All right, I know we don't go to see summer blockbuster films to get an education. We go to them to be entertained.

So when you go to see "Public Enemies," the Johnny Depp vehicle in which he plays Indiana bank robber John Dillinger, take some of what appears on the screen with a grain of salt or two.

I'm not going to spoil the movie for you by giving you too much information, but as an amateur student of Depression-era bandits I'll clue you in a little on what's real and what's not in the film that opens today across the country.

The film begins with a dramatic jailbreak that actually happened Sept. 26, 1933. Anyone familiar with Indiana Septembers will wonder why there is snow on the ground on the film, and anyone familiar with the story knows Dillinger was not present for the breakout, although he had planned it.

He was actually in custody in Lima, Ohio, and the escapees paid him back by breaking him out of that jail and killing a sheriff in the process.

In addition, the breakout scene shows guards at the prison firing back at the single car full of escapees (there were really two cars) and mortally wounding bank robber Walter Dietrich, who slips from Dillinger's hand as he dies and rolls off into the dust at the side of the road.

Except in reality, Dietrich did not die during the escape but went on to become part of the gang. And he did not fall from Dillinger's grasp because, of course, Dillinger was not there.

It's not the first inaccurate death scene in the film, nor will it be the last.

We also see FBI Special Agent Melvin Purvis gunning down bank robber Charles "Pretty Boy" Floyd, which actually did happen.

But when Purvis and Dillinger meet face to face after Dillinger is arrested in Arizona in January 1934, Dillinger calls him "the man who killed Pretty Boy Floyd." Unfortunately for history, Floyd was not shot down until Oct. 22, 1934 -- three months to the day after Purvis witnessed Dillinger killed in Chicago.

Well, all right, so they played with history. And they continued to do so with the death of gang member John "Red" Hamilton, who was wounded in an April 23, 1934, shootout with police in St. Paul, Minn., which at the time was a notorious haven for criminals.

In the film, Hamilton dies in Dillinger's arms after telling him, "You want to save everyone." In reality, Dillinger and fellow gang member Homer Van Meter drove the wounded Hamilton to an underworld doctor in Chicago, then on to a hideout in Aurora where Hamilton died on April 30.

The day he is to die, Dillinger walks Polly Hamilton into a Chicago police station so she can get a waitress permit, and he heads upstairs and walks into the "Dillinger squad" room, boldly approaching the squad members who are huddled around a radio, listening to a baseball game.

"What's the score?" Dillinger asks the men who are supposed to be seeking him, then walks out. Nice Hollywood touch, although it is strictly fantasy.

But perhaps the biggest license comes when FBI Special Agent Charles Winstead -- the man who shoots Dillinger in the film -- bends down alongside the dying gangster who whispers something to him. He later tells Purvis he was unable to make out Dillinger's dying declaration, but goes on to tell Dillinger's girlfriend Billie Frechette that his last request of Winstead was that he tell Frechette, "Bye, bye, blackbird."

The last words refer to the song being played the first time Dillinger and Frechette meet at a Chicago nightclub, and which are later reprised during the film in scenes with the two as a couple.

Winstead did in fact shoot Dillinger, firing two of the three shots from his M1911 .45-caliber automatic pistol into America's most wanted man outside the Biograph Theater. Did he hear a dying declaration?

Doubtful, as Winstead's second .45 shot went into the back of Dillinger's head and came out under his right eye. There aren't many people who can take that kind of shot and still talk, and Dillinger was likely dead before he hit the pavement.

Still, this is Hollywood's version and a lot of it is reasonably accurate by studio standards.

But if you want the real scoop, I'd advise picking up a copy of the book on which the film is based, Bryan Burrough's "Public Enemies."

Mark Kiesling is a metro columnist for The Times of Northwest Indiana and a Dillinger-era history buff.

'Enemies' times

Area showings include:

• Portage Theatres, first showings today, 12:45, 3:40, 6:30 and 9:35 p.m.

• Desert Star Cinema, Wisconsin Dells, first showings today, 12:45, 4, 7:10 and 10:30 p.m.

• Eastgate Cinema, Madison, first showings today, 10 a.m., 10:45 a.m., noon, 12:45, 1:30, 3, 3:45, 4:30, 6, 6:45, 8:45, 9:30 and 10 p.m.