter Dietrich
    Giovanni Ribisi
    Giovanni Ribisi
    • Alvin Karpisas Alvin Karpis
    Wesley Walker
    Wesley Walker
    • Jim Leslieas Jim Leslie
    John Scherp
    • Earl Adamsas Earl Adams
    Elena Kenney
    • Viola Norrisas Viola Norris
    William Nero Jr.
    • Toddler on Farmas Toddler on Farm
    Channing Tatum
    Channing Tatum
    • Pretty Boy Floydas Pretty Boy Floyd
    • Director
      • Michael Mann
    • Writers
      • Ronan Bennett(screenplay)
      • Michael Mann(screenplay)
      • Ann Biderman(screenplay)
    • All cast & crew
    • See more cast details at IMDbPro

    More like this

    Black Mass
    6.9
    Black Mass
    Donnie Brasco
    7.7
    Donnie Brasco
    Blow
    7.5
    Blow
    The Lone Ranger
    6.4
    The Lone Ranger
    The Tourist
    6.0
    The Tourist
    Secret Window
    6.5
    Secret Window
    From Hell
    6.8
    From Hell
    Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
    7.3
    Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
    Transcendence
    6.2
    Transcendence
    The Fighter
    7.8
    The Fighter
    Lucky Them
    6.1
    Lucky Them
    American Gangster
    7.8
    American Gangster

    Storyline

    Edit
    The difficult 1930s is a time of robbers who knock over banks and other rich targets with alarming frequency. Of them, none is more notorious than John Dillinger, whose gang plies its trade with cunning efficiency against big businesses while leaving ordinary citizens alone. As Dillinger becomes a folk hero, FBI head J. Edger Hoover is determined to stop his ilk by assigning ace agent Melvin Purvis to hunt down Dillinger. As Purvis struggles with the manhunt's realities, Dillinger himself faces an ominous future with the loss of friends, dwindling options and a changing world of organized crime with no room for him. —Kenneth Chisholm (kchishol@rogers.com)
    • celebrity criminal
    • manhunt
    • great depression
    • ends with biographical notes
    • mafia
    • 306 more
    • Plot summary
    • Plot synopsis
    • Taglines
      • America's Most Wanted
    • Genres
      • Action
      • Biography
      • Crime
      • Drama
      • History
    • Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)
      • Rated R for gangster violence and some language
    • Parents guide

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Although Billie Frechette was never given a "third degree" interrogation by the FBI, as shown in the movie, the FBI agents did, in fact, perform similar tactics on Helen Nelson (the wife of Baby Face Nelson), Alvin Karpis, and a John Dillinger associate in Chicago named James Probasco. In the instance of Probasco, he ended up falling to his death from a upper-floor window. Offically, it is believed he committed suicide in order to avoid further interrogation. However, some historians believe that the FBI agents interrogating Probasco attempted to make him talk by hanging him out of a window, and that they lost their grip on him.
    • Goofs
      The Billie Holiday songs heard on the radio were not recorded until the late thirties, long after John Dillinger's death. She had recorded only two songs before the time of the film, Your Mother's Son-in-law and Riffin' the Scotch, neither of which are heard in it. (When Dillinger died in July 1934 Holiday was a little-known cabaret singer in New York, so it's unlikely a live show of hers would have been broadcast anywhere, let alone as far from her home base as Chicago.)
    • Quotes

      John Dillinger: I was raised on a farm in Moooresville, Indiana. My mama died when I was three, my daddy beat the hell out of me cause he didn't know no better way to raise me. I like baseball, movies, good clothes, fast cars, whiskey, and you... what else you need to know?

    • Crazy credits
      The title of the movie is not shown until the end credits.
    • Connections
      Edited into The Rotten Tomatoes Show: Watchmen/Shuttle/12 (2009)
    • Soundtracks
      Guide Me O Thou Great Jehovah
      Sung by members of the Indian Bottom Association Old Regular Baptists

      Courtesy of Smithsonian Folkways Recordings

    User reviews678

    Review
    Top review
    8/10
    The devil is in the details
    It's as hard to get a grip on Mann's impressive but vaguely off-putting new movie about John Dillinger's last thirteen months as it is to project yourself into the coldly beautiful digital images. The title itself provides a clue to the problem: it doesn't focus on the star criminal embodied by the charismatic and -- here -- coolly dashing Johnny Depp, whose quips and provocations in the trailer draw us into the theater to see him, only him, and his bold exploits. It points instead to the wider focus of Mann's book source -- 'Vanity Fair' writer Bryan Burroughs' 600 pages of meticulous research, 'Public Enemies: America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-34.' Relentless G-man Purvis (a convincing but bloodless Christian Bale) and his rising boss FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover (Billy Crudup, both droll and period) are part of another story as important as the bank robber's final wide ride, the story of the growing cruelty and relentlessness of the forces of American law.

    Look at another title of a movie about a doomed but spectacular crime spree: Arthur Penn's 'Bonnie and Clyde.' That 1967 classic works so well because it's character-driven. Even in the sketchy but powerful scenes that outline John Dillinger's romance with French-Native American hatcheck girl Billie Frechette (Marion Cottillard, working wonders with limited material), character is subsidiary to function: "I rob banks," Johnny says. And then: "What else you need to know?" Well, quite a lot, actually, for a rounded character to emerge. Mann's movie is meticulous as to period look, to facade, but not to essence. Its street scenes are full of detail, its clothes immaculate and accurate. Taking place in 1933-34, however, it provides too few overt signs of the Great Depression. The film is also misleading in showing the Dillinger gang only robbing grand, marble-hall-and-column banks, when in fact they mostly robbed small and middling sized ones.

    The overall result is a collection of contradictions. There is romance, but the effect isn't romantic. There's precise realism, but the overall effect isn't realistic. Perhaps the only unmitigated pleasure that remains is the images, the digital with its cold precision, its crisp edges even when many of the cameras are jiggly and hand-held, the depth of detail in darkness, the color that is neither bright nor faded, the sheer satisfying crispness of everything and everybody. And in this one aspect, a sublimely heightened vérité whose look is something quite new, 'Public Enemies' matches 'Bonnie and Clyde:' it makes us feel we're seeing period scenes with contemporary eyes. The best and most memorable images are the complex ones you won't see in stills where many actors are running back and forth in front of the camera, the gunshots are popping realistically in every direction, and there is no hint of the usual film chiaroscuro or highlighting, but the light is somehow beautiful. The cameras move too much, but they do rub your face in the action. What's gong on you may figure out later.

    Maybe you can't avoid mythologizing when you shoot a movie about a famous Thirties bank robber and shouldn't try to, but Mann does. He's working, with great accomplishment, from that meticulous historical account, involving dozens of players on both the cop and the crook sides. Dillinger (and alternatively the totally unappealing Purvis) stay in the foreground. But there too is a contradiction, because the way Depp plays his part, witty, cold, and focused rather than warm and down-to-earth, his character ends up being impressive, but ultimately absent. (Contrast Warren Beatty's impotence and blinking charm as Clyde Barrow, an absence you yet want to cuddle.) Even when the characters are strong in Public Enemies, they don't get enough chance to interact. Dillinger is rarely with Frechette. His chance to confront Purivs is too brief, the moment when Purvis tells him he's to be extradited to Indiana and he quips, "There's absolutely nothing I want to do in Indiana." He's not facing off Purvis; he's playing to the audience.

    This should have been one of the showpieces of the season, and it is indeed a blockbuster with class in a world of junk. Its virtuoso look and complexly orchestrated scenes will hold up with time, but despite a freshness in approaching familiar genre material, it's missing that certain 'je ne sais quoi.' Even though it's different, it lacks style, movie-making panache, playfulness, suspense, the ability to push a climax, the capacity to take a breather so the momentum builds up again. There's an impressive twittering machine functioning here on all its Ford V8 cylinders. But the light touch is missing, the capacity to make you say "Yeah!", to simultaneously stand apart and admire while utterly caught up in it all.
    helpful•47
    19
    • Chris Knipp
    • Jul 5, 2009

    FAQ6

    • Is "Public Enemies" based on a book?
    • When does Public Enemies take place?
    • Who was the guy that was always with J. Edgar Hoover?

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • July 1, 2009 (United States)
    • Countries of origin
      • United States
      • Japan
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Xalq dushmanlari
    • Filming locations
      • Oshkosh, Wisconsin, USA
    • Production companies
      • Universal Pictures
      • Relativity Media
      • Forward Pass
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • $100,000,000 (estimated)
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $97,104,620
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $25,271,675
      • Jul 5, 2009
    • Gross worldwide
      • $214,104,620
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      2 hours 20 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
      • Black and White
    • Sound mix
      • SDDS
      • Dolby Digital
      • DTS
    • Aspect ratio
      • 2.35 : 1

    Related news

    Michael Mann Didn't Want Public Enemies To Be Just Another Period Piece
    Michael Mann Didn't Want Public Enemies To Be Just Another Period Piece
    Apr 20Slash Film
    Tokyo Vice is a Michael Mann Throwback
    Tokyo Vice is a Michael Mann Throwback
    Apr 7Den of Geek

    Contribute to this page

    Suggest an edit or add missing content
    • IMDb Answers: Help fill gaps in our data
    • Learn more about contributing
    Edit page

    More to explore

    View list
    List
    The 10 Most Anticipated Marvel and DC Movies
    See the full list
    Image caption not available
    2:14
    The Most Anticipated Movies and Shows to Watch in May
    Watch the video

    Recently viewed

    Please enable browser cookies to use this feature. Learn more.
    Get the IMDb App
    • Get the IMDb App
    • Help
    • Site Index
    • IMDbPro
    • Box Office Mojo
    • IMDb Developer
    • Press Room
    • Advertising
    • Jobs
    • Conditions of Use
    • Privacy Policy
    • Interest-Based Ads

    © 1990-2022 by IMDb.com, Inc.