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Dillinger (1973) the Dillinger Legend partly truth & partly fiction

posted 8 years ago by mgtbltp
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I picked up this excellent DVD from Amazon the other day. Directed by John Milius, this is another great Warren Oates performance as Public Enemy #1, John Dillinger.

The film has a fantastic supporting cast with an equally great Ben "I'm going to smoke one of these cigars over each one of these crooks dead bodies" Johnson as G-Man Melvin Purvis in what has to be his best performance that I've seen (he practically steals the picture) and also Geoffrey Lewis as Harry Pierpont, Harry Dean Stanton as Homer Van Meter, Richard Dryfuss as Baby Face Nelson, Steve Kanaly as Pretty Boy Floyd, Frank McRea as Reed Youngblood, Michelle Phillips as Billie Frechette, and Cloris Leachman as the "Lady in Red"

The film is entertaining through out, as good or even better than Bonnie & Clyde. with a lot more action sequences and a minimal love story that doesn't tie it down.

It could have stood to be a little longer (both visually, some establishing shots scenes could have lasted a few ticks longer, and sequences to developed the characters a bit more), it starts in the middle of Dillinger's crime spree, so we don't really find out what drove him in that direction, but since it was the depression its probably similar to all the wayward biographies of the gangsters of that time period. Its a little loose with the actual facts ie., Harry Pierpont was actually executed by electrocution, not killed by the cops on a bridge, and "Baby Face" was killed 4 months after Dillinger. But its a drama not a documentary.

There is a sequence near the beginning during a getaway where a woman is brutally run over and the death scene of Baby Face Nelson is not to be missed, the death grin on Dreyfuss' face is pretty creepy.

All in all a great watch & worth it. A must for Warren Oates fans.

I've watched it three times now and it keeps improving with each viewing and am now considering it a minor classic. Its Ben Johnson's (Lee Van Cleef/Mortimer moment, he's the star that stands out similar to Lee in For A Few Dollars More) and the Oates-Phillips relationship is way more sexy than Depp-Marion Cotillard relationship as shown in Pubic Enemies. Yea its got some over the top stuff (Billie firing a tommy gun and screaming for Johnny to escape at Little Bohemia), lol, but its a fun film. The more you watch it the more you realize how good it really is. The little vignettes that develop the films characters are great, there should have been even more.

Its just the Dillinger Legend partly truth & partly fiction

Its the way it should have been, not the way it actually was. 10/10

[–] Petronius Arbiter II 8 years ago

See also:http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069976/board/nest/93777245?d=191275444#191275444

...Aaaaaaand here it is seven years later, and Puttle-Butt-Gum is still flogging the same dead horse. Once again peddling the view that Milius' 1973 film is not only very entertaining, which it is, but also that it's somehow a reflection of historical truth, and also of "the Dillinger legend," which is a quite different thing, and one that "Public Enemies" did a reasonably good job of putting on film, and that Milius and his fans don't have a clue about.

Here's the real scoop:

-- "Dillinger" (1973) is about 15% true, 85% fiction.

It is considered by many to be a very entertaining movie, and many of those prefer it to "Public Enemies." That is no concern of mine. When I write about these two films, I'm writing as a history buff who is also a native of Morgan County, Indiana. I happen to know a lot more about the historical John Dillinger than Puttle-Butt-Gum ever will.

-- "Public Enemies" is about 55-65% true, the rest fiction.

As for the real "Dillinger legends" -- plural, not singular, there are a whole bunch of them, as I state in the post referenced above: among others, the slick charming con man, the Indianapolis street punk turned embittered ex-convict, the ladies' man, and the adrenalin junkie. Michael Mann gave us all four of these. John Milius only gave us the last one, but his "John Dillinger, adrenalin junkie" is a pastiche of other criminals taken strictly from other movies. Michael Mann gives us a portrait of John Dillinger that Dillinger's relatives, including his half-sister who actually knew him, say is the closest thing to the real guy we've ever seen in motion pictures, and that certainly includes, but is not limited to, "adrenalin junkie."

Now, as for which movie or movies you happen to like, and how much, that's up to you. YMMV. In almost everything I've ever written for IMDb about either film, that's not really "my department," as the saying goes.

"I don't deduce, I observe."

[–] mgtbltp 8 years ago

And low and behold Predictable Assbiter is still fapping to Public Enemies a POS film.