Public Enemies -- Brian Burrough, Reviewed

http://wmbriggs.com/blog/?p=638 ^ | William Briggs

[mattstat]

It was one of those rare confluences in history where the notable and notorious reach critical mass and all manage to bump into one another. It happened when Dorothy Parker, Robert Robert Benchley, George S. Kaufman and others coalesced at the Algonquin Round Table; times were right for Werner Heisenberg, Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr and other great brains in Europe to meet and create modern physics; and so with Machine Gun Kelly, Ma Barker, Bonnie & Clyde, Pretty Boy Floyd, Baby Face Nelson, Dillinger. These Midwest kidnappers and bank robbers—or yeggs—flourished during the same brief time.

These underworld entities kept running into each other. Verne Miller, hit man responsible for the notorious Kansas City Massacre—a botched rescue of yegg Frank Nash, who was killed along with several agents—was being chased by cops in Chicago and ran into an apartment building. “In a bizarre coincidence, this was the very building where John Dillinger was then living.” Miller and Dillinger didn’t know each other.

If you were raised in the States in my generation or earlier, you will have heard of most of the names (probably from Bugs Bunny cartoons). These criminals were celebrities, with all the disgusting whitewash that status brings. For example, if you’ve only seen the movie, and haven’t read Mike Royko’s classic column reviewing it (near bottom of link), then you don’t know Bonnie & Clyde. Human scum. Murderous dreck. In the book, I cheered when Bonnie & Clyde’s car crashed and caught on fire, burning her down to the bone. She was in well-deserved agony for weeks. Both ran like terrified animals, scared and mentally defeated most of the time—but still managing to get in a murder or two—until they were finally hunted down by a Texas Ranger and some Louisiana cops and given the death they...

[Cecily]

“Hollywood writers are the same. There is a moved “based on”—which almost always means “some of the names are right, all other details are changed”—the book about to appear.”

Hollywood did the same with “Murder in the First,” supposedly based on a true story about an Alcatraz prisoner. The movie depiction of events is almost wholly ficticious.

[TheConservativeParty]

Went to see “Pulic Enemies” last night. I liked this film. I am not a Depp fan. Never seen any of the “Pirates” movies. Avoid him like the plague, but the Dillinger story got me to the theater.

Liked Christian Bale’s performance. The guy is intense. But the one who stole the show was the actress who played Dillinger’s girlfriend Billie Frechette.

I recommend this movie. Parts of it were filmed 30 miles north of my farm, in Columbus WI. Naturally the crowd in the theater noticed when the scenes shot in Columbus were on screen. There were 2 vintage cars parked at the theater entrance and a local news crew was there. Hey, it’s Wisconsin, when a movie gets shot here it causes a stir. Anywho, this conservative woman liked this movie and I think most FR readers will appreciate the movie too.