Beer and Blood: Enemies of the Public (2005)
*** 1/2 (out of 4)
Very good featurette taking a look at the 1931 classic THE PUBLIC ENEMY with James Cagney and Jean Harlow. Martin Scorsese kicks off the documentary talking about his father taking him to see the movie as a double feature with LITTLE CAESAR and he explains the impact this had on his life going forward. At 20-minutes the documentary covers a wide range of topics with Scorsese being joined by Drew Casper, Alain Silber and Robert Sklar among others. There's no question that this documentary belongs to Scorsese has he has some terrific observations on the film and it's especially interesting hearing him talk about how not showing the violence had so much more of an impact. He also makes a joke about how his films don't go for this approach. He also talks about showing the film to the cast of THE AVIATOR and what impact it had on them. The historians go over the fact that Cagney was originally hired for a supporting role but it was another film that made Warner put him in the lead. The work of Harlow is discussed at great length as is the famous ending and of course the grapefruit sequence. If you're a fan of the film then this here is a must see as the cast are extremely entertaining but just be sure you watch the film first as there are plenty of spoilers here.
*** 1/2 (out of 4)
Very good featurette taking a look at the 1931 classic THE PUBLIC ENEMY with James Cagney and Jean Harlow. Martin Scorsese kicks off the documentary talking about his father taking him to see the movie as a double feature with LITTLE CAESAR and he explains the impact this had on his life going forward. At 20-minutes the documentary covers a wide range of topics with Scorsese being joined by Drew Casper, Alain Silber and Robert Sklar among others. There's no question that this documentary belongs to Scorsese has he has some terrific observations on the film and it's especially interesting hearing him talk about how not showing the violence had so much more of an impact. He also makes a joke about how his films don't go for this approach. He also talks about showing the film to the cast of THE AVIATOR and what impact it had on them. The historians go over the fact that Cagney was originally hired for a supporting role but it was another film that made Warner put him in the lead. The work of Harlow is discussed at great length as is the famous ending and of course the grapefruit sequence. If you're a fan of the film then this here is a must see as the cast are extremely entertaining but just be sure you watch the film first as there are plenty of spoilers here.