JIM reviews film "PUBLIC ENEMIES" – A new view of Unauthorized Wire-Tapping! = [+ report on some of the FILMING done for it ]

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“PUBLIC ENEMIES” – A new view of ‘Unauthorized Wire-Tapping’! =

Rating: 9 of 10 stars (based on an advance screening:)

From the well-done movie & TV trailers, interviews & articles, you’re probably aware that this covers the story of the FBI’s pursuit of its onetime Public Enemy # 1, JOHN DILLINGER (finely played by JOHNNY DEPP). With a great deal of historical accuracy, Michael Mann’s film pulses with an exceptionally effective ENERGY as it tells the story of the pursuit of various Depression-era criminals as ordered by J. Edgar Hoover (BILLY CRUDUP) & executed by Melvin Purvis (CHRISTIAN BALE) & his associates. While there are loads of impressively-done ACTION scenes such as bank robberies, car chases and gunfights, it was surprising (and enjoyable) to see the extent of the LOVE story between Dillinger & his paramour Billie Frechette (MARION COTILLARD) and the detailing of the “grunt” work done (including tapping & recording of people’s PHONE conversations) in trying to FIND Dillinger & his henchmen. You’ll see why Dillinger was a sort of people’s ‘HERO’ at certain points, & how the ‘mob’ (such as Frank Nitti) didn’t like all the governmental attention the pursuit of Dillinger was bringing to their own illegal activities. I consider this an excellently done MULTI-level story-telling— & would’ve found it fascinating to see even MORE than the 2.5 hours it ran!…

… Please understand that I was very impressed by this film even tho I DIDN’T see MYSELF in it (as I’d hoped to see)!. Believe it or not, I actually WAS on set in Chicago & FILMED by Michael Mann for a scene in this (on June 5, 2008). I did see the basic LOCATION where I was, at the very end of the film when an FBI man goes to talk to Billie (Marion) in a tiled jailhouse room with a small window from the hallway & a sliding door to allow food in…

… I was IN one of those rooms— for a scene where CHRISTIAN BALE walks in the jailroom hall & seeks out a RELATIVE of Dillinger who’s been picked up in a sort of “dragnet”, to try to gather facts on where Dillinger might be HIDING. Although it was comparatively MINOR in the overall scope of the film, Director Mann spent considerable TIME in trying to realistically set up & film the scene, doing it over & over again:

… The film company was extremely diligent at having ‘small’ things historically PROPER (including wardrobe, locations, makeup, artifacts, etc.). I sat as one of the prisoner-suited trustees locked up with a handful of “civilians” who’d been thrown in there including 2 people portraying relatives of Dillinger (seemingly based on ACTUAL events since an expert on the history of Dillinger was regularly around advising the film crew)…

… Since the “roundup” is NOT mentioned in the film as released, I am assuming it’s one of LOADS of ‘period’ details left OUT of the final cut (quite likely running into many HOURS of additional footage). And, while I expect SOME of that footage may be added as ‘DELETED’ scenes in an eventual DVD version, since it’s not something ‘vital’ in moving the basic story ‘forward’, I do NOT expect “MY” scene to be included…

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I know, I know— you’re now feeling very “LEFT-OUT” of the “whole” story of “PUBLIC ENEMIES”!… So, for those of you ‘desperate’ to know more about the ‘BACKGROUND’ of movie-making, I’ll give you some of those “indispensable” DETAILS of the 1-day shoot in which I was involved (which you should NOT read unless you’ve been “cleared” to do so!… Or, do you want to risk having YOUR phones & other communications “tapped”?!…)

… The extras group I was in (after waiting more than 2 MONTHS from the initial wardrobe “fitting”!) was finally told to report for the day’s filming at a northside Chicago location at 12:30 P.M. We were driven to a parking lot filled with dressing trailers, & got into our assigned specially-fitted COSTUMES waiting for us there… Around 12 people (including some who were film school students) were fitted as JAILHOUSE guys like me, + 5 or so as jail Guards / Cops + a few as lawyers or the like (in that they had fancier civilian outfits)…

… In time, we all went to makeup & haircutting. The barber guy liked my “DISHEVELED” lengthy front hair, & just trimmed the back & sides a bit more… It was in the humid 80’s, & I & other guys were pleased to rest under a shade tree, cooled by the nice breezes… For some reason, a couple of women in their mid-20’s on the sidewalk outside the lot asked for “AUTOGRAPHS” of the extras, tho we all said we were NOT “important”, just “extras”. Like the others, I SIGNED for them, since that made them feel happy (& “connected”, I guess)!…

… We waited around a considerable period of time, & then took a lengthy HOT ride on a bus to an old lodge-like building on the northwest side of the city. There, although they’d been originally wardrobed as “JAIL-house” guys, the film crew decided to switch Matt & a red-haired DePaul University acting student named Kyle to wearing “CIVILIAN” clothes. It was explained that they were to be “private citizens” caught up in a “DRAGNET” type “search” for DILLINGER – which gave us our first concrete information as to just what the SCENE was that we were to be involved in… In the nicely air-conditioned onetime-lodge building, we ate a simple lunch (hot dogs, rice, etc.) provided by the film company, talked, & relaxed until the film crew was “ready” for us…

… Around 2:30 PM, we went to the FILMING spot in a building next door— an old City Clerk’s office that seemingly once was the Gale Street POLICE station [from the mid 1930’s], to film our scenes. The wardrobe guy looked us over and gave suggestions for improving how we appeared. After I tried on the belt they gave me (which was too small & thus discarded), the ass’t director MIKE WAXMAN took me into the “PRISON” room (around 10x15’— as described previously as being one of those used for the scene with Marion at the end of the film)…

… In that room, the other “prisoner” guys were waiting (most dressed as I was in high boots & wearing a sort of off-white rough wool-like prison “suit” with “Cook County” imprinted on it). I was asked to sit at the back of the stage-right slatted bench, with 1 guy in front of me, facing “out” into the room. Across from me to my left there was another bench (with 2 people seated on it), & more people standing up leaning on the “opposite” wall & behind me to my left (with the “civilians”). As time went on, altho virtually everyone else was MOVED around in the room, as 1 guy commented, I was the only person who was NEVER moved after my initial placement. In other words, I obviously looked like I “BELONGED” there!…

… Around 3:30 PM, main director MICHAEL MANN arrived. When he came in & greeted us extras, I responded by greeting him with a “HELLO, Mr. Mann” — altho he probably didn’t recognize me from when I’d once met him at a Siskel Film Center tribute to him I’d attended with IRMA P. HALL whom he’d cast as Jamie Foxx’s mother in his film “COLLATERAL”…

… Mr. Mann worked to better emphasize the “barred” window in the back of the room, & changed around the POSITIONING of a number of people from where they’d previously been placed (to look better & “highlight” the grabbing of the nephew)— tho he did NOT want ME to move anywhere else… He declared that an older (70-ish) guy in civilian clothes would be the “uncle” of Dillinger, & a young guy would portray the “NEPHEW” of Dillinger who 2 cops would grab & push OUT of the room for “interrogation” after Christian Bale looked thru the door window & “pointed” him out to the cops…

… In time, for some reason, 3 “CIVILIAN” guys (who’d originally been in “PRISON” uniforms until that was changed earlier in the day) — Kyle, another red-haired guy & a curly-haired guy — were taken OUT of the jail room. I thought it was for some special scenes to be shot in the hallway or in other rooms— but, we learned later that, to their great DISAPPOINTMENT, they were sent back to the “WAITING” area in the Lodge building & NEVER used in ANY scenes whatsoever (perhaps because they didn’t need any more “civilians” in the room, or possibly because they didn’t have the “period” look that was desired?)…

… Mr. Mann rehearsed the forcible REMOVAL of “nephew” Matt, trying various different ways such as having the “uncle” step “forward” when “hero” CHRISTIAN BALE (about 12’ away from me) walked thru the hall & “peeked” thru the window in the door. But, eventually, he DIDN’T LIKE the movement by the older guy. Per MY idea, I & another guy (on the bench across from me) used “PANTOMIME” & frowns on our faces to “GESTURE” to the “civilians” (who didn’t “belong” there) before the “cops” came into the room…

… They used a “sparkle” (silvery) reflector (held by a crew guy) to go “past” the front of me to “highlight” MATT (the “nephew”) & the 2 other “civilians” in the back corner behind me before Matt was to be “removed”… They didn’t seem to do much actual formal “FILMING” of the REMOVAL of Matt — mainly concentrating on using the camera to shoot thru the “WINDOW” [in effect, from Bale’s “view” in the hall) & a bit thru the open DOOR (in preparation for the entry of the 2 “cops”)…

… Mann kept moving some of the other people AROUND in the room, for more effective “placement” (by height & build, “looks”, etc.— tho (since no one complained about it or “changed” anything) I kept doing my “OWN thing” (with the pantomiming & ‘tough” face of my character, who I called “MAD DOG” to the laughs of the others)…

… At one point, Mann realized it was very HOT in the room with the door closed, called it like a “sauna”, & had them run an AIR-CONDITIONING hose in to us periodically. (The others were extremely BOTHERED by the heat, tho I wasn’t particularly troubled by it. The Makeup lady & haircut guy — who offered towels to the others – LAUGHED when I said, I DIDN’T need any because “I have BROW Control!”…

… Altho they didn’t seem to do much filming of the “REMOVE-nephew-Matt” scene, they spent LOADS of time shooting CHRISTIAN BALE peering “thru” the door WINDOW & especially walking THRU the hall after supposedly “eying” Matt… It didn’t seem we “peripheral” jailroom people would be SEEN much— but one of the “COP” extras who was in the “hallway” scenes had seen the view the CAMERA saw (probably on a monitor) & told us, it was a very wide-angle shot & ALL of us were CLEARLY seen in the filming…

… Around 7:15 PM, we were DONE with our role, & sent to the “HOLDING” Lodge again (eventually followed by the “COP” extras who shot for maybe a ½ hour longer)… In time, we were allowed to join the crew in eating DINNER — consisting of very tasty FISH, shrimps, rice, corn, chicken, etc.

… Kyle, the other red-haired guy & especially the dark curly-haired guy were deeply UPSET that they’d been suddenly REMOVED from ALL filming & didn’t even SEE what was going on… The curly-haired guy read the NOTES he’d kept of all the consistent CHANGES the film company had made (re WHEN they were to have fittings, to film, etc.). As I commented, he had even more changes & confusion than I’d experienced over the 2 months. But, he was especially bitter that, after all the changes & confusion, he took off from a high-paying JOB in order to be there & say he was “PART” of the film— only to not even be IN any scenes or see any of the FILMING at all!…

… As I told the 2nd red-haired guy sitting to my left on the bus back to our original meeting area, altho it was disappointing that he’d been removed from all scenes, unlike what had happened to me re “BATMAN – DARK KNIGHT”, at least he’d gotten PAID for an 8-hour day (whereas in that other film, after being put on “hold” for 3 weeks for a scene as a guy who was ‘killed’ by the “Joker” that apparently was NEVER even FILMED in Chicago, I’d gotten NO daily pay at all)!… I arrived home around 9:30 PM…

… So, I can say I was “PART” of the “PUBLIC ENEMIES” film— altho no one in the “general public” ever SAW my “unforgettable” work in it!… You say, you want to be in “pictures”?— You might want to THINK TWICE about that, Folks!…