Miller's Crossing

Rating:
Summary: Miller's Crossing
Review: This is an ultimate CLASSIC mobster-type movie. Great performances by the always-amazing Gabriel Byrne, John Tutoro and Marcia Gay Harden. This movie was robbed of mainstream success back in 1990, but for those of us who have seen it, i think i speak for everyone when i say that it is an overall brilliant movie. Great script, great cast, great director.

Rating:
Summary: I really give it TEN STARS!
Review: What is always evident in a Cohen Brothers movie is just how much they adore old movies, ya know, when movies were movies and men wore hats and . . . .And this is one of their tightest with excellent shots, dialogue, symbolism, acting, suspense, excitement and an underlying theme that pervades and is brought back to wrap up the ending in classic literary style... I suspect this is how they used to wish film school students were learning to make movies. You can really sink your brain into it without that embarrassing arty feeling. So it's clear what I'm sayin' here?
JUST EXACTLY WHATSDA HOLDUP on the DVD FELLAS!!!!???

Rating:
Summary: One of the best gangster films ever
Review: The Coen Brothers true triumph; their style blends perfectly with the gangster genre. This movie has an incredibly thought provoking plot that isn't out to trick or confuse but keeps you wondering nonetheless. It is wonderfully acted, especially Gabriel Byrne, John Turturro, Albert Finney, Marcia Gay Harden, and Jon Polito. The look, the feel, and the LANGUAGE of the movie relentlessly reinforce the story. Stop reading this and buy it, or at least rent it, then buy it.

Rating:
Summary: The Coens' mobster masterpiece
Review: Miller's Crossing has gone down in history as one of the gangster greats. And rightly so. It is, I assure you, a dazzling display of film-making. I won't bore you with the story outline (check the editorial reviews for that) but I will tell you why think this is one of my all-time favourites (I watch it at least once every other year).

More than anything else, Miller's Crossing fireworks display of acting talent, Albert Finney powerful as the hard-as-nails gangland boss; J.E. Freeman who almost steals the show as the towering, sinister, almost Dickensian mob side-kick, Eddie Dane; John Turturro who shines as conniving, gutless conman, Bernie Birmbaum. But for my money the film's best performance is Jon Polito who plays Italian gang boss, Johnny Caspar. Polito hisses, explodes, cowers, wangles, philosophises, smarms and turns a performance that has Academy Award written all over it

Visually this a stunning film, with lots of memorable sequences and scenarios composed with true artistic flair. The action scenes are great, tommy gun bullets fly thick and fast, gangland slayings are sometimes shockingly authentic and the rising death toll is recorded by the mobsters with detachment, like the latest sports results.

The film would be perfect were it not for the plot, which is ludicrously complicated - twisting and turning every second. Still deserves those 5 stars, however.

Rating:
Summary: Nothing is what it seems at Millers Crossing
Review: Simpley fantastic. This movie is a masterpiece for the Coen brothers. The picture is visually stunning. The costumes and the atmosphere are wonderful. This movie is a throw back to old gangster movies and a different time. Albert Finney, John Turturro and Gabriel Bryne fill out this cast of quirky characters. The dialouge is well written and fun. Turturro gives an amazing performance as the sleazy Bernie Bernbaum. Gabriel Bryne is perfect as the cynical man behind the man. And Albert Finney is my personal favorite as Leo, an old time Boss of the cities political machine. Don't forget Steve Buschemi as Mink and The Dane. One of my personal favorites.

Rating:
Summary: "Miller's Crossing": A Gangster Noir
Review: "Miller's Crossing" is a smart prohibition-era tale of an Irish mafia lieutenant, Tom (Gabriel Byrne,) friend and direct political operations consultant to the Irish crime boss, Leo (Albert Finney.) The leader of an Italian section, Casper (Jon Polito,) with henchman Eddie Dane (J.E. Freeman) and a personal view of ethics, asks Irish "commander-in-chief" to eliminate the brother of his girlfriend for chiselling into the Italians' gambling fixes. When Leo turns them down against Tom's recommendation, a series of bloody political moves occur from both sides. To complicate things, Leo wants to ask the girl to marry, but doesn't know she's also involved with Tom. When Tom informs Leo out of friendship, he kicks Tom out of the family. Then, Tom resentfully assumes a role as a bought-lieutenant of the Italian boss.
Everything in the film is Grade A. This is a well-planned, thought-out mob film, and a true noir gangster picture. Everything from script to editing is treated with an efficiency that makes this movie very dark with minimum means. The best gangster films are not any more true than this one. Rest assured: the photography is not the only beauty in the movie. This film is every bit as eloquent as "Dick Tracy", "Crisscross", Hill's "Dillinger", "Out Of the Past", "Bound", "Bonnie And Clyde", "The Untouchables", "Bladerunner", "L.A. Confidential", "Key Largo", "St. Valentine's Day Massacre", "The Maltese Falcon", or "The Godfather". It is also as colorful. It can only be so underrated by being such a strong and colorful narrative of American prohibition mafia friendship. What's wrong with people?: for a change, the "Irish mafia's rule?" Get with the program, people!
The entire cast is memorable. J.E. Freeman as henchman "Eddie Dane" is an especially frightening lieutenant to the Italian wielding a .45 revolver and standing taller than Dirty Harry. Jon Polito is great and funny as the fat spaghetti-Italian boss, "Johnny Casper." Albert Finney fits as an aging toughguy-killer and crime boss, "Leo", who wants to marry a girl barely in adulthood. Gabriel Byrne is the "luck-of-the-Irish" mob lieutenant, "Tom", who has a fist planted on his shnozzer in nearly every scene. Marcia Gay Harden is the two-timing political defense for her fix-chiselling brother, played by John Turturro. Steve Buscemi is a fickle and Eddie Dane's son. Frances McDormand cameos as a secretary. Others are equally convincing.

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Summary: What more is there to say?
Review: ... I had to add my own favorite aspects of this film. I realised that this movie was my favorite film, because every time I saw it on cable, I would lose the rest of my day watching it.

Tom, played by Gabriel Byrne, is always regarded by others with shock. In fact, everytime a character swears in this movie, it's "Jesus, Tom." The funny thing, is only Tom gets this "Jesus" swearing, not other characters. It sets up an association.

But who is Tom? He starts out the movie saying "you do things for a reason, it helps to have one." and ends with "Do you always know why you do things Leo?" Why doesn't Tom pay his gambling debts? Why does Tom know everything about "grifters", but not have the reputation of one himself? Why does he want to "square things for Leo?"

This is what makes Tom such a complicated and great character. He thinks he knows people, but yet he doesn't know himself. "Nobody knows anybody, not that well."

Tom is a weak person, but a strong character. His actions are weak and ineffectual in the world he dabbles in, that of the gangster. But he can take punches, and is a survivor. All he has, is people's view of him, and he values the perception that he's smart. But in the end, that leaves him cold.

Why doesn't he pay his gambling debts? Because this snapshot of getting worked over has probably been played out many, many times for Tom, and he's always squeaked out of it. Like many gamblers, he's not just taking the risk for money, since he obviously has enough to get by, he takes the risks, because he likes the game itself.

Why doesn't Tom have a reputation as a grifter? Probably because Tom was lucky enough to catch the ear of Leo. Tom accusses Verna "stop twisting him around." And she replied "I forgot, that's your job."

Why does Tom want to square things for Leo? Because like many men who act too much from the head, he looks up to Leo, who has the practice of acting from the heart. Tom doubts, and challenging his doubts is a path to self-knowledge.

See, Tom is a very Irish character. Irish Catholic guilt puts a mark on you, and Tom has it. Why does one become such an intellectual for a gang boss? It's a combination of guilt, and morality. It's not okay to kill, but it's okay to defend. It's not okay to gamble, it's okay to try to clear one's debts. It's not okay to love, but it's okay to grift. Tom can't allow himself to win. Yet in these complications, he becomes very real, since real people are bundles of these sorts of contridictions.

Rating:
Summary: The best Coen Brothers film. Why isn't this on DVD?
Review: "Take your flunky and dangle." "Let's get stinko." "I bet you think you've raised hell-" "Sister, when I've raised hell, you'll know it." "I'll need ta see some references. We only take yeggs what's been ta college, ain't that right, Dane?" "What's one Hebrew, more or less?" "Look into your heart!-" "What heart?" I could keep going. There are several reasons why Miller's Crossing is the best Coen Brothers movie, but the biggest reason is the dialogue. From the opening monologue on the "et'ics" of a fixed fight, to the final confrontation between our protagonist and his tormentor, the dialogue is like no other movie filmed since, what, 1949? The dialogue is rattled off like a Tommy gun, or enunciated slowly and lovingly like pillow talk. It always crackles with wit and energy. It provokes regular belly laughs (you've never heard so many euphemisms for "Jew", lovingly applied by two Jewish filmmakers). And it moves a Byzantine plot along like an energetic traffic cop. There are zero false notes in this movie. The sets and scenery are brilliantly evocative of the Prohibition era. A miraculous cast, from Coen regulars such as Jon Polito, Steve Buscemi and (briefly) Michael Badalucco, to stars Gabriel Byrne, Albert Finney and Marcia Gay Harden, are uniformly brilliant. Fargo, Barton Fink and Blood Simple are three of the best movies of the past 20 years. Miller's Crossing outshines them all. Please, Fox, PLEASE issue this on DVD, before I wear out my VHS copy.

Rating:
Summary: Terrific Movie, but ...
Review: No doubt that Miller's Crossing is a wonderful film, but I have always been disappointed that the Coen Bros didn't see fit to give Dashiell Hammett some sort of on-screen credit. The film is without a doubt an adaptation of THE GLASS KEY with a little RED HARVEST thrown in. Read these wonderful novels and you'll see what I mean. Every single bit of the memorable dialogue from the movie is taken, practically word for word, from these great books. From the moment you read "What's the rumpus" in the first chapter of RED HARVEST, or realize that Ned Beaumont and Paul Madvig from THE GLASS KEY are EXACTLY the same characters as Tom and Leo in the movie ('cept Ned does borrow money from Paul to pay off his bookie), you get an uneasy feeling that somebody is owed some credit. All credit in the world to the Coens for creating a wonderful script, and to Barry Sonnenfeld for shooting a gorgeous movie (he shoulda stuck to being a DP), but the DVD version will hopefully contain some tribute to Hammett, who is the real genius behind Miller's Crossing.

Rating:
Summary: Terrific Movie, but ...
Review: No doubt that Miller's Crossing is a wonderful film, but I have always been disappointed that the Coen Bros didn't see fit to give Dashiell Hammett some sort of on-screen credit. The film is a loose but obvious adaptation of THE GLASS KEY with a little RED HARVEST thrown in. Read these wonderful novels and you'll see what I mean. Much of the memorable dialogue from the movie is taken from these great books. From the moment you read "What's the rumpus" in the first chapter of RED HARVEST, or realize that Ned Beaumont and Paul Madvig from THE GLASS KEY are the same characters as Tom and Leo in the movie ('cept Ned does borrow money from Paul to pay off his bookie), you get the feeling that Hammett is owed some credit for inventing the world that the Coens so magnificently bring to the screen. The only reason I point this out is because all these other customer reviews laud the Coens as if they invented this genre of crime story, and as if they invented the dialogue, plot, and themes out of whole cloth. Do yourself a favor, and read Hammett's five novels and the Continental Op stories, and suddenly you'll realize where the Coens derived their inspiration. Perhaps the DVD version (if there ever is one) could highlight this ... Otherwise, a truly amazing movie that takes the concept of "hard boiled" to a whole new level.