Second Guessing

Michael Mann’s “Public Enemies” is a grave and beautiful work of art. Shot in high-definition digital by a filmmaker who’s helping change the way movies look, it revisits with meticulous detail and convulsions of violence a short, frantic period in the life and bank-robbing times of John Dillinger, an Indiana farm boy turned Depression outlaw, played by a low-voltage Johnny Depp. Much of what makes the movie pleasurable is the vigor with which it restages our familiar romance with period criminals, a perennial affair. But what also makes it more than the sum of its spectacular shootouts is the ambivalence about this romance that seeps into the filmmaking, steadily darkening the skies and draining the story of easy thrills. - Manohla Dargis, NY Times, July 1, 2009 Link.

That said, I couldn’t make a strong argument for Mr. Mann’s last, “Public Enemy,” though I love the prison-break scene and the abstracted night images of Dillinger in a swirl of back-lighted fog after his arrest. It’s a striking-looking movie, but Mr. Mann works best with intense male actors, either great actors (Daniel Day Lewis) or major stars (Tom Cruise), who can ground this filmmaker’s beautiful moody work. - Manohla Dargis, NY Times, April 22, 2011 Link.

Not a strong argument! When often asked, movie critics love to say they rarely change their minds about their final impressions on films watched (Pauline Kael would say she saw a movie only once). I've always thought that was bullshit. I say that because I've changed my mind many times on movies seen. If asked, I would say my favorite movie was "Star Wars" until I was seventeen. In my twenties, I was wowed by "My Own Private Idaho" and "Sex, Lies, and Videotape." My thirties put "Mulholland Drive" up there and older films like "The Third Man" and "L'avventura" started knocking out everything I had watched the last twenty years. What I'm saying is that we change our views all the time. Our perspective and judgement on what we see and what's important to us is effected by the age we experience it. Time is an inherent value of the medium as it records it.

So it's kind of fun catching a reviewer with a changed opinion on a recent movie. Especially one Dargis trumpeted so eloquently when it was released. I'm a fan of Dargis and "Public Enemies" so this isn't written as a gotcha on her writing - she's certainly allowed to switch sides. I don't think less of her. I wish she and other critics would write more about when they change their minds. We don't want to be shallowed by our first impressions.

Special thanks to Bob Abernathy for the tip.

Comments

[Bobabernathy]

Well said. Of course movie critics, like all of us, will change their minds sometimes! I've done the same thing. It must be a tough job to see so many movies and then turn out reviews very quickly. Movies I've flipped on: Kill Bill 1, La Dolce Vita, The Big Lebowski, Vertigo - not saying which way I flipped on these!