Macho director/writer John Milius persuaded American International Pictures to let him direct his script on the life of gangster John Dillinger. AIP President Samuel Arkoff agreed and result was Milius's first film.
The film has a very good cast, Warren Oats, Ben Johnson, Michelle Phillips, Cloris Leachman, Harry Dean Stanton and Richard Dreyfuss. Dillinger was filmed in Oklahoma but sort of has that AIP low budget look to it.
Milius had commented that his version of the John Dillinger story more closely followed the facts of his life. But this was probably typical hyperbole by the overly macho director.
The film is like an odd mixture of a John Ford film celebrating traditional values of American life and a gangster film with lots of shooting. Milius, a gun nut seems to enjoy staging scenes of houses and people getting riddled with machine gun fire.
In the end the film is just as big a fantasy as about every other gangster film.
Running time, 107 minutes.
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