The first few minutes Michael Mann shows again his tendency to rip himself off – not only is there some music from Heat, there's a reprise of a criminal heist which nearly goes wrong due to the idiocy of a crim who later in the movie turns up to cause hassle to the professional crims.
But this filn's got plenty of style and some very good actors; two support players were especially impressive, Aussie Jason Clarke (great face and very sympathetic) and Stephen Lang who plays the bad-ass FBI agent. Enjoyable period detail.
It still uses Hollywood conventions – the professionalism and humaneness of Dillinger is contrasted with the psychoticness of Baby Face Nelson and the ruthless of the Mob and the cops (thereby making him for sympathetic); before he dies Dillinger wants to do “one last job” (something which even Mann admits in his interviews was not like the character); Clarke says he wants to get out of it just before dying; Melvin Purvis is not as bad as Hoover or his more ruthless agents (although the Litte Bohemia raid is established as being his fault).
Some fantastic sequences (as Variety pointed out, the best ones all seem to happen at night) – the appearance of Baby Face Nelson, the Little Bohemia raid, the final moments of Dillinger. Other stuff which you’d think would be sure-fire, such as his escape with the fake gun, aren’t as effective.
There are lots of Aussies in the cast – apart from Clarke there’s also David Wenham (who has a depression era face) and Emily de Raven. Stephen Dorff makes his first appearance in a high profile film in a long, long time and does pretty well.
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