Discland
edited by Jonathan Doyle
Mafioso (The Criterion Collection, 3.18.2008) Nino Badalamenti is a supervisor in a car manufacturing plant who hasn't taken a vacation in over two years. On his way out the door to visit his beloved childhood hometown of Sicily -- with his blonde wife and daughters -- Nino is handed a package by his boss and asked to deliver it to a powerful and influential Sicilian gangster named Don Vincenzo. Once in Sicily, Nino has a hoot seeing friends and family, but his wife has trouble fitting in and is unfairly dismissed as a snob by Nino's family. Even more worrisome, Nino finds himself entangled in an intricate web of secret mafioso dealings and is eventually sent on an unexpectedly... elaborate errand. (continued)

Book vs. Script

Before I proceed this is a spoiler warning for all the history scholars out there who don't know that gangster John Dillinger was shot and killed by FBI agents on a hot night in Chicago in July 1934. Okay? Sorry if this upsets anyone who wants to be kept in a state of white-knuckled suspense when they sit down to see Michael Mann's Public Enemies sometime next year.

Last night I bought a copy of Bryan Burrough's "Public Enemies: America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI -- 1933 to '34," which is the basis of Mann's currently-shooting movie. I then received a copy of an 11.4.07 draft of the script of Public Enemies (written by Ronan Bennett, with revisions by Mann and Ann Biderman, and then Mann again).

The book is about all the wild-ass outlaw buckaroos of that era (including Machine Gun Kelly, Alvin Karpis, Baby Face Nelson, Bonnie and Clyde, Pretty Boy Floyd, the Barker gang ) but the bulk of it -- certainly the heart of it -- is about John Dillinger. The book is 542 pages long (not counting the epilogue), and Dillinger finally goes down in a shower of hot lead on page 408. The script is even more Dillinger-friendly. It runs 131 pages, and Dillinger succumbs on page 123.

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Posted by Jeffrey Wells on March 25, 2008 at 04:30 PM

comment #1

Geoff [TypeKey Profile Page] says ...

What about Christian Bale/Melvin Purvis?

Posted by Geoff [TypeKey Profile Page] at March 25, 2008 05:00 PM

comment #2

AndrewOwens [TypeKey Profile Page] says ...

Did Jeff ever do anything on that John Logan script about a 30's PI in Hollywood, that was set up for DiCaprio and Mann? I would love to see that made. Alas, Public Enemies will do instead, I suppose.

Posted by AndrewOwens [TypeKey Profile Page] at March 25, 2008 05:39 PM

comment #3

Mgmax [TypeKey Profile Page] says ...

Yeah, wildass buckaroos pretty much sums it up-- that's one thing I took away from the book, that it was still pretty much the Wild West, just because cars came along and hats got smaller doesn't mean things changed that much. Robbers, crooked cops, small towns consisting of a giant gambling hall and not much else-- not much difference in the end between the James gang and the Dillinger gang, really.

The other thing you take away, of course, is how amazingly incompetent the early FBI was.

Posted by Mgmax [TypeKey Profile Page] at March 25, 2008 06:50 PM

comment #4

renorambler [TypeKey Profile Page] says ...

That first sentence had me laughing out loud. Well done!

Posted by renorambler [TypeKey Profile Page] at March 25, 2008 08:17 PM

comment #5

btwnproductions [TypeKey Profile Page] says ...

Great book, PUBLIC ENEMIES. HBO had planned a miniseries, a more apt format given the multiple historical threads, but the Mann film will have to do.

Posted by btwnproductions [TypeKey Profile Page] at March 25, 2008 09:10 PM

comment #6

Rich S. [TypeKey Profile Page] says ...

How incompetent the early FBI was?

I have a friend in state law enforcement who says the universal nickname for the FBI to this day is "Famous But Incompetent."

Posted by Rich S. [TypeKey Profile Page] at March 26, 2008 05:05 AM

comment #7

Dave Polands Gut [TypeKey Profile Page] says ...

If you are expecting a good read and an interesting book do not read this. Its like a boring history book.

Posted by Dave Polands Gut [TypeKey Profile Page] at March 26, 2008 11:28 AM

comment #8

Rich S. [TypeKey Profile Page] says ...

A good "true crime" book is Eliot Ness' The Untouchables. Undoubtedly embellished, but good nonetheless.

Posted by Rich S. [TypeKey Profile Page] at March 26, 2008 12:05 PM

comment #9

TedM [TypeKey Profile Page] says ...

What's interesting is that Melvin Purvis' son is telling everyone that his biography of his father was optioned and used for this script, but I've yet to see any credits reflecting that. My guess is that the studio just bought the book to stifle any complaints from the Purvis family since there's still some controversy over whether Melvin committed suicide or died accidentally.

Posted by TedM [TypeKey Profile Page] at March 26, 2008 03:30 PM

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