I was there (at the screening) too. (…) I too am quite squeamish with certain types of violence and especially gore or blood but this was perfectly and appropriately done. There wasn’t a lot of blood just some really realistic gunfire! Damn. Really knock ya back in your seat!
SPOILER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The death scene did bother me a bit, but again, it was necessary and beautifully done. I am super sensitive, emotionally and it was quite hard to watch him die. Not just as Johnny, but as Dillinger himself. You come to really love the guy and knowing he was of true flesh and blood, I wanted him to live…even as I knew how his life ended. For me, the movie was quite sobering and I find this another fine example of Johnny’s ability as an actor to pull us right into a character so deeply that we forget for a while about reality and really are taken along for the ride. He really posesses a character…so much so, you can’t help but loose Johnny the actor and fully embrace whomever he is portraying. This makes for a fabulous movie-going experience and in a movie such as this one, it can really gut you. This movie was SUPER dramatic…very action packed and then tender as well. Kudos to Michael for pulling that off and to the fabulous cast for their great performances. I’m not a big Bale fan but that guy said a LOT with his eyes. I was impressed with his performance.
And I want to second Burly’s comment on the music too. GREAT choice. I can’t wait for the soundtrack. Course I’m a big fan of music from that era.
I loved the movie…I only took issue with Michael’s use of hand-held camera work. I understand his artistic choice. It creates tension and even confusion, which can be quite effective but it made me dizzy and was distracting. I do think that sitting back further would provide a different perspective so I just want to suggest to anyone who might be sensitive to such camera use (ala Blair Witch) to sit as far back in the theater as you can and I think it’ll be okay.
And Johnny and Marion had GREAT chemistry…man…I loved her. She was great.
And one final note. JOHNNY LOOKS HOT IN A STRAW HAT!!!! I’m so hoping to see that hat turn up again somewhere
(about the hand held camera scenes:)
It stinks. Other people loved it. I would too, if it didn’t make me so damned dizzy. That said, it’s not as bad as Blair Witch (had to take a Dramamine for that) and it does get better as the film progresses. He uses less hand-held, thank goodness. But for me, whenever he slipped back into it, I really noticed. But sitting back should make it much easier. I think part of it too was that he used a LOT of super close close-ups WHILE he was using the hand-held. That added to the difficulty as well but I think you do adjust a bit and it does get used less, so you’ll do fine. I can’t wait to see it again, all finely tuned, sound perfect. Can’t wait to see what tweaks they make. And just can’t wait to see it again because there was so much going on…it was do dramatic, there was so much action, emotion…at the end when they asked us to put our comments down, I almost couldn’t think. It’s one of those movies you’re gonna wanna see a couple of times just to get it all digested because it’s really intense.
Of course, I don’t think there’s a person here who’s gonna complain about seeing the movie more than once
