Miller's Crossing

Unrated

9/21/19901h 55m

Premiere Release (US)

Overview:

Set in 1929, a political boss and his advisor have a parting of the ways when they both fall for the same woman.

Director:

Joel Coen

Status:

Released

Language:

English

Buget:

$14,000,000.00

Revenue:

$5,080,409.00

Key words:

street gang
corruption
prohibition era
gun
gambling debt
gangster
loyalty
irish-american
irish mob
betrayal
organized crime
shootout
drunkenness
angry
aggressive
neo-noir
1920s
clinical
violence
approving
embarrassed

Cast

Gabriel Byrne

~ as ~

Tom Reagan

Marcia Gay Harden

~ as ~

Verna

John Turturro

~ as ~

Bernie Bernbaum

Jon Polito

~ as ~

Johnny Caspar

J.E. Freeman

~ as ~

Eddie Dane

Albert Finney

~ as ~

Leo

Mike Starr

~ as ~

Frankie

Al Mancini

~ as ~

Tic-Tac

Steve Buscemi

~ as ~

Mink

Richard Woods

~ as ~

Mayor Dale Levander

View full cast & crew

Reviews (2)

John Chard
Written 11 year(s) ago
8
The answer my friend is a hat blowing in the wind.

The Coen brothers craft a loving homage to gangster pictures of yore with splendid results. Essentially the plot has Gabriel Byrne as a good - bad guy caught between two rival gangster factions. It's a standard story line that is still providing cinematic water for many a film maker these days, but shot through the Coen prism, with literary astuteness holding court, it's a genre piece of considerable class. A picture in fact that gets better and better with further viewings.

When the Coen's are on form they have the skills to make a grade "A" thriller and blend it with a sort of dry irony. It's like they bite the hand that feeds whilst praising said genre influences to the rafters, but it works as damn fine entertainment. On a narrative level Miller's Crossing molds the byzantine with the labyrinthine, keeping the complexities just on the right side of the street from that of art for arts sake.

Visually the film is superb, the hard working sweat of the city dovetails impudently with the mother nature beauty of Miller's Crossing the place, a place home to misery, a witness to the dark side of man. All the while Byrne, Albert Finney, John Turturro and Jon Polito bring an array of characterisations to the party, each one his own man but each craftily proving the folly of man. Marcia Gay Harden, in one of her first mainstream roles, slinks about making the two main boys sweaty, and wonderful she is as well. While Carter Burwell provides a musical score that has a smug (in a good way) self awareness about it.

Style over substance? Yes, on formative viewings it is. But go back, look again, see and sample what is not being said. Pulpers and noirers will I'm sure get the gist. 8/10
CinemaSerf
Written 2 year(s) ago
7
Gabriel Byrne is "Reagan", the enforcer for the pretty ruthless mob kingpin "Leo" (Albert Finney). He is caught in the middle of a battle between his boss and the man who would take his place "Caspar" (John Polito) over the antics of a rogue bookie "Bernie" (the scene-stealing John Turturro) who also happens to be the brother of "Verna" (Marcia Gay Harden) - the girlfriend of Leo, oh - and the mistress of "Reagan" too. "Reagan" tries to be a bit of an honest broker between them all, but when his efforts fail, he is cast aside by his former boss and left to fend for himself... On the face of it, this is just a run-of-the-mill gangster film. People are killed and the vicious circle of revenge continues. Quite cleverly, though, the Coen brothers have done quite a bit to present more complex characters and to give the plot a little more quirkiness - and that makes this an interesting two hours to watch. Finney's accent is a bit hit or miss, and I'm afraid Byrne just isn't a strong enough actor to carry his substantial part so well - he is no Edward G. Robinson or George Raft, but this is still a superior delve into the murky world of organised crime that does bear watching.