TRAILER #2: "Public Enemies"

This team-up of Christian Bale, Johnny Depp and Michael Mann has been really growing on me since last month. As I mentioned in a past post, I was a little underwhelmed with the last (first) trailer for "Public Enemies" and its rather straightforward setup of the film that made it look less like a Michael Mann gritty crime drama (whose films are as much dramatic explorations of crime as much as they are suspenseful thrillers) and more like a standard studio production with clean lines and obvious bad guys. Too much of the expected (badboy lines about liking cars, money and baseball all set to a flickering montage, no less) and not enough of Mann's kinetic, pulpy style and earthy characterizations. And it almost made Mann's typical compositions of over-the-shoulder angles and medium shots look like they were taken from an old video, they were cut up so strangely. This new trailer is much better, the shots are allowed to breathe and speak for themselves (fades instead of clunky cuts), the music follows the pace and the natural tension of Depp's and Bale's antagonism is more fully placed on display. I love the beginning of the trailer with the creeping strings, and I love how Mann seems to fill every large, otherwise expansive space with people set and ready to clash.

The official premise, via Slashfilm: In the action-thriller Public Enemies, acclaimed filmmaker Michael Mann directs Johnny Depp, Christian Bale and Academy Award-winner Marion Cotillard in the story of legendary Depression-era outlaw John Dillinger (Depp)—the charismatic bank robber whose lightning raids made him the number one target of J. Edgar Hoover’s fledgling FBI and its top agent, Melvin Purvis (Bale), and a folk hero to much of the downtrodden public.No one could stop Dillinger and his gang. No jail could hold him. His charm and audacious jailbreaks endeared him to almost everyone—from his girlfriend Billie Frechette (Cotillard) to an American public who had no sympathy for the banks that had plunged the country into the Depression.

But while the adventures of Dillinger’s gang—later including the sociopathic Baby Face Nelson (Stephen Graham) and Alvin Karpis (Giovanni Ribisi)—thrilled many, Hoover (Billy Crudup) hit on the idea of exploiting the outlaw’s capture as a way to elevate his Bureau of Investigation into the national police force that became the FBI. He made Dillinger America’s first Public Enemy Number One and sent in Purvis, the dashing “Clark Gable of the FBI.’’ However, Dillinger and his gang outwitted and outgunned Purvis’ men in wild chases and shootouts. Only after importing a crew of Western ex-lawmen (newly baptized as agents) and orchestrating epic betrayals—from the infamous “Lady in Red’’ to the Chicago crime boss Frank Nitti—were Purvis, the FBI and their new crew of gunfighters able to close in on Dillinger.

The film is still set for July 1st.
Will you make a run for this film when it arrives in theaters?


SCOOPED first by: In Contention
TRAILER exclusive through: MSN
IMAGE from: Reel Movies