I love that the trailer for Michael Mann’s Public Enemies opens with a shot that seems calculated to remind us of The Untouchables. And I’m already enjoying Johnny Depp as a genuinely broken piece of humanity. The Jack Sparrow character was fun, but too much of a hero; Dillinger is an ideal channel through which Depp can focus his appeal into a truly subversive personality.
The trailer also shows plenty of evidence of Michael Mann’s meticulous filmmaking style. If nothing else, Public Enemies should be an obsessively recreated period piece. My only complaint is aimed at the last song we hear, which sounds like a wickedly watered down version of 16 Horsepower. (Cue my embarassment when it turns out to actually be some 16HP-related song I don’t know.)
See the trailer in all those fancy high definitions at Apple.
And just because you can, check out the trailer below for 1973’s Dillinger by John Milius, starring the great Warren Oates in one of his very few leading roles. His explosive “I’m John Dillinger!” is one of the line readings that has always stuck with me. I love the Milius/Oates movie, and am excited to see how Mann’s film stands as both companion and competition.