Powerful

Please don't spend money on this.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

The acting in this movie is really good.

"Dillinger" is one of the best films from Warren Oates. He is better known as a character actor, supporting player and a fine one at that. Occasionally, he was given the lead. The film has great action and Warren Oates bears a striking resemblance to the real life bandit, John Dillinger. Ben Johnson is terrific as the F.B.I agent who is on Dillinger's trail. A minor classic.

Saw this recently on THIS-TV and it still holds up extremely well. Director John Milius shows his penchant for blood and guts in a display of unbridled violence, none of it gratuitous. Milius deftly directs like a young Sam Peckinpah, giving depth and subtle nuance to the main characters including a riveting performance by Warren Oates, who is doggedly pursued by Ben Johnsons' main G-Man, Melvin Purvis. Watch for outstanding support from a young Richard Dreyfuss as hot-headed Baby Face Nelson and a calm but cool Pretty Boy Floyd played by Steve Kanaly. Even ex-Mama and Papa singer Michelle Phillips gives a sterling performance as Dillingers' main squeeze.Catch it next time on television or rent it again...you won't be disappointed.

G-man Melvin Purvis (Ben Johnson) chases bank robber John Dillinger (Warren Oates) high and low, in this Depression-era action flick that's heavy on gunfights and short on character development. Throughout the film, a herd of other public enemies, including Harry Pierpont, Homer Van Meter, Baby Face Nelson, Pretty Boy Floyd, among others, stampede the plot, diverting us away from Dillinger the man. It's as if all these hoodlums suddenly exploded on the scene, without benefit of a childhood or motivation of any kind, and one of these hoodlums just happened to be Dillinger.Multiple shootouts go on and on and on. Bang, bang, bang ... dying bodies jerk, squirm, twitch, and lurch, with lots of blood. Antiquated autos zoom away at twenty miles an hour, tip over, crash, and blow-up. And Purvis smokes lots of cigars.Another irritation is the casting of Warren Oates. He looks way too old to play Dillinger. An unknown, younger actor would have been more convincing.On the other hand, the film's color cinematography and terrific production design create an authentic 1930s look and feel, helped along by era songs, like "Red River Valley" and "Happy Days Are Here Again". The outdoor scenes, especially, with those dirt roads and cheap frame rural houses, convey a dreary, lonesome, forlorn mood, totally in keeping with the poverty and hopelessness of that period.My impression of this film is similar to that of the more recent Dillinger film "Public Enemies" (2009). Both films lack focus on Dillinger. Both get carried away with action. And both do a great job with the Depression-era style. That is to say, in "Public Enemies" and in "Dillinger", the strength is the visuals; the weakness is mainly the script.

Near the beginning, after it's been established that outlaw John Dillinger (Warren Oates), is an egomaniacal rapist, another bandit of the 1930s is cornered in a farm house and surrounded by the FBI. Second-in-command Melvin Purvis (Ben Johnson), surveys the situations, sticks a lighted cigar in his mouth, picks up two loaded .45-caliber automatics, and stalks off into the distant house alone. Bang, bang, bang. Purvis emerges alone from the house, carrying the female hostage, the miscreant dead. All in long shot.If you're enthralled by stories like Red Riding Hood, this should have considerable appeal.Oh, it's as exciting as it is mindless. Pretty Boy Floyd meets his demise dramatically. Multiple violations of the civic code. Plenty of shoot outs with Tommy guns and pistols. Blood all over.As history, it stinks. Few remember Melvin Purvis as an FBI hero, partly, I would guess, because of his name. Melvin PURVIS? We all remember J. Edgar Hoover, who fired Melvin Purvis because he was a rival in the quest for public attention though.The picture was written and directed by John Milius. He's the guy who had it written into his contract that, should any animals be shot and killed in the course of one of his productions, he should be the designated shooter. Milius is the guy, a compleat gun freak, who had Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders in the Spanish-American war shouting quotations from Henry V -- "Saint Crispin's Day" and all that.Exciting, yes, and complete garbage. "I knew I'd never take him alive, and I didn't try too hard neither." That is, kill 'em all and let God sort them out.You'll just love it.