I like mafia films. I'm a guy, it's what I'm into. I like good mafia films. Miller's Crossing, Road to Perdition, The Godfather. So when a movie comes around about John Dillinger himself, interest is going to peak. He's a classic. Team his story with Johnny Depp and Christian Bale under the direction of Micheal Mann, and you've got a winner... or you should, anyway.
Mann has some great stuff in his portfolio. Heat, Collateral, The Last of the Mohicans. On the other hand, he more recently made Miami Vice. And there's our high sign!
Mind you, Public Enemies was not a flop. Mann is known for these epic showdown scenes where the two stars meet and verbally duke it out. In Heat, it was DeNiro and Pacino, finally meeting over halfway through the movie. One of the best scenes ever filmed. In Public Enemies, Bale finally catches up to Depp (Dillinger) in a jail cell and the dialogue is, not as powerful as Heat, but still pretty awesome. "What keeps you up nights," Bale asks Depp. Depp glances at him, stone cold killer serious and says, "Coffee." Nicely done. Marion Cotilard was a nice touch as well, especially in her moving scene with Christian Bale. Certainly the best scene in the film. This movie had some good things going for it...
And then came the line...
It's the closing scene of the film. If you haven't seen it, Dillinger dies. It's history, folks, not a spoiler alert. But the man who killed him goes to see Marion Cotilard (Dillinger's lover), and she gives, as always, a profound performance. "Why are you coming here to see me," she asks. "To see the damage you've done?" The man is calm and sombre. "No," he says. "I came here because he told me to." Her countenance changes, anger turns to frailty. The man goes on to explain that he heard Dillinger saying something when he was dying. He says, "I put my ear next to his mouth..."
[the audiences tenses, leans in, waits with bated breath]
"... and what I think he said was this..."
Now I'm not going to tell you what he said, because it is beautiful and I have a soul. But the buzz-killer - did you catch it? "What I think he said was this..." What you think? What you THINK he said? You're sitting across the table from a broken woman, you are the killer of her love, you have a final word for her from him. The woman, and the world, hang on this word... and it's what you THINK he said?! You're not sure?! What if, by some ill fate, you had gotten it wrong? Would you feel better because you prefaced it with "I think this is what your lover's dying words to you were... but I could be wrong," really?
This gives a whole new meaning to the phrase, don't shoot the messenger.
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