The Town and The Public Enemy

What are the similarities between the recent movie “The Town” and the 1931 film “The Public Enemy”? Besides both containing 'The' in their titles, little else. Both do follow the life of a mobster and involve the deaths of said mobster's compatriots, but the tone, plot, and characters diverge fairly dramatically.

“The Town” follows Doug McRay, a Charlestown native who becomes a bank robber. Tom, the protagonist of “The Public Enemy,” is a Chicago native who becomes a mobster, particularly during prohibition. Though “The Town” does not offer as sweeping of a look at Doug's life as “The Public Enemy” offers for Tom, we know that they both get mixed up in a bad situation and they both fall in love with a woman that they cannot have. All of Tom's friends eventually fall to mob warfare (with the exception of 'Limpin' Larry', who is shot by the police), and Doug's friends die during the final heist. These, however, are quite nearly the only similarities between “The Town” and “The Public Enemy”.

The differences between these movies are many; the most evident may be the tone of each movie. “The Town” sets Doug up as an anti-hero. He comes off as a hard-working 'townie' who gets mixed up with a business that he wants out of. Tom, however, takes an almost sadistic pleasure in being a mobster and has no desire to leave until Matt, his best friend, is killed. “The Public Enemy,” furthermore, does not want us to regard Tom as an anti-hero; the film is closer to a morality play which admonishes its viewers to stay away from crime, rather than to glorify a gangster.

The plots are likewise different. “The Town” plays out as one big chase scene with brief moments of respite. “The Public Enemy,” however, only features two heist scenes, one of which is horribly botched. “The Public Enemy” follows Tom through his life, from childhood to death, whereas “The Town” follows Doug through a very small part of his life, with a few hints thrown in about his youth. “The Public Enemy” shows a fairly rigid mob scene; Paddy Ryan leads the mob and “Nails” Nathan keeps it together. “The Town” shows Doug and his friends as something like contractors working for the florist. These all lead to quite divergent plots which the characters play out in radically different ways.

“The Town” and “The Public Enemy” are, essentially, radically different films. Despite both having gangsters as subject matter, the characters, events, and tone are quite variegated. The films don't even agree on whether the protagonist is an anti-hero or not. As such, few comparisons can be drawn between these superficially similar movies.