One of the best gangster movies of all-time, a 100% fresh pick on Rotten Tomatoes, is now streaming on Max. The criminal anti-hero is a familiar type in the 2020s, but the idea of a sociopathic law-breaker capable of garnering audience sympathy was once a novelty.
Viewers were first treated to gangster movies built around charismatic underworld figures in the 1930s, a time when real gangsters dominated news headlines. Playing criminals helped stars like James Cagney, Edward G. Robinson and Humphrey Bogart launch their legendary careers.
Cultural changes later made the gangster movie unfashionable, but the genre enjoyed a huge comeback in the 1970s thanks to The Godfather. The modern crime movie era, as launched by Francis Ford Coppola’s epic, has seen more than its share of classics, from movies like Goodfellas and Scarface, to TV shows like The Sopranos.
The Public Enemy Is Now Streaming On Max
It Arrived July 1
Long before Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and James Gandolfini helped make the anti-heroic criminal fashionable again, the template for such characters was first molded by movies like The Public Enemy, the 100% fresh Rotten Tomatoes pick now streaming on Max.
Starring the aforementioned Cagney as a tough young hood rising up the criminal ranks, The Public Enemy arrived on Max on July 1.
Why You Should Watch The Public Enemy
It’s A Must-See For Gangster Movie Fans
Cagney was a relative unknown before playing the ruthless Tom Powers in William Wellman’s Oscar-nominated 1931 gangster drama. The star would take on many more hoodlum characters in his career, but none as iconic as the one that launched him to stardom.
It’s Cagney’s sheer charisma that transforms Tom from a mere movie bad guy to a seminal cinematic anti-hero, a character who could both gain an audience’s sympathy with his bravado, and outrage them with his psycH๏τic behavior (typified by the scene where Cagney smashes a grapefruit in co-star Mae Clarke’s face).
The Sopranos pays homage to The Public Enemy‘s place in gangster movie lore when Tony watches a scene from the film and is overcome with emotion.
Filmmaker and movie historian Martin Scorsese has also revealed the influence of Wellman’s film, detailing how he saw the movie as a child and was deeply affected by its gritty realism (via VOA):
“The brutal honesty of that film, the ‘street’ honesty of it, always stayed with me and that’s a mark I always aim toward.”
An example of pre-Code cinema, The Public Enemy was released at a time when it was possible for a Hollywood film to get away with what Scorsese calls “street honesty,” before more stringent content guidelines were imposed.
The controversy around The Public Enemy at the time of its release only stands as a testament to the film’s power to both shock and entertain. The movie’s 100% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes reflects not only the acclaim it received in the 1930s, but still receives from critics and filmmakers alike.
The potency of Cagney’s performance has little diminished in almost 100 years. In 2003, AFI ranked Tom Powers 42nd on its list of the 100 best heroes and villains. The Public Enemy finished 8th on AFI’s 2008 rundown of the 10 greatest gangster movies of all-time.
