My friend Vera Marie Badertscher wrote a great post on her blog, A Traveler’s Library, about how Johnny Depp’s new movie "Public Enemies" is promoting tourism in Chicago and surrounding states. Is this a good thing? I guess it is, if you’re part of the tourism trade in that region.
Vera writes that she’s "never sure whether to be amused or perplexed when bad guys become tourist attractions." I quite agree!
She goes on to say: "And now we have the reckless, not-too-bright, ruthless John Dillinger indirectly doing good for his home state of Indiana, his hideaway state of Wisconsin and Chicago, home of hoods. Wisconsin, particularly, betting the movie Public Enemies will be a smash hit, launched a tourism campaign that stops just short of calling Dillinger “Wisconsin’s Favorite Son.” “See bullet holes from the 1934 shoot out” at Little Bohemia (now a restaurant rather than a lodge). “Go ‘on the lam’ in Wisconsin,” the tourism touts recommend on a web site listing Wisconsin tours.
You know, I pondered in my review of "Public Enemies" whether the film romanticizes the gangster life. And it really does. I didn’t realize this before, but scenes from the movie exactly mirror scenes from the real life of John Dillinger, particularly of him leaning on that guy like he’s a long lost buddy, as he’s being dragged off for incarceration.
So what do you think? Is it good to romanticize the gangster life and create tourism campaigns around it?
Image: © Universal Pictures