SPOILERS BELOW!
I did not read the book, but from those that did, they said the movie followed it really well. Everyone agreed the movie was a very good factual account of Dillinger’s story. And as we’ve heard JD was quite the charmer. And in the movie he was as well. He was a tough mean-arse to the cops, but to all others he was compassionate and friendly. Even to his hostages! When he see one girl hostage he has is cold, he takes off his coat and gently puts it around her. And gives one his hat after he lets her go so she’d have something to remember him by and a story to tell. It was cute. And he was nice to the customers that were in the banks when he was robbing them!
Speaking of the bank robbing, it was amazing how well choreographed Dillinger and his gang did it all. Same thing for the jail breaks. So well planned and so many people each doing their part to get him and his gang out. They had friends everywhere. He really knew what he was doing! And all the car chases and shootouts were awesome too. And good lord the effects were great, sometimes it felt like you were getting shot. They guns were pointed right towards you and the sound effects were loud and your seats shook, and we all jumped!
There was a lot of humor in the movie as well! Lots of spots where the whole audience laughed. That Johnny/Dillinger and his sly little smile.
And as Donna mentioned, he sings in the movie! Did NOT expect that! While he is driving, with others in the car, he sings all by himself. Get along little doggy, get along… He was good and it was so cute! And he does dance one dance with Billie. But he starts off telling her, “I don’t know how to dance”. It was all I could do to not scream out, Oh Johnny, you’re such a liar, You CAN dance, you just don’t like to dance!
Now that we’re onto Billie, Marion Cotilliard really grew on me. They were good together. I loved the scene where JD went after Billie at her job. Watch for that one! And the love scene was good. But typical Johnny, in clothes. But for most of it we only saw him from the shoulders and up. (hope that description was ok Karen, I totally held back! if not, edit away!)
Christian Bale was good as Melvin Purvis. I thought all the acting was well done and the parts cast well.
As far as the ending, I’m not sure where exactly it stops in the book, if it stops with his death or what and I don’t want to give anything away. Just bring your kleenex. It is SO hard to see Johnny die.
As far as the screening, it was definitely a test screening. They said we were amongst the first people to see it ANYWHERE in the world. They said it was not completed yet. That they still had to fix up the sound, color and such. And there were no opening nor closing credits. But I don’t think they’ll be making cuts, just technical things to do. There were close to 600 people there. (we counted the seats, and there were only a few empty ones) And most of the people we listened to in line did not know what movie they were seeing. Afterwards we all filled out a lengthy questionnaire. And then they took a sampling of people who rated it differently, they had about 30-40 people, stay for questioning while they kicked the rest of us out. They asked one of us to be part of that group, so Ginger did it. They just discussed the different topics on the questionnaires at greater length. Also we saw Michael Mann there!
I could go on and on and on. It’s really hard to know what to tell y’all and what not to. I THOROUGHLY loved the movie! It is action packed, suspenseful, funny, smart, romantic. It has everything. I must say it is definitely at the top of my all time fave Johnny movies. And he’s not too hard on the eyes either!
(…) I was able to follow the basic storyline okay. With the run time being about 2hr 20 minutes (with no credits that is), it wasn’t slow at all, time flew by! So much of it moved very quickly! Sometimes a little too quickly. But I was still able to follow. I actually wished it was a little longer, so they could have gotten a little into some character development a little more. SO many people coming and going. From Dillinger’s group, to his friends, contacts, the townspeople all over, the police, the Feds, and on and on! A HUGE cast of characters. It is a lot to wrap your head around in a short time! It’s definitely one of those movies where you will catch more and more each time you see it.
And from the reactions of the audience while watching, it sounded like most everyone was into it, gasping and laughing at all the right spots! (…) of the group that stayed after, everyone either rated it excellent or very good! The men were quite impressed with the car chases and shooting scenes. They seemed to think the Tommy guns and such were done really well and were just perfect in depicting the time period.
