Bowler hats, smart suits, snappy dialogue, Tommy guns, and impossibly suave criminals. These were the qualities that used to define the gangster film. The debonair mobster was the origin of the gangster film with the controversial string of movies from the 30s like Little Caesar and Scarface that were considered so shocking and controversial at the time of their release that they lead to the creation of film ratings boards in America. For decades these larger-than-life characters defined the genre until Martin Scorsese ushered realism onto the scene with his almost anthropological studies of the mafia. Sure there have been modern day homages to the gangsters of old in movies like the Coen Brothers’ masterful Millers Crossing, but for the most part the Tommy gun mobsters have become things of the past in the Sopranos age. At least, that was true until Michael Mann made his John Dillinger epic Public Enemies, a new genre classic and easily the best movie of the 2009 summer blockbuster season so far.

Up until now Michael Mann’s finest hour was the epic crime drama Heat with Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino. With that film, Mann transformed the cops n’ robbers genre into an epic tale of the battle of good and evil and refined his slick directorial style to a glossy formalism that had a major impact on cinematic style in the 90s (and most recently The Dark Knight, which played like Heat with Batman and the Joker taking over for Pacino and DeNiro). The movie is a genre classic even if it’s overlong and hurt by some overacting and unnecessary melodrama. However, the film seems like the perfect vehicle for Mann’s directorial style and thematic interests until he stumbled upon the idea of making a film about the life of John Dillinger.

In Dillinger, Mann found a real life version of one of the characters that fascinates him most: the classy criminal whose smarter and more principled than the police who chase him, but still falls victim to a tragic and morally appropriate demise. Basing his script on a meticulously researched biography of Dillinger, Mann crams as many of Dillinger’s life stories as he can into a 2.5 hr running time. Sure, many characters are combined and events are restructured for dramatic purposes, but for the most part Mann sticks to the actual story with damn impressive results.

The film starts with Dillinger at the height of his career. Robbing banks in the midst of the Great Depression. Dillinger scored big points with the public by destroying bank records and loans as well as paying back the poor customers of the banks he robbed. In the midst of hard times, Dillinger became a modern day Robin Hood in the public’s eyes and they roared with disgust whenever he was caught. Such was Dillinger’s popularity and power that he escaped anytime he was caught and only seemed to gain more fans as he angered and evaded the police further.