Dillinger

Today I finally got around to seeing John Milius's Dillinger (1973), after months of futile attempts to see it. After seeing Public Enemies and the Godawful B-movie with Lawrence Tierney this summer, I was hoping that Milius would deliver a great take on John Dillinger, Melvin Purvis and their exciting lives, times and associates. Milius's film (his first theatrical effort) is a fairly entertaining action movie, but it's no masterpiece; it may surpass Michael Mann's recent effort in some ways, but it's got its own myriad flaws to compensate.

John Dillinger (Warren Oates) is a charismatic outlaw who becomes a folk hero to Americans during the Great Depression. With his gang of crooks (Harry Dean Stanton, Geoffrey Lewis, Richard Dreyfuss, Steve Kanaly) he sticks up an series of banks and makes a name for himself - also romancing Billie Frechette (Michelle Phillips) along the way. Hot on his tail is FBI Agent Melvin Purvis (Ben Johnson), a tough, old-school lawman seeking vengeance for the deaths of his agents in the Kansas City Massacre - a crime committed by one of Dillinger's men, Pretty Boy Floyd (Kanaly). Purvis's men gradually decimate the public enemies, while both men seem as interested in their public image as succeeding at their jobs.

Milius's film is a strictly mythical take on the Dillinger saga. Unlike Public Enemies, which went out of its way to appear accurate (in spite of many egregious flaws), Dillinger is pure cartoon, and as such mostly succeeds. It's basically a B-movie crime flick (produced by AIP), liberally crossing elements of The Wild Bunch and Bonnie and Clyde with a hint of John Ford. The movie does a much better job of establishing the film's historical background than Mann's film, and gives a real sense of the Depression and Dillinger's popularity with the masses. The movie doesn't match Mann for the period details, costumes or historical accuracy, but it makes up for it with an authentic, gritty feel. For this, Milius is to be commended. However, the movie has its own failings distinct from Mann's big-budget extravaganza.

One of the movie's biggest flaws is its protagonist. Warren Oates does a fine job but the film doesn't give him a lot to work with. This Dillinger is a loud, violent egomaniac with few redeeming features. We do see that people love him, but unlike Johnny Depp's portrayal, we don't really see why. Further, compared to his colorful supporting cast, Oates' Dillinger is not particularly compelling. This is a mirror image of the Mann film, where Dillinger is an interesting character but his supporting cast are interchangable goons and G-Men. This might not be a problem if this were meant as an ensemble crime flick, but as the film's ostensible focus is on Dillinger it's a noteable flaw. Perhaps for this reason (and the fact that Dillinger largely disappears after Little Bohemia), the final showdown outside the Biograph Theater doesn't work; there isn't a lot of tension or suspense due to sloppy build-up.

Another major flaw is the movie's romance, which repulsively embraces the old sexist gangster moll stereotypes. Here Dillinger kidnaps Billie (twice!), practically rapes her, and then, without any further interaction, the two are hopelessly in love? I don't care who you are, that's pretty blatant misogyny, and it lowered my respect for Milius a good deal. It doesn't help that Michelle Phillips, pretty as she is, is an atrocious actress, and she and Oates have little or no chemistry. I didn't care much for Public Enemies' hackneyed soap opera romance either, but at least it's not as repugnant as Milius's version.

Still, Dillinger is a generally entertaining movie by its own modest standards. The production values are often shoddy, but Milius shows a strong directoral flair. He stages action sequences with bloody aplomb that Peckinpah would envy, with a generally good pace and a strong, well-written script. In particular, the film has one absolutely brilliant sequence - the Little Bohemia shootout, and the lengthy scenes of Dillinger's gang attempting to escape the FBI dragnet. This sequence is near-perfect - well-staged if over-the-top action, brisk, engrossing pacing, pitch-perfect acting and writing - and if Milius had been able to match the brilliance of those twenty minutes, we might well have a masterpiece on our hands. Fortunately, he would show a much firmer hand on his next picture, The Wind and the Lion, even if that film's ludicrous climax lets it down a bit.

One area where the film excells is its supporting cast. Though the movie may short-change its portagonist, it vividly portrays Dillinger's gang, not as interchangable supporting thugs and bullet fodder, but as distinct criminals with their own personalities and quirks. The portrayal of Purvis as a kickass super G-Man is at odds with the historical record, but it certainly works for the story, and Purvis emerges as the more interesting of the two protagonists. Again, this is detrimental to the portrayal of Dillinger, but on the other hand it involves the audience in the film and its characters; all of Dillinger's sidekicks get their own distinct death scenes, and the audience feels for them when they die - something Mann was unable to achieve.

The film's cast is mostly excellent, aside from Phillips. Warren Oates is a fine Dillinger although as mentioned above he's hampered by the script. Ben Johnson steals the movie with a fun performance; he's a no-nonsense, old-school tough guy and Johnson plays the role to the hilt. Harry Dean Stanton and Steve Kanaly are standouts among Dillinger's co-horts, though Richard Dreyfuss is perhaps a bit too over-the-top as Baby Face Nelson. Other roles are well-handled by dependable veteran talent: Cloris Leachman, Roy Jenson, Geoffrey Lewis, Frank McRae.

Dillinger is a good, entertaining gangster flick that occasionally comes close to greatness, but never quite reaches it. It may be slightly more entertaining than Public Enemies but is no closer to masterpiece status. Unless the Mark Harmon TV flick from the early '90s is an overlooked gem, I'd say that the definitive Dillinger movie has yet to be made.