Public Enemies

John Dillinger was a famous bank robber during the Great Depression era. The movie Public Enemies depicts Dillinger's criminal exploits as he repeatedly robs banks and escapes from law enforcement, earning him the title of Public Enemy Number One from the FBI. FBI Agent Melvin Purvis is tasked with the impossible mission of capturing or killing Dillinger. The film trailers use editing techniques like jump cuts, shot reverse shot, and crosscutting to introduce the characters of Dillinger and Purvis and tease action-packed scenes of Dillinger's crimes and attempts to evade authorities, drawing in viewers by portraying Dillinger as a notorious criminal and building suspense without giving away the full story

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Public Enemies

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Conor

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Public Enemies (2009)

Public Enemies is a movie based in the American Depression era starring
Johnny Depp as the protagonist, famous real life bank robber John Dillinger.
The FBI makes Depp the first Public Enemy Number One after escaping them
a numerous times, as well as even escaping from prison. The movies main
antagonist is Christian Bale, who co stars as FBI Agent Melvin Purvis, a man
who is given seemingly impossible task of bringing Dillinger in dead or alive.
The trailer begins with a contrapuntal, non diegetic piece of dialogue, in which
the audience hears a female character What is it exactly that you do for a
living?. The woman is wearing a red dress and lipstick, a common convention
in gangster movies. This denotes luxury, however as red is commonly
associated with such themes as blood and warnings, the dress could have
been used to connote the danger in which this female character may put her
self in if she wishes to get involved with John Dillinger. This is followed by a
montage of jump cuts as Dillinger and his accompanies robbing a bank.
Action editing and elliptical editing are used to great effect in this sequence of
shots. The audience is then formally introduced to our main protagonist, who
replies: John Dillinger, I rob banks. During this conversation, shot/reverse
shot and the 180-degree rule are used. The mis-en-scene of the scene shows
the two sitting at a table together. The denotations of this shows the two are
out for dinner, this connotes to the audience that the two could be in a
relationship and they are on a date, however we later discover this is not the
case, and the two have only recently met. Crosscutting is now used to
introduce our antagonists, we see the head of the FBI declaring The United
States of Americas first war on crime, as well as showcasing the criminal life
style our protagonist is involved in. The scene does this by showing criminals
shooting their guns and taking hostages. The use of a Tommy gun a prop
connotes the era that the film is based in, as this was a common weapon
during the particular moment in time. We are then introduced to our second
antagonist, Melvin Purvis, as he is asked to go after Dillinger. Throughout this
trailer we see many of the regular conventions of gangster movies. The most
obvious being suits. All the men the audience see in this trailer are wearing
suits. This connotes the luxury lifestyles in which these men live, as they can
afford to pay for expensive attire, especially during the ear of the Great
American Depression. The trailer is full of subliminal cuts and jump cuts. This
connotes to the audience that there is never a moments rest, just non-stop
action throughout the movie. This attracts more viewers, widening the
demographic of the movie.
At the beginning of the second trailer for the movie, the first thing to appear is
the universal logo. This immediately informs the audience of the high quality
production of this film, as this is a world famous production company.
Followed by this is sequence of action-edited shots. Americas most notorious
criminal is an effective like as it connotes the scale of Dillingers crimes, as
the whole country was aware of whom he was and what he does. This trailer
also uses shot/reverse shot to display a conversation between our protagonist
and antagonist. We then see a montage of subliminal cuts showing Dillinger
escaping prison. This is effective as it shows just enough to interest and
attract the audience, whilst leaving them on edge, wanting to see how

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Dillinger did it. This attracts them into seeing the movie. During the next
montage of shits there is an asynchronous voice over. This is done to create
suspense, once again leaving the audience to piece the trailer together with
the words.