Michael Mann may be the only true auteur left in US cinema who is steadily working today, relentlessly exploring his major theme of professional men who conduct their lives along a code that seems outdated even in their time. Not coincidentally, this mirrors Mann himself, who works years on a film and is involved in all aspects from scripting, to shooting, and post-processing, giving his impressive ouvre a cohesive feel like few other directors have managed, despite straddling widely varying genres.

“Public Enemies” fits right into this, focusing on John Dillinger (Johnny Depp) and the FBI agent hunting him, Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale). Both men are professionals and dedicated to their job, to the detriment of their (seemingly non-existent) private lives. Only one robs banks and the other catches bank robbers, revisiting Mann’s fascination with the two opposing sides of the law. The film spans a time period of only 13 months – between Dillinger’s escape from prison and his shooting in front of the Biograph Theater in Chicago, Mann’s hometown. It almost laconically eschews giving any sort of backstory, made clear in a scene when Dillinger himself sums up his life in a single sentence. He lived only for the moment, as heard through dialogue that mirrors Peckinpah’s “The Wild Bunch” when Pike and Dutch discuss their future: “I’d like to make one good score and back off…” – “Back off to what?” Neither one of the characters has any other possible way of functioning, consciously or not, which has often been the underlying tragedy of Mann’s films.

Two sides of the same coin.

The basic set-up and characters are more than just reminiscent of Mann’s own “Heat”, only set in the 1930s Depression era US. With the possible exception of Ridley Scott on a good day, Mann is unique in creating a believable universe which his characters inhabit and which the audience never doubts. Not just in terms of sets and props, but the way his characters interact with their surroundings. And although decried by many filmgoers, I feel the hand-held digital camera with which the film was shot aids in that by giving the film even more of a documentary feeling than Mann’s previous outings. The images are shaky and grainy, Mann getting the maximum out of the digital camera in a lot of dark settings that seem to use as little lighting as possible, adding to the realistic feel.

It also adds much needed intimacy in that the viewers find themselves right there with Dillinger and Purvis. Aside from that, the characters remain somewhat distant and what’s missing are the every-day troubles Mann’s characters usually experience – be it a teenage daughter in “Heat” or a failing marriage in “Manhunter”. The only private look we get at Dillinger is in his moments with Billie Frechette (Marion Cotillard), while Purvis seems to lack any sort of private live. The one truly self-reflexive moment of a character comes towards the end when Dillinger looks at his own police photographs and watches a film that seems to mirror his own life. Throughout the rest, the characters remain somewhat too impersonal, the only downside of the film. Though Depp and Bale (in a reprieve from big blockbusters) once again completely disappear in the characters they play.

"I rob banks."

Never one to only make a pure period piece, Mann’s “Public Enemies” tentatively touches upon themes that are more than current today. Wire tapping, widespread surveillance, and the FBI declaring their first “War on Crime” recall the Patriot Act and the multitude of “wars” the US has led – from the War on Drugs to the War on Terror. This doesn’t take center stage, though, and only forms the context within which the characters act, never turning the film into a preachy analogy for the current financial crisis or alarming lack of privacy today. It is precisely the lack of clichés, avoiding the usual attempts of “updating” a story, and the lack of any easy answers as to what exactly drives Dillinger aside from pride in doing what he’s good at that make the film into the great one it is. Quite possibly, the impersonal nature of the characters is another part of that, cleverly side-stepping the threat of raising Dillinger into a glorified myth as has been done before.

It’s not easy to make a compelling film based on a real-life figure whose story many viewers know in advance, but aside from a tight script, great dialogue, and Mann’s usually impressive visuals, it’s the self-conscious moments Mann adds that lift it above recent slick gangster flicks. Both in terms of the problematic glorification of a gangster (a trap Mann doesn’t fall into, keeping it appropriately violent) as well as the role film as a medium plays in that – aided by an ending that the best of scriptwriters couldn’t have made up better. But then, truth is stranger than fiction.