History Channel | 2007 | 94 mins. | not Rated
The first half of the 1930’s was one of the bleakest times in American history. Beginning with the stock market crash on October 29, 1929, the nation was plunged into the deepest economic crisis it had ever experienced. Unemployment rose to 25%; massive foreclosures followed and to make matters worse, large swaths of farmland were lost to the Dust Bowl. It is this backdrop that gave rise to a group of gangsters who terrorized banks in the Midwest. From Michigan to Arkansas to Texas and even Arizona, five prolific outlaws shot and robbed their way into the American mainstream.
Though Crime Wave: 18 Months of Mayhem largely tells the story of John Dillinger, the 90-minute documentary from The History Channel also touches on his contemporaries, including Bonnie and Clyde, Baby Face Nelson and Machine Gun Kelly. Seen as heroes by the out-of-work populace and a national menace by the government, this group led to the formation of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the first national law enforcement organization.
Crime Wave does a solid job of telling how these men terrorized law enforcement officials during 1933 and 1934. I am careful to single out law enforcement officials because the show makes it clear that many Americans rooted for the gangsters. Left largely destitute by the Depression, many blamed the banks that were being robbed for their difficulties. Bankers were seen as the villains, and the gangsters became some of the biggest celebrities of the day. Some of these outlaws were surprisingly media savvy as well. Dillinger, for instance, made it a point to refuse money from patrons of the bank he robbed, telling them, “I only want the bank’s money, not yours.” Similarly, Machine Gun Kelly, despite his nickname, was actually a college-educated bootlegger who rarely used guns; his nickname was invented by his publicity-hungry wife to ensure he would be mentioned in the newspapers. It’s interesting facts like these, that make Crime Wave worth watching.
The other part of the documentary deals with the newly formed FBI’s attempts to capture the gangsters. Headed up by a young J. Edgar Hoover who had no previous law enforcement experience, it is explained that the agency was filled with agents who were essentially paper pushing lawyers. With little field experience, the gangsters easily had the upper hand against Hoover and his team. The show describes a disastrous shootout between the FBI and Dillinger and Nelson that led to the outlaws’ escape and the death of an innocent bystander. It makes the point that Hoover had to fight to get the FBI the authority and equipment to deal with interstate crime. However, the show doesn’t really how Hoover managed to build the FBI into the powerhouse it became. Much is made of the massive PR coup Hoover scored when the Bureau, under the direction of Hoover’s deputy Melvin Purvis, finally managed to take out Dillinger. It doesn’t really explain, however, how the FBI was able to find a sense of direction so quickly. Still, this is a generally solid History Channel DVD.
Crime Wave also includes a 1997 biography of Bonnie and Clyde titled, Love and Death: The Story of Bonnie and Clyde. The biography doesn’t really fit into the ‘crime wave’ subject matter of the rest of the material, as this program focuses on the romantic aspects of Bonnie and Clyde’s relationship. The narrator reads from letters Bonnie and Clyde write to each other, and the program is filled by interviews with relatives of the two. However, their crimes and the reasons for them are largely glossed over.
The presentation is typical History-16:9-non-anamorphic transfer, There is no real noise or distortion to speak of, so this is an acceptable DVD for something originally produced in 2007.
The English 2.0 mix does the job, with clear dialogue being the most important part of the track. Even when the source material is filled with pops and scratches, the separate elements of the track don’t run the risk of obscuring one another. There are bursts of deep bass from shootouts, though they are few and far between. The soundtrack is nothing special, but the material doesn’t require it. No subtitles are included.
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