Michael Mann’s Public Enemies is a beautifully made film that follows John Dillinger’s short but exciting career. Johnny Depp brings Dillinger to life as the sometimes cocky, sometimes romantic, but never cold-blooded bank robber. Public Enemies steers clear of the gangster clichés and goes for historical accuracy.

Public Enemies is a Cinderella story, with Dillinger rescuing Billie Frechette (Marion Cotillard) from her boring and less-than-privileged life. Dillinger is Prince Charming as he robs banks, eludes the law, and swears himself to one girl; being played by Johnny Depp is what makes it perfect.

I appreciate the way Public Enemies is put together. The cliché dramatic music that I’ve come to expect during gunfights never pops up. Everything is frantic and loud in the surrounding silence. It’s different from what I’m accustomed to, and it works well for the style of realism in Public Enemies.

Johnny Depp brings Dillinger to life as the sometimes cocky, sometimes romantic, but never cold-blooded bank robber.

Myth and Reality:
Historical Accuracy in “Public Enemies”

Public Enemies is quite historically accurate. Artistic license is taken mostly with the order in which some events (especially deaths) occur. This doesn’t bother me: I understand that these changes add drama and thrills, two things I want my movies to have.

Johnny Depp avoids gangster clichés to portray a lovable, true-to-life John Dillinger. The people who knew Dillinger described him as friendly and good-natured, able to remain calm in an emergency and act quickly and rationally (Source). He was not an indiscriminate killer; he was accused of killing one police officer but never convicted. These traits are important: they’re a large part of the reason Dillinger was so popular.

Christian Bale plays Melvin Purvis as steely and determined but doesn’t get the chance to do anything special with the role. The law is bumbling and corrupt, highlighting the moral ambiguities of the Great Depression era. I think the police and FBI are actually less incompetent in Public Enemies than they were in real life.

I truly appreciate the costumes and historical locations in the film. Michael Mann put a lot of effort into making Public Enemies feel authentic, and it shows. Besides, I love fedoras and long gabardine overcoats: the fact that Johnny Depp is in them is just a bonus.

Missed Opportunities:

Dillinger – Bank Robber, Robin Hood, Smooth Criminal

I was disappointed that Public Enemies didn’t contain more bank robberies. Instead, the robberies were few and fleeting. The trailers made a promise that the movie didn’t keep. It was like getting to take one bite of the most decadent chocolate mousse and then being cut off. I didn’t just want more: I ached for it.

Not only were the bank robberies short, but the details were completely omitted. John Dillinger isn’t just famous for robbing banks: he’s famous for how he robbed them.

Dillinger and his gang used cunning ruses to case potential targets and assess security systems, like when Dillinger would pose as an alarm system salesman. And he and his gang are celebrated for pretending to be from Hollywood researching a bank robbery scene while they actually robbed the bank. They also posed as tourists to scope out police arsenals: that’s right, they stole their guns, ammunition, and bullet-proof vests from the police.

John Dillinger’s sly intelligence is hinted at in Public Enemies—”They ain’t tough enough, smart enough or fast enough. I can hit any bank I want, any time. They got to be at every bank, all the time.”—but never truly utilized.

The Focus on Billie Frechette Falters

–SPOILERS–

I don’t agree with all the omissions. When Billie is tortured for information, the law crosses the line and becomes truly villainous. Everyone wants to see Dillinger rescue the damsel in distress. Unfortunately, he doesn’t.

When Billie was arrested, Dillinger “cried like a baby” (Source). Billie wrote him a letter pleading with him not to try to rescue her for fear he’d be killed. What’s not shown is that Dillinger refused to accept this and checked out the federal prison where Billie was being held. It was then that he (reluctantly) accepted any escape attempt would be impossible.

Since Public Enemies focuses more on romance than on bank robbing, this omission seems like a big one. Dillinger, who orchestrated previous prison escapes, doesn’t even try to break out the girl he’s crazy in love with? No, it felt like something was missing.

–END SPOILERS–

The Bottom Line:
Is “Public Enemies” Worth Seeing?

I’m glad I saw Public Enemies and I definitely recommend it. The movie is not only entertaining but also surprisingly accurate, meaning the humor, the charm, and the moral ambiguities of John Dillinger and his story remain intact.

Just make sure you go in with the understanding that Public Enemies is not as action-packed as the trailers suggest. John Dillinger was a bank robber, but the film is unfortunately lacking in bank robberies. I enjoyed Public Enemies, but it has its flaws—there is just too much left out.

Public Enemies is a Cinderella story, with Dillinger rescuing Billie Frechette from her boring and less-than-privileged life.

I love Johnny Depp as John Dillinger. Dillinger is so often portrayed as a cold-blooded killer even though that was never the case. Thankfully, Public Enemies steers clear of such banked-on inaccuracies. Dillinger isn’t just a gangster or a bank robber: he’s human, and that’s how I like my antiheroes.

This summer is filled with movies with so little substance it’s insulting: X-Men Origins: Wolverine, J.J Abrams’s Star Trek, Terminator Salvation, Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen. Thankfully, Public Enemies is here to give us back what we’ve been missing: an actual story, good acting, and true flair.

More About “Public Enemies”:
Johnny Depp Interviews & Historical Accuracy

• ‘Public Enemies’ No. 1 (in historical accuracy, writer says) – Los Angeles Times
• Johnny Depp interview for Public Enemies – Telegraph
• Johnny Depp Talks Public Enemies, Pirates 4, Alice In Wonderland And More – Latino Review

I also fixed a few problems. For one thing, I updated the search function to include companies. I also sped up the person information pages by examining the MySQL queries. Sometimes, the person pages loaded so slowly they would time out. Now they load almost instantaneously, so it makes a huge difference.

The CrystalAcids site is a huge project. Now that it’s completed, I’ll be updating my Gallery and my Résumé. Meanwhile, see my handiwork live at CrystalAcids.com.

I have submitted my first T-shirt design to Threadless. It’s a cute little tiger flying a tiger kite. Check it out. Show my tiger some love and give it your vote. Comments welcome.

I am already working on my next T-shirt design. More adorableness to come!

But, I have kept my promise and added a Quickies section to my Gallery. Everyone rejoice!

My site has gotten visible enough that I’m getting multiple spam comments per day. With so many other things to work on, I put off installing a WordPress spam filter until it actually became an issue. A good guideline that not enough websites follow: don’t fix problems that don’t exist when there are problems that do exist to work on.

I created this illustration in Photoshop. No tablet, just a mouse. I wanted to do something simple and fun. It’s nice to take a break and do something quick while working on other, long-term projects.

I’ll add this to my Gallery in a section called “Quickies” after HP fixes and returns my laptop.

What Good Mascot Design Needs

A mascot isn’t just a drawing; it’s a character with personality. GEICO’s gecko is like a living, breathing being; it’s easy to forget it’s a computer rendering.

Some mascots are just hand-drawn illustrations, others are combined with a logo. They appear throughout the site and motivate users to some actions — e.g. to visit some site section or fill in the sign-up form.

Mascots in Modern Web Design

The OUTSHOUTS mascot is calling the user’s attention to the ‘contact us’ suggestion (at What Is This?, doesn’t show in IE 6)

Don’t just plop the mascot in the header or logo and forget about it. It should appear throughout the site and create a more memorable experience for the user. Where would you be on the site? Urging users to sign up for the newsletter? Pointing out side notes in a blog post?

Here, Songbird’s mascot calls attention to the newsletter

The Songbird Media Player site is a great example of how a mascot can be used. Go take a look at the site, at the blog. See the possibilities? Of course, not every site warrants such extensive use of a mascot. How you use your mascot is up to you; there are no absolutes in design.

To leave a lasting impression, mascots have to look as cute, as sweet, as adorable, as pity and sometimes even as silly as possible.

A mascot can provide a site design with a fine and nice detail which the site would miss otherwise. … It’s important that the final mascot design is clean and fits to the overall site design.

Mascots in Modern Web Design

I want to use moourl just because it’s so damn cute

Mascots are the faces of companies or groups of people. What does your mascot say about you? It needs to represent you and what you do. It also needs to appeal to your target audience. If you’re not targeting gamers, don’t create an 8-bit mascot.

YiGG.de’s mascot in its natural environment

YiGG.de’s hamster catches the user’s attention because it’s bright orange. This isn’t random: the site design’s main color is light blue, and blue and orange are complementary colors. Keep your color scheme in mind when designing a mascot.

Don’t try to force a mascot into your site. If your site is cutesy and uses simple, cartoon-style drawings in the design, don’t create a realistic mascot rendered with complex textures.

Remember: Your site is the world your mascot lives in.

When Mascot Design Goes Bad

Going through the links in “Mascots in Modern Web Design” (and in its comments), I saw a lot of good examples of mascot usage. I also saw some mascots that looked very out-of-place on their sites.

Report Frog’s mascot on the main page

Report Frog was the worst offender. The cartoon frog looks weird on the otherwise professional site. Report Frog needs a more realistic frog, similar to GEICO’s gecko.

Report Frog’s “Fun Facts” (”A ‘log in’ is slang for a log party”) seem forced, not funny. Since the company’s name is Report Frog, it makes sense to go with a frog theme, but they’re doing it wrong. I’d rather see some frog silhouettes and lily pads incorporated in the design.

Report Frog is an example of how the wrong mascot design can cripple a site. Just because they want a frog doesn’t mean any frog will do: their current frog in a suit looks lame.

The Making of rycz’s Mascot

The purpose of rycz.com is to display my work, so naturally there’s a lot of eye candy in the design. In order to keep the site design unified, I took the pink kitty in the header and incorporated it in the footer, in my art descriptions, in the RSS link, and in the sidebar. When I needed to design my profiles on Twitter and Virb, it made sense to continue using the kitty.

Bubble Kitty getting into trouble on Twitter

As I was reading Smashing Magazine’s article, “Mascots in Modern Web Design,” it occurred to me that the pink kitty had become the mascot for my website. I didn’t do it on purpose; originally I just considered the kitty part of my theme.

Because I wasn’t thinking “I need to add a mascot here,” it looks very natural in my design. My site is made up of simple vector illustrations, and that’s exactly what the kitty is. Plus, the kitty’s very cute; even though it’s a really simple character, it still has personality.

Bubble Kitty says ‘hi’

Mascots don’t always have a name, but it’s easier to refer to them if they do. Because the kitty is next to a speech bubble on the gallery pages, my friend refers to it as “Bubble Kitty.” A silly name for a silly character.

More Mascot Help

• “Drunken Monkey Photoshop Tutorial” at Smashing Magazine
• “Mascot Design Articles” at SOSNewbie
• “Mascots in Modern Web Design” at Smashing Magazine

I chose to use pandas to create the CrystalAcids brand. The owner liked the cute site design and let me have fun with it. His one stipulation was that he wanted to keep the site blue. I utilized different shades of blue to create a site design that is far from bland or boring.

My job was to design the database pages and WordPress theme. My designs are almost complete; I reached a roadblock when the site programmer decided to switch from straight MySQL and PHP to Smarty. He started the conversion but has been too busy lately to finish it. When he finishes converting the database, I’ll be able to finish the design. Unfortunately, as of writing this the new site design is still not live.

Check out CrystalAcids in my Gallery for five images from the design. CrystalAcids is a nonprofit site and the work I’ve done for them has been pro bono.

Internet Explorer is the biggest offender when it comes to not following web standards. Most of the CSS hacks are for IE. But Microsoft has actually provided a rather eloquent way of slipping in IE-only code.

Conditional comments will not only detect IE, they’ll also detect which version of IE the user is browsing with. Since different versions of IE have different problems, this is extremely useful. Here is an example:

<!--[if IE]>
Some IE. specific code goes here
<![endif]-->

<!--[if IE 7]>
Some IE 7 specific code goes here
<![endif]-->

The designer can write a separate stylesheet for IE or write specific stylesheets for each version of IE.

Conditional comments are only understood by IE. Other browsers will interpret them as normal comments and not execute any of the code inside.

I am very fond of this technique. It’s been around for a good while now, so I don’t know why I don’t see more CSS gurus implementing it. There’s no messy javascript that can freeze the page, eat up memory, and crash the browser (not to mention many people have javascript turned off). There are no CSS hacks that dirty up the stylesheet. It’s not perfect—it’d be nice if IE actually became standards compliant one of these days—but it’s better than the alternatives.

For more information, see the MSDN Library Entry: About Conditional Comments

All animations were drawn using paper, a pencil, a lightbox, and a pegboard. X-sheets were used to plan the timing. The frames were captured using a mounted camera and everything was animated in DigiCel Flipbook. I converted the animations into Flash for use online.