The film was about the last several days of Dillinger's life. There probably is too much to cover, but Dillinger came from an average small town family, was a great baseball player, and ironically it was his baseball coach that got Dillinger to become a robber and develop a lifelong addiction to theft.
This movie is very gritty and brutal. None of the gangsters are very likeable. They have a very brutal code. One flaw. Richard Dreyfuss as Baby Face Nelson. In real life, doubtful that would start blubbering and kow towing to Dillinger. Baby Face Nelson was a brilliant gun fighter and evaded capture for a long time.
The best performance goes to Ben Johnson. He was the opposite image of Elliott Ness. He was not portrayed as nice, moral guy. He was always an opportunist, who could charm anyone to create a mythological legend of his own shrewdness. He was determined to get Dillinger.
The other part to the film was that it was the Depression. People were suffering, the banks were despised at that time, and many people were not so against bank robbers as in other, more prosperous times. And it was made in the 1970s, a time when mob rule and authority was distrusted. The scene where these WWI vets ruthlessly kill one of the gangsters shows that brutality was on all sides.
This movie is very gritty and brutal. None of the gangsters are very likeable. They have a very brutal code. One flaw. Richard Dreyfuss as Baby Face Nelson. In real life, doubtful that would start blubbering and kow towing to Dillinger. Baby Face Nelson was a brilliant gun fighter and evaded capture for a long time.
The best performance goes to Ben Johnson. He was the opposite image of Elliott Ness. He was not portrayed as nice, moral guy. He was always an opportunist, who could charm anyone to create a mythological legend of his own shrewdness. He was determined to get Dillinger.
The other part to the film was that it was the Depression. People were suffering, the banks were despised at that time, and many people were not so against bank robbers as in other, more prosperous times. And it was made in the 1970s, a time when mob rule and authority was distrusted. The scene where these WWI vets ruthlessly kill one of the gangsters shows that brutality was on all sides.