MILLER'S CROSSING (1990) | Movie Review

The Coen Bros have made so many films. After getting through at least 80% of their filmography, I can say they are all either great or masterful. Will Miller's Crossing be included or will it break the streak?
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Edited & Produced by myself

[@heilmann18]

LOOK INTO YOUR HEART

[@habadasheryjones]

WHAT HEART?

[@toneriggz]

This and Lebowski are my favorite Coen Bros films. It's as much a gangster film as it is a satire of gangster films. The writing and acting is incredible, amazing cast. Tom is an interesting protagonist. He's a scumbag but he has a heart. Everybody beats him up but he still uses his intelligence to get over. The Dane is the only character who Tom can't truly fool. It's also ahead of it's time in a sense. The idea of a gay gangster love triangle but told in a very lowkey kind of way is so different from other gangster films around that time like Goodfellas or State of Grace. Marcia Gay Harden as Verna was fantastic. She embodied that old school, femme fatale archetype. Albert Finney, Jon Polito, John Turturro, terrific cast. I have nothing but praise for this film. The first time I heard of it was when I was in high school. My friend was a huge film fan and he told me about this film, knowing that I was into the gangster genre. I immediately went out and bought the DVD and have been a fan ever since. I've also purchased the Blu-Ray edition and the recent Criterion edition, just out of love and respect for this film.

[@KaimanBitAi]

Nice review. Dope shirt (love that film)!!

[@millsykooksy4863]

A serious man is my favorite Coen film

[@sprogmonkey8]

Great review. I love this film, great writing, great storytelling, fantastic charactes, brilliant dialogue, unique gangster film. Gonna go watch it again, right now. Thanks.

[@jesusperez7108]

Gabriel Byrne was also in The Usual Suspects.

[@TheMisfitPond]

I really need to rewatch that film. It’s been over 8 years or more

[@rottensquid]

I first saw Miller's Crossing shortly after it came out, and got trounced by Goodfellas. I'd already fallen in love with Raising Arizona, but the Coens were a long way from a known quantity, and I didn't know what to make of such a dramatic shift away from this wacky comedy style they'd executed with such mastery. To by honest, I wasn't really a fan of the gangster story, and I was struggling to work out the plot as the film dropped me in the middle of an ongoing set of dramas. What grabbed me wasn't the Danny Boy scene, but the scene right after. The Danny Boy scene set me up with an impressive bait and switch. Know films like The Godfather, I assumed this was going to be the sorry death of this old has-been mob boss. Instead, I got a tour-de-force of violence, a literal dance of death. It was an impressive bit of bad-assery, if that's your idea of a good time. And then, as now, it was certainly mine. But even with that bait and switch, I was still expecting the expected in the next scene, when Leo is about to go to war with Johnny Caspar essentially as a favor to his girlfriend, who is obviously only dating him in order to secure protection from her underhanded brother. We never see Verna and Leo together, but we can guess she's a very, very different person with him than she is with Tommy. He knows exactly what she is. And now he knows why she slept with him too. She's playing all the angles. So with my experience of crime films, I can see the sorry progression of this film play out. Tommy is gonna have to lie to his boss about the fact that he's been seeing Verna. And his lies will mount up, and he'll eventually betray every ounce of integrity, of "et'ics," he has, and lose everything anyway. The classic Femme Fatale scenerio, where he, his boss, the whole city, are undone by a conniving woman. I've seen that movie before, and it's not really my idea of a good time. So imagine my shock when, instead of lying, Tommy comes clean about his affair with Verna. He burns his relationship with Leo, a man he clearly loves dearly, but he keeps his integrity. And in telling the truth, he shows a respect for Leo that's much deeper than had he lied about it. It was the last thing I expected. And all of a sudden, it was clear I was seeing a kind of movie I'd never seen before. Of course, Leo reacts in typical machismo fashion, and everything goes haywire anyway. But nothing played out the way I expected. Instead, Tommy's singular choice redirected everything that followed. It revealed that Verna, far from being the classic destructive femme fatale, is just as lonely as everyone else, doing insane things to protect the person she loved most, her brother. Just like Tommy. The whole movie becomes an indepth exploration of the conflict between love, integrity, and logic. All because Tommy chose integrity in that one scene, the best choice, but the hardest one. I shared the Coen Brothers with my folks, who're big movie buffs, and they fell in love. My Dad came away from the film thinking Tommy made the right choice at the end to walk away from all these love-sick, illogical fools, bound for more pain and more betrayal. But watching a BOS, Gabriel Byrne said he considered Tommy to end the film as a lonely, desolate man. Years later, knowing the Coens as I do, I realize it's both. It was the right decision, and the wrong one. Tommy is better off, but he's also chosen isolation. The answer to whether this is the right or wrong choice is "yes." Classic Coen brothers.

[@dantheman77743]

Great review man.

[@TravisFirestine]

I actually just watched this film for the first time Tuesday. It’s so great and I’m glad it got a Criterion release!

[@jtzimm233]

So glad you finally got around to Miller’s Crossing. Hot take but it’s probably my favorite Coen Bros film. I totally expected to see Polito to pop up in loads of films after his scene-chewing performance in this, but that didn’t seem to happen. I also think this was Marcia Gay Harden’s best role. Both loved and hated the hat symbolism that the brothers seemed to put into the film just to torture the audience, as to this day I still wonder what it’s about if anything.

[@rottensquid]

Fun fact about Polito, he lobbied aggressively for the role of Johnny Casper. The Coens were looking for someone much older, but he swayed them in the end. I can't imagine anyone else in the role. Jon ended up mostly in TV, but it was always great to see him pop up in various shows. He also did voice work for animation and games, and you can instantly recognize him, for obvious reasons. The guy was one of a kind.

[@millsykooksy4863]

I LOVE this movie

[@simplysteve5149]

Nice review.....but.....how can you not mention Marcia Gay Harden.......she was terrific in this film.

[@secretcanyon]

Can you review stuntman with peter o’toole?