Dillinger

Director John Milius is a man's director. Anyone who has seen Conan the Barbarian knows the kind of machismo that he relishes. With this film he tackles the era of the "g-man" and the gangster and the bank-robber of early 1930's, middle America. This is the era of Bonnie and Clyde, "Machine Gun" Kelly, "Baby Face" Nelson, "Pretty Boy" Floyd, and John Dillinger. Warren Oates plays Dillinger, a cocky bank robber and public enemy #1 who, for awhile anyway, boasts about his never having killed anyone. But the joy to watch is Ben Johnson as Melvin Purvis, the FBI agent who's brought down more than his share of would-be gangsters. He takes a gun in either hand, has an assistant light his cigar, and calmly marches into a farm house where a gangster and his girlfriend are held up, and only one of them walks out alive. Too bad it's really not that good of a movie. It's got a lot going for it, and is more than a little bit inspired by Arthur Penn's Bonnie and Clyde, but it won't be remembered as one of the great gangster films.