The Public Enemy (1931): Pre-Code Beer and Blood
Any notion that 'The Public Enemy' is some kind of Pre-Code docudrama can be dispelled by simply watching it.
For a ninety year old film, The Public Enemy’s opening credits are striking. Live action shots of the cast are superimposed next to their names, not unlike the info-graphics shown during player introductions at the outset of a modern sports broadcast.
Any notion that The Public Enemy is some kind of docudrama can be dispelled by simply watching it. Although it uses historical events as framing devices, the film contains no factual information, nor are its characters close facsimiles of any real-life gangsters.
While it’s impossible not to stumble over names like Baby Face Nelson, John Dillinger, or Al Capone when one reads about Pre-Code gangster movies, THIS film provides little biographical content of any of the aforementioned crooks.
The idea that The Public Enemy somehow glamorizes organized crime is also patently absurd. Watch it closely, perhaps without the sound. What exactly about its visual composition glorifies criminality? The violence isn’t stylized. The music is undramatic, doing little to punctuate the actions of the gangsters or glorify their crimes. The criminals are never shot from below or made to look superhuman. There are no visual effects, no fantastical imagery, no aesthetics that make allusions to Christ or any of the Greek or Roman Gods. Every set piece ends in mishap or tragedy, and there’s not a single instance in which a gangster performs a redeeming act of bravery, heroism or strength.
