Dillinger

Warren Oates in Dillinger (dir. John Milius, 1973).

An underrated gangster film. In addition to Oates, cast members include Harry Dean Stanton, Michelle Phillips, Cloris Leachman, Steve Kanaly, Geoffrey Lewis, Richard Dreyfuss, and--as Dillinger's nemesis, G-man Melvin Purvis--the incomparable Ben Johnson. The romanticization of the gangsters is an effective part of the film's theme, though it's a bit underdeveloped. It never quite breaks all the way through from knowing self-reference to actual insight, nor does it take much care to avoid gratuitous sensationalism in the process of commenting on gratuitous sensationalism. Some well-done newspaper montage bits.