John Dillinger is an excellent subject for a crime film as his life was insanely violent and wild. The story is almost too unbelievable to be true, like "Catch Me if You Can" another great true crime story. In this film, we see a very strong Johnny Depp performance and some interesting directing choices.
The decision to make "Public Enemies" feel like a documentary film while being partially shot on early digital cinema cameras (in 2009's landscape of cinema camera options) was bold. At some points the low-light capabilities are definitely "video" in the sense that they hold a different quality. This is great in some places and a little like a home video in others. Again, Michael Mann like in "Collateral" was making these films right on the cusp of the digital cinema camera revolution and it is brave to have chosen this path. This is a solid crime film with good performances, some great action set pieces and a uniquely true story.
American Society of Cinematographers or ASC page on the shooting techniques and formats used in Michael Mann's "Public Enemies" right below:
https://theasc.com/ac_magazine/July2009/PublicEnemies/page1.html
Budget: 80 Million
