Christian Bale Public Enemies Press Conference
Do you think Melvin Purvis calling for tougher lawmen led to the abuses we've seen in law enforcement over the years?Christian Bale: "I think that naturally in finding a balance, mistakes are always made and that's very much what we're seeing in the birth of the FBI here. They initially were at a great disadvantage. It's something which you don't learn in the movie but the FBI weren't even allowed to carry weapons until the Kansas City Massacre had occurred. They had no jurisdiction over so many of the crimes that Dillinger committed with breaking his friends out of jail or robbing banks. As soon as he crossed the state line, he was free."
"I think that in this particular case, you had the brilliant vision of [J Edgar] Hoover but a little too ahead of his time. They just weren't ready for that yet. Naturally, Purvis saw a number of very close friends of his die and so had to confront his mentor, which was something really painful to him because he really did have a great friendship with Hoover. They just needed more experienced men around. I don't think that with Purvis, that particular element of his desire to bring more experienced lawmen in resulted in anything brutal. I think it was more Hoover's embarrassment at Dillinger's spectacular escapes that drove him to, as he says, take off the white gloves. It was more to do with that and the treatment of, for instance, the one guy who they catch had a bullet wound to the head and they wouldn't allow him treatment until he says where the gangsters are holed up. Those were the kinds of things that began to reduce Purvis and have him question his role and whether he really believed he had a future with this bureau, because he found it all to be morally abhorrent and to be a compromise to the very values that Hoover was espousing in that day."
What information did you get from Purvis' son?
Christian Bale: "So much from him because it really wasn't just one brief interview. We spent a great deal of time together. He was very reach-outable. I went down to their hometown and met with remaining family and friends. He's written a wonderful book called The Vendetta which is focused on Purvis' relationship with Hoover, which is really how I approached this entire role. I never viewed Purvis as having a real personal zeal for taking down Dillinger. I think that he was somebody who was very understanding in acknowledging why the public felt Dillinger to be almost a hero. He wasn't unaware of the problems of the day and the terrible deprivation of the majority of the population. He had a personal hatred for Baby Face Nelson because Nelson had killed Barton, and then Baum - who Purvis brought with him - who were very close friends of him. But otherwise his driving motivation was that he truly believed in Hoover and had a great desire to realize Hoover's brilliant vision. That's really what I played with in my mind throughout this movie was the conflict between wanting to achieve that vision but recognizing Hoover's own compromises, which Purvis wasn't entirely happy with making. In fact, very unhappy with making."
Was there a learning curve to the proximity of the camera given that Michael Mann shoots in digital?
Christian Bale: "I found it a real eye opener. I'd never worked with HD before. I wish I could work with it on every movie now. Not only does it give great freedom in terms of the length of take and the numbers of takes you can have, you can shoot for 52 minutes straight rather than the usual six minutes. So much more like life. You don't have to stop and pause and think too much about what you're doing. You can really feel like you're living it much more. There were such extraordinary talented camera operators and Dante [Spinotti] being the DP and Michael [Mann], he would operate at times as well. They had such incredible speed, I could just run at them knowing that within one inch, they would certainly have the camera out of my face and I wouldn't be knocking them down. Michael would encourage me anyway, 'Hey Christian, knock them down if they're too slow.'"
"Also the style in which it was shot was fantastic for someone like me who I don't tend to want to know if my close-up is being done or if it's a wide shot. I don't really feel like I need to know that. We often shot masters and close-ups at the same time. I enjoyed that greatly. If anybody ever listens to me, I would be strongly endorsing using HD in future movies."
Would you try to sell Christopher Nolan on digital for the next Batman?
Christian Bale: "Not a hope in hell. Listen, he's going to come to that decision purely by himself and it's not as if I don't recognize I'm in very, very good hands when I'm working with him, so we've done just fine working with film so far. I ain't gonna be overstepping my boundaries."
How did the use of digital affect the period aspect?
Christian Bale: "You always want to make a period piece feel very vital to now. Clothing and customs may change, but the internal life of people doesn't change so much. It's ultimately what we're interested in, despite the fact of this era being such a wonderful, rich look to it. Ultimately, it's the internal life that you're interested in and that doesn't really change, so I don't feel like that conflicted at all."
