History Film / PublicEnemies

* AllThereInTheManual [=/=] AllThereInTheScript: The screenplay gives numerous characters, even bit part ones, names, even if they aren't mentioned on screen: these include the cops at the first bank robbery, the names of those who get shot in the third bank robbery, and others. The source historical novel also helps describe some of the unnamed characters. For example, the motorcycle cop gunned down by Nelson at the third bank robbery is named Hale Keith (and this little part actually did happen).

* TheDanza: Probably the only occasion in recent history where this happened with an actor playing someone who really existed: '''Johnny''' Depp as '''John''' Dillinger. And the real Dillinger often was called "Johnnie". They coincidentally share initials.

The film opens with Dillinger and his best friend John "Red" Hamilton breaking a group of allies out of Indiana's state penitentiary. But the recently-established FBI, headed by J. Edgar Hoover (Billy Crudup), is on the case, hungry for publicity in order to win over skeptical voices in Congress. Special Agent Melvin Purvis (ChristianBale) is assigned to track down Dillinger. Dillinger, meanwhile, takes time out of his busy schedule to romance a hatcheck girl named Billie Frechette (MarionCotillard).

* EstrogenBrigadeBait: Hello? The film has ''both'' ChristianBale ''and'' JohnnyDepp!

* ShoutOut: Dillinger says to a bank customer, [[{{Heat}} "You can put it away. I'm not here for your money, I'm here for the bank's money."]] But as good a ShoutOut to ''Heat'' as it may be, it should be pointed out that according to Bryan Burrough's book, Dillinger said these words during his January 15, 1934 robbery of the First National Bank in East Chicago, Indiana. For whatever reason, some misattribute this line to BonnieAndClyde (as Clyde was quoted as haivng said a similar line during a late February bank job). In fact, Burroughs and other suspect that Barrow was intentionally modeling himself on Dillinger and attempting to [[VillainWithGoodPublicity clean up his act.]]

1933: Franklin Roosevelt takes the office of President of the United States, the country is mired in the greatest economic calamity in living memory, and millions are out of work. From this atmosphere of anger at TheMan emerges one of the most legendary criminals of all time: bank robber John Dillinger (JohnnyDepp). Dillinger and his gang of outlaws become [[AntiHero antiheroes]] for much of the disgruntled public.

* RightRedHand: Hamilton lost two fingers on his right hand in a childhood sledding accident. Part of another finger on that hand was shot off in the East Chicago bank robbery. However, CGI was not used in the film, so Jason Clarke has all ten digits on when his character only had seven.

* ShoutOut: Dillinger says to a bank customer, [[{{Heat}} "You can put it away. I'm not here for your money, I'm here for the bank's money."]] But as good a ShoutOut to ''Heat'' as it may be, it should be pointed out that according to Bryan Burrough's book, Dillinger said these words during his January 15, 1934 robbery of the First National Bank in East Chicago, Indiana. For whatever reason, some misattribute this line to BonnieAndClyde (as Clyde was quoted as haivng said a similar line during a late February bank job).

* [[EvenEvilHasStandards Even FBI Agents Have Standards]]: Purvis finds the "interrogation" of Frechette horrific (though see WouldntHitAGirl below for the hypocrisy of this). He steps in at the insistence of his secretary Doris Rogers.

* {{Badass}}: ChristianBale vs JohnnyDepp, nuff said.

** Diilinger doesn't want to get into the kidnapping business, as he expresses when Karpis mentions the upcoming kidnapping of Edward Bremer. Two dasys after Dillinger robbed a bank in East Chicago, Karpis actually did pull the job.

Director Michael Mann's newest movie returns once again to the crime genre that he so loves (''Manhunter'', ''Film/{{Heat}}'', ''Film/{{Collateral}}''), though also being, obviously, another of his period pieces (''Film/TheLastOfTheMohicans'', ''Ali'').

!!This movie provides examples of:
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* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Almost all of the gang members had girlfriends. Dillinger first had Billie Frechette, and then after Billie's arrest, a waitress named Polly Hamilton. Though not touched on in the film, the other gang members also had girlfriends: Homer Van Meter's was Mickey Conforti, Red Hamilton had Patricia Cherrington, Russell Clark had Opal Long, Pete Pierpont had Mary Kinder. Nelson was the only gang member who was married.

* FromNobodyToNightmare: Dillinger started off as just an ordinary bank robber when his career began in June 1933. The most powerful weapons he used were pistols in his robberies. Then he was arrested, but beforehand smuggled some pistols into the Indiana State Prison to break out his fellow comrades. Once his prison friends escaped, some papers were GenreSavvy enough to connect them to some minor criminal sitting in a Dayton, Ohio jail cell. Then the escapees broke Dillinger out of Lima, Ohio, and they soon became known as the "Terror Gang" by some, raiding two arsenals in the span of a week, and then using the weaponry they acquired to commit more bank robberies. And in all four robberies Dillinger committed after escaping Crown Point, at least one civilian was shot, and in three of them, a police officer was shot, one of them killed.

** In a rare case, the Little Bohemia shootout has a case of GenreSavvy where they were GenreBlind in reality. Winstead and Hurt chase Dillinger and Red on foot along the shore of the lake after those two break out through a rear window, and when Nelson escapes, Purvis orders Baum to drive out and intercept him on the road. The '''reality''' is that the FBI thought the gangsters were going to escape by car, and thought that they were pinned down inside the lodge when they heard no gunfire coming from inside (when in reality, this was because the gang had all managed to slip out the back windows). They had no indication that the gang had escaped until two agents, Jay Newman and Carter Baum, were sent to local switchboard Alvin Koerner's house to check on a suspicious car report, where Baby Face Nelson ambushed and shot both of them.

** Regarding the real Dillinger manhunt, this trope would describe Matt Leach, Dillinger's first pursuer. According to the source book, Leach took the time to read up on criminal psychology, which is how he first caught on to Dillinger in the summer of 1933.

** It is believed that in at least one actual robbery, likely the one he did at Greencastle in October, that Dillinger did use twin pistols.

* IdiotBall: If you read the source book this movie was based on, Purvis counted as one with this. Just read it to see how he and his men came so frequently within eye distance of Dillinger, only for Dillinger to get away because of some screwup on Purvis's behalf.
** For instance, when capturing Billie Frechette in April 1934, agents were merely ''feet'' from getting Dillinger, who remained in the car (like in the movie). But with the agents thinking he was inside the tavern, Dillinger was able to get away untouched in the confusion.
** In real life, the Little Bohemia raid would not have GoneHorriblyWrong if the agents had thought to completely surround the lodge on all ''four'' sides instead of just the side facing the road. They had assumed the gang members would escape by car, but as a result of the agents accidentally shooting innocent civilians, the gang just escaped out a second floor window and ran to the lake behind the lodge, then vanished. And Van Meter had made a mental map for reference when he arrived at the lodge.
** Some other Purvis-era blunders included "forgetting" to capture Machine Gun Kelly, arresting the wrong men for the kidnapping of William Hamm (the kidnapping that Alvin Karpis and the Barkers had pulled off before Dillinger came to the scene). And more glaringly, in May 1934, accidentally screwing up a surveillance job, resulting in Baby Face Nelson reuniting with his wife.
* ImplacableMan: Baby-Face Nelson, the trigger happy.

* MeaningfulName: The Dillinger Gang was sometimes known as "the Terror Gang" primarily because it was comprised of escaped convicts toting automatic rifles and submachine guns.
* MissedHimByThatMuch: Several of the real attempts to capture Dillinger came out like this because by the time agents responded to a legitimate Dillinger sighting, Dillinger had already left the place. One of the most notable was an incident in April near Mooresville where two FBI agents saw Dillinger and drove right past him without recognizing him. Also, Billie Frechette's arrest counts because the agents came within literally less than 50 feet from Dillinger. But since they thought he was in inside, he was able to escape before they realized their error.

* MissedHimByThatMuch: Several of the real attempts to capture Dillinger came out like this because by the time agents responded to a legitimate Dillinger sighting, Dillinger had already left the hiding place. One of the most notable was an incident in April near Mooresville where two FBI agents saw Dillinger and drove right past him without recognizing him. Also, Billie Frechette's arrest counts because the agents came within literally less than 50 feet from Dillinger. But since they thought he was in in the inn, he was able to escape.

* FromNobodyToNightmare: Dillinger actually.

* AllThereInTheManual [=/=] AllThereInTheScript: The screenplay gives numerous characters, even bit part ones, names, even if they aren't mentioned on screen: these include the cops at the first bank robbery, the names of those who get shot in the third bank robbery, and others. The source historical novel also helps describe some of the unnamed characters.

* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Billie Frechette to Dillinger. Polly Hamilton also fit this profile after Billie was arrested. The other gang members also had girlfriends in real life: Homer Van Meter's was Mickey Conforti, Red Hamilton had Patricia Cherrington, Russell Clark had Opal Long, Pete Pierpont had Mary Kinder. Nelson was the only gang member who was married.

* ChewbaccaDefense: Dillinger's lawyer manages to keep him out of the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City by saying that Sheriff Lillian Holley is a woman, and therefore afraid that she can't keep him locked up in minimum security, [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment because she's a woman]]. "I'm not afraid!" The judge immediately concludes that means she thinks Dillinger should stay in Crown Point. Court adjourned. Dillinger can now carve the wooden pistol and escape with ease.

* TheDanza: A rare and probably coincidental case with an actor playing a historical person: '''Johnny''' Depp as '''John''' Dillinger. They coincidentally share initials.

** Diilinger doesn't want to get into the kidnapping business, as he expresses when Karpis mentions the upcoming kidnapping of Edward Bremer. In January of 1934, after Dillinger's East Chicago robbery, Karpis actuall did pull the job.

* GenreBlind: At several times, the Bureau demonstrates this. For instance, rather than position their cars to box in the suspected gangsters' car, Baum is keeping watch from some distance away.

** Also seen when Dillinger and Red come into Frank Nitti's Outfit. Red is brandishing twin Tommy Guns, for god's sake!

** Floyd, too, was allegedly shot after being disarmed, though this is a more controversial account. The Feds were actually ''worse'' than they were in the movie (though Purvis himself was perhaps a bit ''better''). The account that Mann seems to use is the FBI account, which states that Floyd was shot by a sniper from a great distance. Here, the film gives that role to Purvis. The film also uses the real Purvis's claim that he kicked a pistol out of Floyd's hand.

*** More problematic is that Hamilton is shown out of jail and helps Dillinger with the TrojanPrisoner breakout. Hamilton was actually one of the inmates who escaped - and the only one of them who never got recaptured before his death in April of 1934.
** Dillinger shoots down three people in the film (two plainclothes detectives in the Racine robbery, and a police officer in the Sioux Falls robbery), but in truth the only person he is believed to have killed is William O'Malley, a police officer shot and killed during Dillinger's robbery of the First National Bank in East Chicago, Indiana on January 15, 1934. It was that officer's murder that Dillinger was standing trial for in Indiana.

** Purvis and his men are pursuing Dillinger in the first half of the film. In reality, the most the FBI did insofar as get involved was attend a number of conferences and offer to help in fingerprinting; following the death of Sheriff Sarber, Hoover actually ignored pleas from Indiana governor Paul [=McNutt=] for the FBI's help. So in this time period, responsibility for pursuing the Dillinger gang fell to the Indiana State Police.

** In real life, the Little Bohemia raid would not have GoneHorriblyWrong if the agents had thought to completely surround the lodge on all ''four'' sides instead of just the side facing the road.

* KangarooCourt: Right after we see the Dillinger gang carry out a bank robbery, we are introduced to BOI director J. Edgar Hoover, who is in a committee hearing seeking the doubling of his agency's budget. Unfortunately, the man in charge of the committee, Tennessee Senator Kenneth [=McKellar=] is a big Hoover-hater ([[TruthInTelevision which was true, according to the book the film took most of its source material from]]). [=McKellar=] humiliates Hoover into admitting that he has not participated in the arrests of any of the over 213 wanted felons that the BOI has either captured or killed, much less been a participant in the investigations around them. Hoover gets frustrated enough that he says, "Well I will ''not'' be judged by a kangaroo court of venal politicians!"

* NiceJobFixingItVillain: The radio commentator mentions how we have Dillinger's instigation to thank for the tougher laws against interstate crime, and the gambling syndicate has this as a sarcastic reaction, since now the heat will be on ''their'' tidy coast-to-coast operation.
** Dillinger was actually responsible for the passing of a number of bills. Nelson's shooting of Agent Carter Baum at Little Bohemia made killing a federal agent a federal offense, something Hoover had been lobbying for years to get passed.

* FilmNoir: Features ManhattanMelodrama, the Clark Gable movie that Dillinger saw at the Biograph on the night he died.

* WhiteShirtOfDeath: [[spoiler:Pretty Boy Floyd]] at the beginning, [[spoiler:Homer Van Meter]] at the end of the Little Bohemia shootout and [[spoiler:Dillinger himself at the end.]]

* WhiteShirtOfDeath: [[spoiler:Dillinger himself at the end.]]

* JitterCa: Used throughout the film, most prominently in the gunfights.

*** This Troper remembers thinking "Wow, he must be r-i-p-p-e-d." Tommy guns are heavy.
**** He'd have to be pretty strong to be able to use the handguns he's got one handed. Those are Colt [=M1911A1's=] he's firing. They pack a pretty hefty punch.

* JitterCam appears several times in the movie. The gunfights use it most prominently.

** That last bit is not surprising, considering how ridiculously difficult it would be to control the spread of fire when letting loose with a Tommy-gun fired from the hip while running. Or in a vehicle. It takes some effort when Purvis is firing from the running board during the car chase from Little Bohemia (he only hits the gangsters' radiator when the cars go around a bend), and before he is shot, Nelson fires a few bursts while moving that miss their targets, although one agent is shot.

** AxCrazy, CloudCuckoolander to at that

* OlderHeroVsYoungerVillain: Purvis and Dillinger, respectively. Dillinger was born June 22, 1903 and Purvis on October 24 of that year, making a rare case in that Purvis was pursuing someone slightly older than him.

* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Billie and Dillinger.

* ArtisticLicense: Though the film is arguably one of the more accurate adaptations of this period, it still takes some liberties.

** It's worth noting that the exchange between Dillinger's lawyer and Sheriff Lillian Holley is [[TruthInTelevision mostly verbatim of the real court transcript]] (based on comparisons, it appears that they took out some parts, like Piquett objecting to the presence of men armed with submachine guns in the court room). Of course, whether Dillinger really carved the wooden pistol himself or had it smuggled in is unknown. Some say that Louis Piquett or Art O'Leary smuggled it into the prison instead. It could even have been Martin Zarkovich who smuggled the wooden gun in, evidenced by the fact that he visited Dillinger at least once. (On a side note, a few people, like Matt Leach, allege that Zarkovich had been responsible for sheltering Dillinger at times (he was never charged, given he was a participant in Dillinger's death).

* TheDanza: A rare case with an actor playing a historical person: JohnnyDepp as John Dillinger.

* EpicFail: Hoover reprimands Purvis over the phone for botching the attempt to capture Nelson.

** In a rare case, the Little Bohemia shootout has a case of GenreSavvy where they were GenreBlind in reality. Winstead and Hurt chase Dillinger and Red on foot along the shore of the lake after those two break out through a rear window, and when Nelson escapes, Purvis orders Baum to intercept him on the road.
*** The truth is that the FBI thought the gangsters were going to escape by car, and thought that they were pinned down inside the lodge when they heard no gunfire coming from inside (when in reality, this was because the gang had all managed to slip out the back windows). They had no indication that the gang had escaped until Agents Jay Newman and Carter Baum were sent to local switchboard Alvin Koerner's house to check on a suspicious car report, where they were ambushed and shot by Baby Face Nelson.

*** Additionally, Purvis had been SAC of the Chicago field office for several months by the time Dillinger's first sprees began.

** First is Baby Face Nelson's death: Purvis fires a single shot with his pistol and another agent fires a shotgun blast at the same time. Both bullets hit Nelson in the chest. He falls over, but gets back up on his knees and manages to fire a wild burst with his submachine gun despite being badly wounded and more bullets entering his body. Purvis fires at least twelve more rounds with his pistol before Nelson dies permanently (which has something to do with actual police procedure).
*** TruthInTelevision, indeed: in his real shootout on November 27, 1934 in Barrington, Illinois against Agents Samuel P. Cowley and Herman Hollis (both of whom were mortally wounded), Nelson refused to fall despite having been struck a total of seventeen times (ten times in his legs with pellets from a shotgun fired by Hollis, and seven from a submachine gun fired by Cowley). This is attributed to adrenaline surging through his body - which kept Nelson alive for approximately three hours before he succumbed to his wounds. And the bullets that felled Cowley and Hollis were fired after Nelson had been really shot up.

* JitterCam appears several times in the movie.

* OlderHeroVsYoungerVillain: Purvis and Dillinger, respectively.

** Although Nelson was not actually killed at Little Bohemia, the fact that he managed to stand up and continue firing even as he was pummelled with bullets is true, although in the actual case, the agents whose bullets felled Nelson - Samuel P. Cowley and Herman Hollis - were both mortally wounded.

** Purvis continuing to shoot Nelson until the brute falls over is an actual police tactic - American police procedure dictates that the officer fire at the target repeatedly until the target falls, rather than fire one or two hits and let blood loss take over.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Herbert Youngblood, the black inmate who assists Dillinger in his escape from Crown Point, is never seen again after they are shown driving through the open fields. What happened to him is never explained.
** Some other books on Dillinger provide an explanation: Youngblood ended up in Huron, Michigan. Two weeks later, he caused a disturbance at a downtown store. Police responded. Reportedly, Youngblood managed to shoot one officer dead and wound another before being shot seven times. He died a few days after that. There were some racial tensions and allegations that a white man present at the scene may have been responsible for some of the shooting.
** Likewise, we never see Pierpont and Makley after they and Dillinger are seen being arrested. In fact, no mention is made about them.
*** After being arrested, Pierpont, Makley and Russell Clark were packed off to stand trial in Lima, Ohio for the murder of Sheriff Jess Sarber. When put on trial in mid-March 1934 (around the time of Dillinger's escape and his Sioux Falls and Mason City robberies), they were all convicted. Pierpont and Makley attempted to escape death row on September 22, 1934, two months after Dillinger's death, using fake guns carved from soap cakes and painted black with shoe polish. The attempt failed: Makley was killed and Pierpont was executed weeks later.

* KangarooCourt: Right after we see the Dillinger gang carry out a bank robbery, we are introduced to BOI director J. Edgar Hoover, who is in a committee hearing seeking the doubling of his agency's budget. Unfortunately, the man in charge of the committee, Tennessee Senator Kenneth [=McKellar=] is a big Hoover-hater ([[TruthInTelevision which was true, according to the book the film took most of its source material from]]). [=McKellar=] humiliates Hoover into admitting that he has not participated in the arrests of any of the over 213 wanted felons that the BOI has either captured or killed, much less been a participant in the investigations around them. Hoover gets frustrated enough that he says, "Well I will not be judged by a kangaroo court of venal politicians!"

* ManlyTears: Dillinger when he witnesses Billie getting captured.

** Red Hamilton thinks at Little Bohemia that his time is up hours before he is shot in the shootout. The real John Hamilton was also fatalistic in his last weeks leading up to Little Bohemia. One of the last things he did before going to Little Bohemia was Dillinger took Hamilton to his sister Anna Steve in Sault St. Marie, Michigan.

** Regarding the real Dillinger manhunt, this trope would describe Matt Leach, Dillinger's first pursuer.

** In at least one actual robbery, Dillinger did use twin pistols.

** The Little Bohemia raid in real life would not have gone so badly if the agents had thought to surround the lodge on all ''four'' sides instead of just the side facing the road.