Public Enemies is a 2009 American biographical crime drama film directed by Michael Mann, who co-wrote the screenplay with Ronan Bennett and Ann Biderman.

It is an adaptation of Bryan Burrough's 2004 non-fiction book Public Enemies: America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933–34.

Set during the Great Depression, the film chronicles the final years of the notorious bank robber John Dillinger (Johnny Depp) as he is pursued by FBI agent Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale), Dillinger's relationship with Billie Frechette (Marion Cotillard), as well as Purvis' pursuit of Dillinger's associates and fellow criminals John "Red" Hamilton (Jason Clarke), Homer Van Meter (Stephen Dorff), Harry Pierpont (David Wenham), and Baby Face Nelson (Stephen Graham).

Burrough originally intended to make a television miniseries about the Depression-era crime wave in the United States, but decided to write a book on the subject instead.

Dillinger and company change clothes and eat at a nearby farm before driving to a safe house on Chicago's east-side.

After killing Charles Floyd, FBI agent Melvin Purvis is promoted by J. Edgar Hoover to lead the hunt for Dillinger.

In between a series of bank robberies, Dillinger meets Billie Frechette at a restaurant and impresses her by buying her a fur coat.

Purvis leads a failed ambush of Dillinger at a hotel, and an FBI agent is killed by Baby Face Nelson, who escapes with Tommy Carroll.

Nelson, Shouse, and Van Meter hijack a Bureau car, killing Purvis's partner Carter Baum in the process.

The idea was accepted by HBO and Burrough was made an executive producer, along with Robert De Niro's Tribeca Productions, and was asked to write the screenplay.

He began simultaneously writing a non-fiction book, which he found easier, spending two years working on it while the interest in the miniseries disappeared.

They agreed and after the book was released, the rights were re-sold to production companies representing Michael Mann and Leonardo DiCaprio, the latter of whom was interested in playing John Dillinger.

[4] Former NYPD Blue writer and Southland creator Ann Biderman rewrote the screenplay with Mann,[20][21] who polished it before shooting began.

The actual 1932 Studebaker used by Dillinger during a robbery in Greencastle, Indiana was used during filming in Columbus, borrowed from the nearby Historic Auto Attractions museum.

[30] Filming occurred downtown and at Pioneer Airport, including scenes shot using a historic Ford Trimotor airliner owned by the Experimental Aircraft Association.

[39][40] In promotion of the home media release, the multiplayer browser game Mafia Wars featured collectible "loot" from characters in the film.

[41] Public Enemies opened at number three behind Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs with $25.3 million.

The website's consensus reads: "Michael Mann's latest is a competent and technically impressive gangster flick with charismatic lead performances, but some may find the film lacks truly compelling drama.

"[44] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 70 out of 100, based on 35 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.

Manohla Dargis of The New York Times stated: "Michael Mann's 'Public Enemies' is a grave and beautiful work of art.

Shot in high-definition digital by a filmmaker who's helping change the way movies look, it revisits with meticulous detail and convulsions of violence a short, frantic period in the life and bank-robbing times of John Dillinger.

Critic Liam Lacey, of The Globe and Mail, believed the film was missing "any image of the economic misery that made Dillinger a folk hero", and, "the most regrettable crime here is the way that Mann, trying to do too much, robs himself of a great opportunity.

"[50] Similarly, Richard Corliss of Time claimed the film's emphasis on docudrama allowed for "precious little dramatic juice".

[54] Shortly before the theatrical release of Public Enemies, Burrough wrote that director Michael Mann "impressed [him] as a real stickler for historical accuracy.

[55] Burrough's non-fiction book on which the film is based details the demise of multiple infamous criminals in a 14-month period in 1933–34, including Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde, the Barker-Karpis gang, the Kansas City Massacre, and Machine Gun Kelly.

In focusing on Dillinger, Mann and co-writers Biderman and Bennett omitted Bonnie and Clyde entirely, briefly included only one member of the Barker gang (Alvin Karpis), and left out Pretty Boy Floyd except for his death.

Gorn writes that Dillinger himself "probably murdered just one man": William Patrick O'Malley, a cop who had been shot during a holdup in East Chicago, Indiana.

[56] In the film, Homer Van Meter and Baby Face Nelson are shot to death by Purvis after a vehicular pursuit from the Little Bohemia Lodge.

In the film, Dillinger walks into the detective bureau of a Chicago police station unrecognized and asks an officer for the score of a baseball game being broadcast on the radio, something he actually did according to Mann and Depp.

Burrough wrote that Dillinger's lips were reportedly moving just after he fell from being shot outside the Biograph Theater and that "Winstead was the first to reach him", but what he might have said is unknown.