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Miller’s Crossing (1990)
Starring Gabriel Byrne, Marcia Gay Harden, John Turturro, and Albert Finney. Cinematography by Barry Sonnenfeld. Edited by Michael R. Miller. Produced by Ethan Coen. Written by Joel and Ethan Coen. Directed by Joel Coen.
Tom Reagan (played by Gabriel Byrne) is the advisor to a major crime boss (played by Albert Finney) in a city ruled by gangsters. He serves his employer well, but inadvertently and unexpectedly falls in love with his boss’s girl, Verna Bernbaum (played by Marcia Gay Harden). The two try to keep their dangerous affair a secret, but this is the kind of secret that can only last so long.
When the truth is exposed, he is tossed out into the street with no other option but to join the rival gang. After getting established on the other side, his first order is to kill Bernie (played by John Turturro); a crooked crook even by criminal standards, but who also happens to be Verna’s brother. Bernie struggles with his compromised morality while Bernie begs for his miserable life. His decisions with Bernie will come back to haunt him for the rest of his nefarious career.
Miller’s Crossing marked the first bout of writer’s block that the Joel and Ethan Coen had ever suffered. At one point the plot became so absolutely complicated that they could not progress any further. It was during this standstill that they wrote Barton Fink; a film about a screenwriter with a case of writer’s block.
Barton Fink poured out of them and in two months they were back to work on Miller’s Crossing. With a cleansed palette they were able to sort out their problems and finish the story. The option for the film was quickly bought by 20th Century Fox based on a two line synopsis and shortly thereafter they were hard at work in production.
It is said that each of the Coen brother’s film can be summarized by one object or image. For Miller’s Crossing that image would undoubtedly be a hat. Nearly everyone in Miller’s Crossing wears a hat. The brims were intentionally chosen to be very broad, casting a shadow over the wearer’s eyes.
Tom Reagan’s hat does just that. He peers out from underneath his brim while the dark gangster world builds up against him. If one wanted to get slightly analytical, one could interpret his hat as a symbol of his pride or his dignity. Tom’s problem is that his hat is constantly being knocked off.
It is picked back up, dusted off, and replaced back on his head only to be knocked off by someone else later on. This flawed and amoral anti-hero is the building block of the Coen’s dark and morbid film. It is deliberately set in 1941, the eve of the attack on Pearl Harbor, giving it a sense of impending doom.
Miller’s Crossing was inspired by crime novelist Dashiell Hammett’s novels Red Harvest and The Glass Key. It’s a perfectly blended combination of gangster movie and film noir, with just a bit of quirky Coenesque humor thrown in for flavor. One could easily argue that it is the most finely crafted film of their careers.
Budget: $14,000,000
Total US Gross: $4,693,759
Genre: Crime
Runtime: 115 Minutes
US Release Date: 9/22/90
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 (intended ratio)
Awards: none
Tagline: Nothing Is What It Seems At Miller’s Crossing.
Quote: “It's gettin' so a businessman can't expect no return from a fixed fight. Now, if you can't trust a fix, what can you trust? For a good return, you gotta go bettin' on chance and then you're back with anarchy, right back in the jungle.”
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