Public Enemies (2009)

Public Enemies rating: IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic

IMDb6.9/10· 334K votes

Rotten Tomatoes68%

Metacritic70%

TMDb6.685/10· 5K votes

With 68% on Rotten Tomatoes, backed by 6.9/10 on IMDb and 70/100 on Metacritic, critical reception of this film has been mixed.

About Public Enemies

Depression-era bank robber John Dillinger's charm and audacity endear him to much of America's downtrodden public, but he's also a thorn in the side of J. Edgar Hoover and the fledgling FBI. Desperate to capture the elusive outlaw, Hoover makes Dillinger his first Public Enemy Number One and assigns his top agent, Melvin Purvis, the task of bringing him in dead or alive.

Cast of Public Enemies

• 

  Johnny Depp

  as John Dillinger

• 

  Christian Bale

  as Melvin Purvis

• 

  Marion Cotillard

  as Billie Frechette

• 

  Jason Clarke

  as 'Red' Hamilton

• 

  Rory Cochrane

  as Agent Carter Baum

• 

  Billy Crudup

  as J. Edgar Hoover

• 

  Stephen Dorff

  as Homer Van Meter

• 

  Stephen Lang

  as Charles Winstead

• 

  John Ortiz

  as Phil D'Andrea

• 

  Giovanni Ribisi

  as Alvin Karpis

• 

  David Wenham

  as Harry 'Pete' Pierpont

• 

  John Michael Bolger

  as Martin Zarkovich

Public Enemies facts

Budget

$100M

Box office

$214.1M

Our take on Public Enemies

Michael Mann's 2009 crime drama traces Depression-era bank robber John Dillinger, whose charm and audacity made him a folk hero to a downtrodden public and a target for J. Edgar Hoover's fledgling FBI. As Hoover names Dillinger his first Public Enemy Number One, top agent Melvin Purvis is tasked with hunting him down, dead or alive. Mann shoots the period with cool, digital immediacy, favoring procedural detail and mood over romanticized myth. It suits viewers drawn to methodical cops-and-robbers dramas about the closing net around an outlaw, and to Mann's clipped, professional-versus-professional tension. Expect atmosphere and restraint rather than breathless action.