While it falls short of real greatness by an inch here and a mile there, John Milius' debut film "Dillinger" is a nasty treat, packed with a Peckinpah-ish cast headed by Warren Oates and Ben Johnson, with Harry Dean Stanton, Michelle Phillips and Richard Dreyfuss in strong support. While dialog is often rough and cartoonish -- you can almost feel Milius' strain as he attempts to write dialog that is both romantic and cynical for the love scenes between Oates and Phillips -- the action scenes are top notch in both staging and execution. The cinematography is crisp and just lightly overstated, Milius' direction is assured if never subtle, and the performances rise well above the script.
Although it's a rare pleasure to see the incomparable Warren Oates in a leading role, this film is not as rewarding in that sense as Peckinpah's "Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia" from the following year. There's a feeling that Oates and Milius are a bit too concerned with making Dillinger a macho badass, although they do a good job of showing how his farmboy roots shine through. A few too many scenes verge on hero-worship. As good as Oates is, I thought Ben Johnson was perhaps even more impressive, particularly since he's been cast here well outside of his normal comfort zone. He's very impressive, for example, in a brief scene where he connects with a young boy who idolizes Dillinger and admits he "wouldn't wanna be a G-man."
Chinatown, it is not. Milius stages mythology in an impressive manner but with no subtlety and very little flair. The film does have a special sort of quality about it, but we don't feel the exhilaration that a good bank-robbing movie should impart. There's too much focus on the Phillips/Oates relationship, which begins with a beating, rape, and kidnapping and suddenly veers into romance. It's all very confusing and feels, like much else in this film, like a attempt to "top" the earlier "Bonnie and Clyde" (dismissed in the film as "amateurs").
Although it's a rare pleasure to see the incomparable Warren Oates in a leading role, this film is not as rewarding in that sense as Peckinpah's "Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia" from the following year. There's a feeling that Oates and Milius are a bit too concerned with making Dillinger a macho badass, although they do a good job of showing how his farmboy roots shine through. A few too many scenes verge on hero-worship. As good as Oates is, I thought Ben Johnson was perhaps even more impressive, particularly since he's been cast here well outside of his normal comfort zone. He's very impressive, for example, in a brief scene where he connects with a young boy who idolizes Dillinger and admits he "wouldn't wanna be a G-man."
Chinatown, it is not. Milius stages mythology in an impressive manner but with no subtlety and very little flair. The film does have a special sort of quality about it, but we don't feel the exhilaration that a good bank-robbing movie should impart. There's too much focus on the Phillips/Oates relationship, which begins with a beating, rape, and kidnapping and suddenly veers into romance. It's all very confusing and feels, like much else in this film, like a attempt to "top" the earlier "Bonnie and Clyde" (dismissed in the film as "amateurs").