Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Dillinger

Monday, September 29, 2008

Like Blood Simple, this is not a Noir Month selection, but still fits well. Dillinger is a favorite movie of Shenan's, and I was intrigued mainly for one reason: Warren fucking Oates plays Dillinger.

I thought it was going to be a Bonnie and Clyde knock-off, but it turns out to have more of a badass, tough guy, hyper-violent style to it that I wasn't expecting. In fact, I'm kind of shocked that Shenan likes this movie, as she tends to not like action movies, and this is one of the most boisterously violent action films I've ever seen. She probably likes the talking scenes more so than the shooting scenes, I guess.

It was a little slow in places, and there are a few too many montages of still photos set to old-timey music, but the action scenes and the performances are strong enough to make it worth checking out.

2 comments:

Shenan said...

uh....maybe my liking of it comes from me reading way too much into it than i actually should. haha my dad said a similar thing when he saw that movie, that it was a "good shoot-em-up flick" and i was all thinking it explored themes of the line between a good man and a bad man and who decides what criteria to use to draw that line, and about america's reverence for/glorification of criminals. i mean, on top of all the great action.

but either way (maybe reinforcing my second thing i thought the movie explored), john dillinger is fucking cool, and all his exploits and escapes from jail (they didn't call him "jackrabbit john" for nothing) and encounters he had with different people and famous are the stuff of folk legends now, and stuff i grew up hearing about, so i like hearing those stories over and over again, like in this movie.

Shenan said...

"and famous" is supposed to read "and famous death"...for some reason i forget to type death.