The public Enemy

Juan Guzman
2/26/20

The film was really great I enjoy watching these types of movies which are crime films. The main actor
for the movie is James Cagney one quote from Beltons book describes him as “ tough guys such as
Cagney.” After seeing some of his films I find that the quote really is true. With each character he acts
like a gangsters to an FBI agent they each have a strong personality in the films. The plot of the film the
public enemy Was two kids named Tom and Matt. They were poor and they were hoodlums they liked
to steal and sell the items they stole to get money. Once they grew up they made a living out of stealing
and begin gangsters. The movie starts off in the city of Chicago in the early 1900’s. Tom and Matt they
were young kids that stole anything from people and they sold it to this man that they made friends
with. He bought the items from them and told them that they can trust him and bring him more stuff.
Years past buy they are a little grown up. They are still stealing from people and sell to the man. The
man tell Tom and Matt that he has a big job for them and it has a big pay reward. The man gives Tom
and Matt their first guns just for the big job. Tom say that he has never done anything this big of a job
before but he’s excited for the opportunity. The job was for them to go and shoot and steal stuff from a
home. Once they were at the job they shoot and then they hear the police blowing his whistle and they
had to escape but the police had already saw them and they started shooting them. They go back to the
man house and they wont let them in. It was all a trap plan just for they can get caught by the police.
Years past by and it’s the 1920s prohibition era no alcohol is begin sold. The whole city is going crazy
trying to get the alcohol. Tom and Matt meet the bartender and he has a plan that would make them big
money. The plan was that beer is going up and price so they have to steal beer from other places and
sell the beer to local speakeasy. So they become partners and they go and sell the beer and they make
lots of money. They go and buy fancy suits and new cars. They are not poor anymore and they are
official gangsters with money. Tom visits him mom and finds out that his brother is home from the
marines Tom gives his mother money and his mother says she can’t accept it it to much but Tom says its
not and he has way more money. He i tells her that his job is making him lots of money and he doesn’t
have to worry about money anymore. Then his brother find out want Tom actual job is and that begins a
bootlegger sell beer illegally. His brother confronts Tom and tell him we don’t need you money I am
taking care of mom. So the brother get into a fight and then Tom leaves and doesn’t come back until
week later. The rival gang starts to shoot up their business and toms gang starts to fight back. So Tom
goes and finds out we’re they hide out and shoots all of the gang members. Once Tom comes out you
see that he is hurt and bleeding from his head and then he collapses on the street. He then goes to the
hospital and they don’t know if he is going to be ok. His mom and brother comes to see him. At the
hospital Tom and his brother make up and are friends again. His brother tell him if he is going to be ok
and come home. Tom responds and says yes. Once they get back home his brother get a call telling him
that the mob gangsters have kidnapped Tom from the hospital. The brother gets a knock at the door
and finds Tom all in bad shape and dead. The whole moral of the film story in my opinion is that Tom
was raised a criminal and live by the streets he then made money and then later died by the streets.
This film has some similarities to the film G-men. Both have a connection to the city of Chicago in the
movie g-men Davis is assigned a job in Chicago. In the public enemy they whole film is based in 1920’s
Chicago. Both film are crime films and are about gangsters in G-men Davis is a lawyer that wants to be a
FBI agent because he doesn’t want to be a lawyer anymore and wants to be out in the field to arrest
gangsters. In the public enemy Tom is a criminal that turns into a gangster and becomes a bootlegger
selling beer during the prohibition era. The difference between both films is that in G-men Davis was
once connected to the gangsters then he ended up begin a lawyer to FBI agent. In the public enemy Tom
was a criminal since a kid and he never changed he ended up being a gangster. Another movie that is
similar to the public enemy is the film Scarface played by Paul Muni as Antonio tony camonte a gangster
who rises in the prohibition era in Chicago. Both films are connected to Chicago because in the 1920s.
The city was controlled by the Capone mob by bootlegging. as both story’s in the public enemy and in
Scarface are told as gangsters in the prohibition era. In each movie the character is a criminal and then
becomes a bootlegger. Then they want to become the biggest gangster in the city and they can’t get
enough money. Though American audiences remained fascinated by stars, they wanted their stars to be
more human and more accessible.”(Belton) The American cinema was coming out of the silent era and
into the new era. They want the actor who were involved in the silent era to break out of their silent
acting into this new era. We’re they have to act a new way they need to story tell they had to tells
story’s about what was going on at the time like crime and war films. The audience want to connect and
learn more about their favorite actors.

To conclude, I choice crime films like the public enemy because these types of flim always caught my
attention. Chicago was connected to the crime films because it had the biggest powerful gangsters like
Capone and bootlegging selling alcohol in the 1920’s. That why all three films have a connection to
Chicago and they all have similar story plot that deal with gangsters and bootleggers.

21

This was a very good first paper. You did a good job explaining the similarities and differences between
The Public Enemy and G-Men and you did a good job incorporating the reading material. In terms of the
content of the paper here, for your future essays, I would encourage you to do less summarizing and
more analysis. Most of what you have here is simply describing the plot of The Public Enemy. Instead, I
would like to see you just give a brief synopsis and then select one or two key scenes and analyze their
significance to the film, to the genre, to the culture at the time, etc. If you shift more towards analysis,
your future papers will be even better.