I thought I might go all weepy at the beauty of this film. Albert Finney,
as Leo is a glorious stand-out--somehow I knew he would have on spats-- and his "come out blazing" scene is glorious. John Turturro is right on as a sniveling weasel, but Gabriel Byrne as Tom is a dream. All the way through the movie, I was wondering, is Tom planning all this, or is he ad libing as the needs of self preservation present themselves. I did not really know until the last scene. What a beautifully done movie. If you did not "catch it" then, you should "catch it" now. You will not be disappointed.

Enchanting, haunting, unnerving and just good ole Coen Brothers' dialogue. Beautiful photography by Barry Sonnenfeld and great acting all around. This movie not surprisingly becomes more enjoyable with every viewing and is definitely worth owning!

If you haven't seen this film, you've missed one of the best gangster flicks of all time ! The story-line has more twists and turns than a roller-coaster and some of the best scenes and dialouge you'll find. Outstanding performances by Gabriel Byrne (Tom), Albert Finney (Leo), Marcia Gay Harden & John Tuturro. If you can figure out where this one's going to end more than 15 minutes before the actual ending, I'll eat my hat !!! This is one of those movies you'll be talking about with your friends for days afterward (and repeating lines from the movie too). One of my favorite movies of the last 20 years (1990).

In the 20's the Irish still ran things in some east coast cities.
It wasn't any cleaner or easier. Fights, gambling whores and booze were
big. Always one boss wants it all. There is always the girl that
you shouldn't mess with, but did. The hero here is a plainly an
anti-hero.
Most everybody ends up dead. The difference today is that
fully automatic weapons aren't as easy to get and drugs and martial arts
have changed how people got shot or beat up or are killed.
The minority groups have shifted, the language has changed, the music
is different, but the situations and the deaths remain.

"Miller's Crossing" is yet ANOTHER interpolation of Akira Kurosawa's "Yojimbo" (the other being "Last Man Standing", with Bruce Willis). The Coen brothers, however, did a fine job of "tweaking" the story to fit 1920's America. The sets, wardrobe, hardware and accoutrements come right out of the gangster period.

The Actors put forth first-rate performances, as well. Of special note are Albert Finney and John Turturro. Finney for the most memorable scene of standing in the middle of a residential street, emptying the drum of a Thompson Submachine gun at the car of men who were sent to assassinate him in his own home. Turturro for playing Marcia Gay Harden's oily, smarmy, double dealing brother, that makes himself out to be someone you just love to hate!

This film, like "The Untouchables", was convincing in it's portrayal of that violent period of American History. So it plays fast-and-loose with Akira Kurosawa's work, but it is a thrilling drama, nonetheless.

This is not a great movie.

I watched The Coen Brothers Movie Collection (Fargo / Miller's Crossing / Barton Fink / Raising Arizona / Blood Simple) Blood Simple for the first time a few weeks ago and really enjoyed watching Francis McDermott. She was fantastic in Fargo. Fargo was a great movie with all the right moves, excellent tone, bizarre characters, and a flatly affected but very strong pregnant cop played by McDermott. The Coen brothers are known for their slightly off-kilter films. Raising Arizona with Nicholas Cage and Holly Hunter was a very successful and entertaining quirky movie. Strange characters and bizarre situations can be very entertaining. The formula just doesn't work in Miller's Crossing.

Garbrial Byrne stars as a dirtball gangster. He's the slimey no. 2 to Albert Finney in Finney's massive gangster world. Finney is the real power in this mystery city and Byrne's authority and power comes from only the fact that he has Finney's confidence. Finney is the star of the movie for me. In this unnamed city, the mayor and the police chief are in his pocket until his rival "goes to war" with his gang and starts to get the upper hand. Byrne is having a "liaison" with Albert Finney's galpal played ably by Marcia Gay Harden. Byrne is Finney's second in command, so his choice of girlfriend is highly questionable. Over the course of the convoluted plot and where dirtbags of all stripes show up and do their thing, Byrne is forced to kill a man to show his new pals that he is not a mole or traitor. Well, Byrne has a little itty bitty heart and lets the pathetic victim go so long as he disappears from town. The intended victim is his girlfriend's brother so it makes sense not to whack him.

Byrne makes his way between the two warring gangs all the while trying to get some money to pay off his gambling debts. It's all really quite silly and meaningless. There are lots of false deep moments with characters pretending to have souls and more than one layer to their shallow characters but they can't quite pull it off. This is a movie populated with characters who are all essentially the same, completely corrupt-- with little or no ethics or care for anybody else but themselves.

The main problem with quirky films is that they so often end badly. What I mean is that the filmmakers don't quite know how to conclude the story or they purposefully leave the ending obscure just so they can retain their "quirky" reputations.

Why is it seen as something of a failure in modern hollywood films to properly conclude a story? At one time, this was considered the mark of a well-constructed story-- one that has a beginning, middle, and end. Some "artists" apparently find the concept unfulfilling and perhaps even a bit constricting-- well, I want a proper ending to my stories! Why should the audience have to make up their own endings? It's just lazy story-telling disquised as avant-garde "art".

The ending in this movie was completely frustrating. Nothing was wrapped up for the main characters (except those that got whacked) and what seems like a perfectly reasonable option presented to Byrne at the closing is rejected by him for no apparent reason. Finney's character doesn't quite understand the ending and neither do I. But Byrne is apparently motivated by other character traits that unfortunately nobody in the audience knows anything about.

Folks in this movie don't learn alot, and don't change alot. It's just another "slice of life" in this particular weird, bizarro Coen brothers world.

The film is beautiful to watch with lush dark colors everywhere. Everybody is wan and pale and even the scenery is washed out. The direction is excellent and the pacing fine. The performances are all adequate or better, but it's just not enough. The dialogue is stilted and terse. Albert Finney owns this movie and so does Marcia Gay Harden.

Essentially, this approach to filmmaking and story telling is a treat for the filmmakers but a frustration for the audience. At the end of the movie I want to know what happens next, I want the storyline concluded, and I don't want to waste my time guessing and speculating about what happens to the characters after the credits because I really just don't care enough about the film or the shallow one or two dimensional characters to waste my time on the exercise.

I actually like some of the Coen brothers movies, but this isn't one of them. Sure, it's smart and well photographed and it's clever and has the Coen brothers style stamped on it. But, for me, none of that justifies the violence. Yes, you can send me nasty comments but I promise not to read them so don't bother. Why do I suspect that the majority of rave reviews here are from men? Why do I suspect that Mrs. Coen must have beaten her boys bloody at a very early age? Why else are they sooooo obsessed with blood. Maybe they were weaned on video games or machine guns...who knows what created these obsessions?!

Our hero here, the very charming Gabriel Byrne gets beaten and almost shot so many times that I lost count. Unfortunately, I had to shut down all of my senses just to survive this film that I stopped caring. I guess that's how all the characters survived...just stop caring and you can do any bloody thing. Personally I don't care how in style the Coens are I think they should both go into therapy for a long, long time.

The reason why I'm giving it any stars at all is the same reason I sat through it---Gabriel Byrne. (A female perspective.)

Putting the rightfully-so classic GoodFellas (Two-Disc Special Edition) and the much maligned, but maginificent and misunderstood The Godfather, Part III (Widescreen Edition) aside, this is the definitive gangster film of 1990 and possibly the 90's all together.

Miller's Crossing tells the tale of a mob boss, Leo, his partner, and the many, many, many things that trouble them. Albert Finney is Leo and Gabriel Byrne is Tom, his right hand man and best friend. Marcia Gay Harden plays the woman that conflicts there lives.

It's quite an interesting and wonderful tale featuring wonderful performances from John Turturro, Jon Polito and quite a few others.

The movie itself is great, the DVD leaves something to be desired. An interview, short interview with Barry Sonnefield, the Barry Sonnefield Featurette as well as short cast interviews with Gabriel Byrne, Marcia Gay Harden and John Turturro.

Highly recommended.

Miller's Crossing (Joel Coen, 1990)

I've seen piece of Miller's Crossing many, many times over the years, but somehow I'd never gotten round to sitting down and watching the whole movie until recently. I think this has to do with my ambivalence towards the Coens, who are capable of cranking out an amazing film one day and an awful one the next; I'm never quite sure what I'm going to get. I'm quite happy that both my last two Coen experiences (this and No Country for Old Men) have been more than satisfactory.

Gabriel Byrne plays Tom Reagan, a triggerman for crime boss Leo O'Bannon (Albert Finney). As the movie opens, Johnny Caspar (Jon Polito) is asking O'Bannon for license to kill Bernie Bernbaum (John Turturro). O'Bannon refuses; Bernie is the brother of Verna (Marcia Gay Harden), Leo's girlfriend. Caspar and his loyalists go rogue, setting up their own shop; when it's revealed that Reagan has been having an affair with Verna, O'Bannon ejects him from the gang, and he, too, goes over to Caspar's outfit, which is now struggling with O'Bannon's for control of the city. Between gobs of flying bullets, Caspar's right-hand man Eddie Dane (J. E. Freeman) is embroiled in the mystery of where Reagan's loyalties truly lie; is he loyal to Caspar? An agent for O'Bannon? Or, most dangerously, is he loyal only to himself?

Loosely based on two Dashiell Hammett novels (The Glass Key and Red Harvest), Miller's Crossing is a fast-moving, violent look at the golden age of the gangster that manages to be a lot more at the same time. Barry Sonnenfeld's cinematography, on the penultimate film before he moved to directing, is a joy to watch. (Please, Barry, go back to cinematography. It's something you're good at.) The script is sharp, by turns funny and heart-wrenching, and the actors are uniformly excellent. This is good filmmaking, pure and simple. ****

As for the story, we have a rather intricate one here involving a man by the name of Tom, played brilliantly by the Irish actor Gabriel Byrne, who jumps with his loyalty between two of the biggest crime bosses in the city. Tom is dissected with each scene, and for this we are excited to see who Tom will really become at the end of the movie. There were great shoot-out scenes in the movie, particularly when Albert Finney's character takes on a whole group with one single Tommy gun. Taking place during Prohibition, this movie comes alive with corrupt Irish police, mayors shifting allegiance to crime bosses, speakeasies springing up left and right, and blood; blood spilling, blood pouring, and head shots in view of the camera.
This was the Coen Brothers' third movie and the third and final movie in which Barry Sonnenfeld worked as the cinematographer. As Sonnenfeld says in a special feature on the DVD, this is a handsome movie. The shots are long and artfully paced. The colors are dark and smooth. For lover's of cinematography: the hats, trees, long shots, vomit color, and police clothing are sure to please.

I watched this for the first time yesterday, and I have to say that I can't believe that I've gone all these years without watching it. I've always loved the Coen Bros. work, and this is no exception. I would rank it up on the list of some of the best gangster/noir flicks of all time. It is most definitely one of the best films of the '90s. The performances are all great, especially Albert Finney who is simply amazing in his role. The score by Carter Burwell is haunting, and one of the best.

I will be buying this DVD along with the soundtrack very soon. Recommended, especially for those who have not seen it yet. Please do not miss this one!

THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST MOBSTER FILMS EVER MADE.
GABRIEL BYRNE IS RUTHLESS.
GOTTA LOVE THE COEN BROS

I am fan of the gangster film genre, and this ranks way high on that list (along with Goodfellas and City of God). It definitely has that Coen bro's
quirky touch, and with the great characters. It's very well acted, especially John Turturro, who has the most memorable scene (still frame of the is shown on front of the DVD cover). The story is very well layered, and like most Coen films it unfolds in an unorthodox manor, which will probably need more than one viewing to get the full narrative. This film isn't those for those looking for a violent shoot em up gangster movie (though it does have its moments, including a memorable tommy gun scene with the great Albert Finney), you will actually have to pay attention to the conversations and every action to get it. If you like Coen Bro's films, you must watch it.

"Miller's Crossing" Is best described as that "stylish Coen Bros. Gangster Movie". Instead of the southwestern types populating "Raising Arizona" and "Blood Simple", we have the "Dapper Dans" and fast-talking molls of some nameless Prohibition-era metropolis. Seething with an endless array of illicit dealing (speakeasies, bookmaking, fight-fixing), the city is barely held together by boss Lee O'Bannon (Albert Finney). Even the Police Chief and the Mayor pay unquestioned deference to O'Bannon who, when times get desperate, proves he's still an artist with a Tommygun. Nobody gets big without O'Bannon's permission, but the crime boss has a weakness - Verna Birnbaum (Marcia Gay Harden).

Lee's obsession with Verna proves fatal because he feels obligated to protect her no-good brother Bernie, an utter creep marked for death by lower crime boss Johnny Caspar. Gabriel Byrne is Tommy Regan, Lee's right-hand man and also his conscience. Regan cautions his boss to dump Verna - he knows that both she and her brother aren't worth going to war over. But he's also fallen for Verna. When O'Bannon ignores Tom, he sparks a mob war that soon threatens his primacy and catapults Caspar to the ultimate power. Tom must navigate an uncertain path as Caspar's new confidante, one that brings him to blows with Caspar's right-hand man, and will see him realize his true feelings for Verna.

This was a great movie, with an uncommon sense of sound and visual artistry. Putting aside the plot, full of characters with shifting motives, the Coens display their great ear for unforgettable dialog and expression. Their never-named city manages to be more cartoonishly realized than those that appeared in the many Batman-clones that appeared in the early 1990's when "Crossing" was released. The Coen's rely on their gift for visual irony - their city is populated with Cops who strut proudly even though conscious that they are tools of the bosses. (In my favorite scene, Tom takes a chair to an oversized enforcer sent to rough him up; his "victim's" expression - like a child on the verge of tears - is priceless.)

At its heart, "Crossing" is an impossible mix of contradictions - with action both fast and slow, rough and smooth, heavy and light, best shown in a scene where Finney single-handedly turns the tables on would-be assassins, and the rat-a-tat of his submachine gun shares our attentions with the poignant sounds of "O Danny Boy". Not quite the collection of sight-gags familiar in stock Coen fare like "Intolerable Cruelty" or "O' Brother", the film is best compared to a dream that Gabriel Byrne's character describes to Verna, of chasing his hat through the wind. Byrne calls the sight of a grown man chasing something pathetic, but Verna thinks that hat an image that will change into something beautiful. Even if you don't buy the story, the film's mix of imagery will prove unforgettable.

This is one of my favorite movies, not least because of the haunting score that plays during the opening credits and recurs throughout. I'm surprised no one else has mentioned this.

The movie was filmed in New Orleans--I was there during its filming, and streets were constantly being blocked off--but I'd say it's intended to be New York or Boston. Note the Irish tenor of the gangs and the police chief.

I don't know what the symbolism of the hats is. Does anyone?

Or the Rugs and the Hats. Finney wears both. At a lower level: the Gorilla meets Lars Thorvald. Hard-boiled is what they call these fictions. How come the simulacrum is better than the originals? Like the best cowboy song is: Don't Fence Me In (Cole Porter pastiche), and the best song out of the Mexican Revolution is: Fernando (ABBA pastiche). This is better than any other gangster movie: it distils the essence of the genre. It fuels Tarantino and The Usual Suspects, mixed with wry twists and rye. Although I haven't read The Glass Key, I've read all Chandler; and the Byrne man is pure Chandler, on the other side of the tracks. He takes a lot of punishment, he feels like a sawn-off leg, he cools it with bootleg, he has a way with a semi-soiled maid, and a weakness for the ponies. Runyonesque. He's not sure where he's going, but he can figure. He's never cross, but he's crossing over. Like the private eye, he's not mean, and he's melancholy, but he's not soft-boiled. Hell, the grifter had it coming. You don't double-cross a man who saves your life. And you can't go with a man who rubs out your brother. Personal relationships are ambiguous. Why are so many of these guys gunsels?

A sharp, innovative send-up of everything from "The Public Enemy" to "The Godfather," Joel and Ethan Coen's brilliant "Crossing" has enough surprising twists, gnarled plotlines, and double crosses to fill several noir movies. Byrne is excellent as Tom, a loyal, boozing mobster whose inveterate gambling and torrid affair with the boss's girl (Harden, in her debut), eventually land him in hot water with Finney's Leo. Coens fave Turturro also has a brilliant turn as the weaselly Bernie. Evocative, clever, and beautifully played, "Crossing" is an under-rated homage to the gangster movies perfected by Warners in the 1930s.

i looked everywhere for this movie retail and amazon was the only one who didn't let me down. millers crossing is everything you need in a gangster movie. plenty of characters you love to hate (caspar, the DANE, the Shmatte) and characters you hate to love (verna, leo, and of course the rogueish Tom). this movie has firepower and surreality. the cohen bros. redefine the genre with a emotional tale of love, betrayal, loyalty and brutality and of course "ETHICS". BUY IT, WATCH IT AND WATCH IT AGAIN.

Hard to find faults; only nits, like the fact that the many injuries Byrne should accumulate thru film should hospitalize him. Great acting, photography, the usual Coen kinkiness (not overdone), and a deliberate pacing that is nearly perfect. Characters are clearly defined and credible, even when their personalities are eccentric. The only thing missing is the lack of a feature-length commentary on the DVD.
I highly recommend this movie.

The kind of movie where the relevence of one scene to the next and even one line of dialogue to the next is often unclear. I don't understand how they can get made. I watched the first 20 minutes optimistically, and the next 20 in a catatonic state of dumbfounded frustration. If there was any story developing I couldn't tell you a thing about it.

Tom Reagan either sees the whole board like nobody else can, or he is an idiot of the first order. Either seems equally possible to me, as he engages in every double-cross known to man, for reasons which are never made entirely clear. Along the way, he is beaten up seemingly by nearly every inhabitant of the unnamed city's criminal underworld, but seems to accept his lot with resignation.

This movie had so many twists and turns that it required two consecutive viewings to insure that I had it right. One could watch it a million times and still never know exactly what Tom Reagan's motives are. The Coens certainly have no problem leaving the ultimate outcome somewhat unresolved, which always entertains me. Neat, tidy endings are rarely a reflection of real life.

One will find great performances throughout, particularly those of Albert Finney & Gabriel Byrne. The typically twisted Coen humor is on abundant display in the snappy dialogue, sometimes so snappy that the viewer can hardly follow along (Steve Buscemi speaks at such a blistering pace that I had put on the subtitles to make sense of it all).

As other reviewers have said, you either love the Coens or hate them. The surreal, ambivalent qualities which delight some will drives other crazy. I have found both to be true...by the time "Barton Fink" was over, I had no idea what I was even watching anymore, and wondered what the ballyhoo was all about. However, "Miller's Crossing" is a good example of all the best Coenesque qualities falling nicely into place, resulting in a movie which is hugely entertaining without being nearly as frustrating as some others.

Miller's Crossing is the Coen Brother's foray into the gangster genre. Most people either love the Coen Brother's movies or hate them. I fall somewhere in between, however, their movies are always interesting and Miller's Crossing is no exception.

The film takes place in a prohibition era, large, American city. The protagonist, Tom Reagen, played by Gabriel Byrne, is the trusted right-hand man of Leo O'Bannon (Albert Finney), the leader of the dominant Irish gang. Leo is under pressure from the up and coming Italian gang led by Johnny Caspar (Jon Polito). A conflict between the two leaders emerges over the small time hood, Bernie Bernbaum (John Turturro). Apparently Bernie is leaking word of Caspar's fixed races to too many people. Caspar is seeing the odds of his sure bets drop too much. It's cutting heavily into his cash flow. And besides, it's just not ehtical. Leo, partly because Bernie is his girlfriend Verna's (Marsha Gay Hardin) kid brother, is protecting Leo and refuses to let Caspar move against him. The police and mayor take orders from whoever the top dog is, and the funniest moments of the movie are watching them shift around in trying to end up on the right side of the ensuing war. Tom has to act on his own to bring his boss Leo and Verna, with whom he's having an affair, safely through the war.

It's a complicated plot, but the plot isn't the strongest aspect of the film. What I found most remarkable about the film was it's attention to detail. As a period peice, Miller's Crossing is phenomenal. The costumes, the settings, the cars all perfectly fit 1920's urban America. And the dialouge, what a wealth of character 1920's, American slang brings to the movie. The acting by the whole cast was particularly well done. And the cinematography captured it all perfectly. Especially the lonely road through the woods at what was called Miller's Crossing. This movie is truly a feast for the eyes, and the dialouge and soundtack make it a feast for the ears as well. The plot is a little too complex and Tom Reagen rolls from beating to beating like an indestructable Superman, but as a period piece, this movie excels.

Add in a little trademark Coen dark humor and a little Coen fixation with hats, and this movie is well worth a couple of hours of a quiet evening at home.

Since there are already 203 reviews of "Miller's Crossing here," I'll skip the plot summaries, raves about performances, references to Dashiell Hammett, etc., knowing the odds of my repeating at least one review on file are better than they are that one of Tom's bets will finally come in.

I'll save you some time: If you want a traditional shoot 'em up crime pic, all action and no brains,
keep walking. This ain't your picture.

I mean, this is a great gangster movie, make no mistake about it. It's got all the necessary ingredients: lots of violence (explosions, machine guns, arson), exuberantly shot; multiple, incestuous betrayals (professional, romantic, sexual); even a little love . . . . But none to spare. Nobody will ever accuse this movie of sentimentality.

Miller's Crossing is definitely more aimed at the head than the heart. That said, the film has some real emotional depth, with bonds of all sorts--professional, familial, romantic--straining, twisting, crossing, breaking, doublecrossing. There's a lot more feeling here than is obvious at first glance.

But the Coens are, as is their wont, riffing on a genre. They write characters like Johnny Casper (Jon Polito), a choleric little fireplug who muses about the nature of right and wrong ("an interesting ethical question . . . ") as he's sending his lieutenants out to murder his enemies or, when things get out of hand, doing the job himself.

Also, Joel and Ethan are so in love with the gorgeous lingo of the hard-boiled period gangster pic that they make it a featured player. If you share their love of language in general, and American slang in particular, Miller's Crossing will thrill you with its virtuosic wordplay.

Here's a question: How many times does world-weary Tom (Gabriel Byrne), the still water at the center of Miller's Crossing, get beat up? And how many times does he lose his hat?

It starts by showing Johnny Casper complaining about a bookmaker who profits illegally from a fixed fight: "Its not ethical!". But mob boss Leo explains the bookmaker is paying for protection and he won't allow him to be bumped off. Tommy loses at horses and cards (symbolism?). Leo asks Tommy about Verna; she is missing. The person hired to follow Verna was found dead, and now Leo wants to get even. [No Maltese Falcon here.] Tommy says starting a war will only cause more trouble than its worth. [Does Tommy's bad bets symbolize a loser?]

Tommy is brought to see Casper and offered a deal. He refuses, and earns more bad luck. [No Glass Key is broken.] Trouble seems to be developing in town. There is an attempt to assassinate Leo, but he turns the tables. But Leo can't contact the Mayor and police chief; have they switched sides? Tommy tells Leo too much about his personal life, and is kicked out of the outfit. [A good cover story for undercover work.]

Tommy joins the other side, and goes for a ride in the country. There is a flaw in Tommy's job performance. Now the gang war begins. [A Red Harvest?] Tommy learns that a good deed does not bring a reward. But Tommy lucks out. There are more complications, and surprises, in this confusing story. It lacks plausibility and credibility in its shocking ending.

Some have compared this story to some old novels from long ago, but its just a distorted shadow. It appears to be like something made for low budget TV. This story exists in a vacuum. No mention of the industry needed for this small city, presumably in the mid-west. We see people dressed in tuxedos at the gambling club, but no mention of the Ruling Elite. They don't seem to have ordinary businesses, schools, or churches. Its like a cartoon. Those who gave this film a high rating must have low standards.

I adore films and I have to say that this is easily in my top five and quite possible my top three. Every single time I view it I appreciate it more and more. The casting is supurb. There is not a dry part in the film and all the actors truly flesh out their roles with meaty substance. The storyline is brilliantly written in that it has you guessing left and right who is loyal to who. That's the real subject of this mobster film...just who are your friends and where are they when you need them?

It's not all dark and moody although there are moments like that throughout the film but there is a fair amount of amusing comedic scenes that keep the film's meter peppy. Along with the film's mood is the real star of the film...the dialogue. It may take several viewings to understand exactly what is being conveyed throughout the film (highly recommended!) but it is worth the effort to figure out the slang. Incredibly satisfying once you get it.

I cannot recommend this film enough. If I taught a film class you could bet that this would be included based upon all the items I described. Excellent movie all around! I wish I could give it 6 stars.

great plot development. great character development. and dialogue that is rare with it's intelligence, craft, and wit.

This movie can be a little hard to follow at first unless you keep handy a program of names--many characters are eagerly talked about for a while before you ever get to see them--and some of those characters make their first appearances with holes in their chests. This kind of confusion and awkward narrative is unfortunately somewhat typical to early Coen brothers movies: Blood Simple is a little mystifying in its timeline of the husband's death, and even Fargo is a little confusing when it comes to figuring out who knows who in the crime world, but despite that, this early chunk of movies, including this one, are some of the Coen brothers' best stuff.

This film, if there is any justice in the world, should be a cornerstone work in the modern gangster genre. Aside from capturing the grittiness of Prohibition-era life, as opposed to the overly clean _Chicago_-esque images, this is an intellectual and emotional gangster film. Aside from presenting a great cast (Gabriel Byrne, Albert Finney, John Turturro, Steve Buscemi, John Polito), this movie explores the importance of love and loyalty in the darkness and violence of a crime underworld.

Don't get me wrong--this film is not sappy, nor is it appropriate for Lifetime airtime. Love among gangsters is of course stressful and antagonistic, but above all of the violence in this film is the strategic-minded advisor played by Gabriel Byrne, who digs through the complex relationships of gangland to sort out deep-rooted problems for his boss. Byrne's character distinguishes this movie so much from other gangster movies in that he is an intellectual gangster rather than a violent one. He barely ever has a gun, and while his strategies do not always run smoothly, the movie centers around his methods of playing people against each other to eventually gets what he wants.

It may take a couple of viewings to follow all the nuances of the plot here, but _Miller's Crossing_ is a magnificent picture.

On the surface, Miller's Crossing seems like a straightforward Prohibition-era gangster picture. But artistically, it's just too good to be confined to that genre--an intricate plot about "ethics" (can you imagine); great acting by Irishman Gabriel Byrne as the lead character Tom, by Albert Finney as the Irish boss, and by a host of others (including Coen regular John Turturro), highlighted by a positively inside look at evil by J.E. Freeman as "The Dane"; awesome cinematography and a perfect score (featuring murder and mayhem to "Danny Boy" and Italian opera); and a couple highly memorable scenes, one featuring Finney and the other Turturro. There's a good bit of violence, but very little done to a gruesome extent, and the language harks back to a "wholesome" time before the F word had been popularized ("rumpus" gets a lot of play). At a minimum, Miller's Crossing is a good evening's rental for an adult audience. You may even end up putting it on your list of all-time favorites.

Because the Coen brothers style was relatively unknown when "Miller's Crossing" was released back in 1990, most critics and viewers took it to be just another run of the mill gangster thriller; notable only for the complexity of its story elements. The Dashiell Hammett type story is told from the point of view of Tom (Gabriel Byrne), an adviser to a prohibition era Irish crime boss named Leo (Albert Finney).

Although it appears to be a serious (and violent) gangster film with a straightforward story, it is actually a huge inside joke with the Coens showing both reverence and irreverence for their genre. Or more correctly "genres", as there is mixing of 1920-30's gangster movie elements with the film noir style of the 1940-50's. "Miller's Crossing" has a very fabricated production design with the stylized dialogue to match; giving it an unreal feel, a bit like the "Serenity" movie which mixed space and cowboys.

Albert Finney and Jon Polito (as Johnny Caspar) are especially good as rival crime bosses. The film can only be truly appreciated by those well acquainted with the film traditions of its two genres, but it still works on a basic gangster picture level.

The obvious comparison is "Reservoir Dogs", if only because the Coens and Tarantino are serious students of cinema history and film theory who carefully wove this stuff into their respective films. Yet there is considerable originally within these otherwise derivative works, both self-conscious reverential tributes and biting parodies of film conventions.

Both films fit the writer/director classification, where the director is responsible for translating his own vision to the screen. The Coen vision is translated into an expressionistic world, which is superficially convincing as being real. The pseudo realism is self-sustaining because the characters behave as if they believe in it. The repeated inquiry "what's the rumpus" works within the film's reality but would be a strange question to hear today on a sixth grade playground.

As the film progresses and these phrases of stylized gangster talk are repeated in service to the plot, the viewer assimilates them and the world of the film becomes increasingly familiar, becoming a world they know.

"Miller's Crossing" has a more complex story than "Reservoir Dogs" and more of a comic book quality. Its main exaggeration is the transitional device of having the hero get unrealistically beaten up between virtually every scene change. The sequences with the corrupt mayor and police are also comic book surreal.

At the time of release critics and audiences were not familiar with what would become the Coen's comedy trademark, the disconnection between the way their characters should talk and behave (per film convention) and the way the Coen's actually script them. This was less apparent in "Miller's Crossing" than in their later films, coming mainly in the discourses by Leo and Casper on ethics and codes of loyalty, and in the caricature of Casper's fat spoiled son.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

The gangsters in this movie are not supposed to sound or be acting authentic. The characters are supposed to be fun and the voices were just awesome. This is my favorite role from Gabriel Byrne. The way he has no cares about anybody but himself was very interesting to watch. There are a few plots here going on that all come together for a rather unspectacular ending, but this was still a great movie.

So we have superb acting performances by some of the greatest actors ever. Albert Finney, Gabriel Byrne, John Turturro, Steve Buschemi....

I didn't think it was one of Marcia Gay Harden's best performances, but still a very solid job. Now the reason that this movie will always be remembered by me is J.E Freeman. His acting job playing "The Dane" was the performance of the century.

The cast interviews are pretty good. Movie is widescreened and sound is not 5.1 but still pretty good.

Take Hammett's "The Glass Key" (and be sure not to credit it), muck it up with pointless violence, mix with stilted, often inane dialogue which would not be out of place in a comic book, stir in over-the-top ham acting by just about everyone, add cartoonish, clichéd scene setup and direction and you've got "Miller's Crossing", the most unintentionally hilarious gangster movie I ever saw.
Was there a script? Did the actors ever see it?
Were he not dead, I would have suspected the immortal Ed Wood Jr. of having directed this film! Then again...
A marvel of directorial ineptitude, this a "must see" comedy experience!

Miller's Crossing has a fairy-tale quality about it. Within the homey and narrow scope of what it's doing, it succeeds superbly. The character work and cinematography are outstanding, and the music is an integral element, too.

The story is circumscribed and without overt interest in seeking to move you very deeply but it is neither distant nor dry or cold, either. On first viewing, it strongly led me to view it a second time to catch the threads and dialogue I knew were there but missed on the first run through.

Of all the Coens' work, only "Brother, Where Art Thou" comes close, almost. TIME Magazine's "All Time 100 Best Films" list (drawn up by Richard Schickel and Richard Corliss) has Miller's Crossing in its ranks, but nary a Fargo to be found. Certainly the two gents had to negotiate their pick, and it was Miller's Crossing that they chose.

My favorite little nugget is when Tom gets roughed up in the warehouse, and I'm certain you can hear the brief sound of whooping and hollering Indians on thundering horseback as he goes unconscious.

I absolutely love Miller's Crossing, and I want me' hat, too.

Dashiell Hammett's "Red Harvest" and "The Glass Key" get the lush treatment from the Coen brothers as those two books get conflated into a tightly knit plot.

Unlike "Fargo", this is a beautifully shot movie, it is far more quotable, a million times more memorable and the acting is every bit on par with Mace and Macdormand's in their better known, yet inferior picture.

To say too much about the movie's plot would be to give too much away (if you've ever read Dashiell Hammett you know exactly what I'm talking about).

masterpiece? i dont think so. when i think masterpiece i think of the godfather, fargo, and bats. maybe even freaked. yes totally freaked. thats a good movie go buy that film, not this. this is not that good. i liked the part where the old guy jumps from the window and for about 20 minutes shoots that other guy from the ground for about 20 minutes. and then he shoots the car and then a tree. hmmmmm sound like a movie you wanna watch? i do i think ill watch it again.

Millers's Crossing is a perfect gem of a jewel that improves with each viewing. About the third time I had deduced all of the characters' names and their parts in this rather complex caricature of the 1920s New York underworld, city hall corruption, bookmaking and prohibition. Jon Polito's opening declamation is peerless in speech and facial expressions. Every scene, every word, every gesture is choreographed by the Coens with a precision equal to the stellar cinemetography of Barry Sonenfeld.