March 25, 1931 [The Public Enemy]
Four years ago, William A. Wellman took to the skies in Wings--but hauls me down to the gutter with The Public Enemy--and while the contrast is facile, it's also difficult to resist, especially with James Cagney sneering, his Tom Powers a perfect egoist, fending off the truth with wads of cash, tossed at his mother's blind devotion, his brother's shell-shocked glare--and with bullets, thrown like punches at every impediment. It's a Horatio Alger story twisted topsy-turvy but still recognizable, a secret joy that kills. And Cagney takes great pains to force our unwell admiration, his patter and step like a Tommygun's report, impossible to ignore.
True to form, though, we are punished for enjoying ourselves--by watching Tom ground like a dead cigarette beneath the plot's shoe, ruthless in its tortures. Wellman asked his pilots to be brave in Wings--but here it's the audience. We have to steel ourselves for the brutal truth, the dull sword that needs repeated strokes to finish the job.
True to form, though, we are punished for enjoying ourselves--by watching Tom ground like a dead cigarette beneath the plot's shoe, ruthless in its tortures. Wellman asked his pilots to be brave in Wings--but here it's the audience. We have to steel ourselves for the brutal truth, the dull sword that needs repeated strokes to finish the job.
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