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Yes, FARGO won lots of awards, and certain, RAISING ARIZONA isuproariously silly, but invent no mistake: MILLER’S CROSSING is thequintessential Coen brothers film. In point of fact, it’s flawless, a jewel you can turn over and around in your hands again and again, seeing a original facet every time, each one striking and serene and perfect.
The script is awash with Prohibition-era jargon both historically grounded and whimsically invented, a symphony of phrases and exchanges that linger and echo long after being heard. (It isn’t modern after a viewing to lumber around asking friends, “What’s the rumpus? “, or to complain about being given “the high hat” upon being snubbed.)
The performances, as well, are individually and collectively irresistable. I defy you, in fact, to pick up a single film in which _any_ of the major players has ever been better. There’s not a spurious or miscast designate in the whole of the dramatis personae. There’s Gabriel Byrne as the inscrutable, Machiavellian Tom Reagan, a trusted advisor to the city’s Irish mob lord who falls out of favor and “defects” to the Italian camp to set aside his contain skin…or does he? Albert Finney plays Leo, the aforementioned Irish power broker whose fists of iron, vicious survival instinct, and all-too-vulnerable heart congeal into a simply worthy, unforgettable character. John Turturro is equal parts pathetic outcast and conniving opportunist as Bernie Birnbaum, the unscrupulous, vampirically pale bookmaker whose shady maneuvers region the whole set into motion. Marcia Cheerful Harden exudes fierce intelligence and buckets of carefully-aimed sex appeal as Bernie’s sister Verna, whose unflagging drive to protect her brother — even from himself — almost excuse her hooked machinations. J.E. Freeman drips detestable and impending violence all over the cloak as smarter-than-you-want-him-to-be enforcer Eddie Dane. Jon Polito, as hot-tempered Italian ringleader Johnny Caspar, may be the only character at hand to actually feel sorry for, as his oddly consistent ethical code makes it a distinct bet he doesn’t stand a chance in his environment.
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There’s more to say about the acting, of course, but I’ll end there rather than pour accolades onto the entire cast. And when I say “entire,” I’m not exaggerating: every person who comes into frame, from the leads to the smaller parts to the people with one line or none at all, fit together and play off of each other as though they’d been born to do nothing else in their entire lives. The whole of it actually makes it difficult not to sight acting and casting problems in other films.
I’m running out of room here, so I can only nod to some of the other perfect elements of production. Barry Sonnenfeld’s dead-on photography is measured and seamless where appropriate, frenetic where principal. Station obtain and costuming gain for such an astounding illusion that were this not a color film, you might actually forget that it was released 9, not 69 years ago. And even the sound — from the music (diegetic and otherwise) to the crystal-clear sound effects that pierce the visual and procedure you in by the ears, like they’re supposed to — is a _presence_ in its hold apt throughout the film. I mean, when was the last time ice cubes dropping into an primitive glass or the wringing out of an alcohol-soaked rag into a tinny dish felt truly woven into the designed do of a scene in a movie?
What continues to amaze me about MILLER’S CROSSING is that no matter how many times I behold it, regardless of how hard I watch, I _can’t regain anything bad with it_. That’s an extremely rare station in my experience. It’s what we all want out of a movie, and almost never acquire. MILLER’S CROSSING delivers exactly that feeling, and when Tom Reagan leans against that tree and adjusts that hat in the haunting final shot, he knows it honest as surely as we do. He doesn’t seem to feel especially satisfied about it, but that’s okay. _You_ will.
Most people will let the titles “GOODFELLAS”, “THE GODFATHER (I & II) “, “ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA” and “THE UNTOUCHABLES” roll off their tongues when asked what their current movie is in the “mob” genre. Although seldom mentioned, “MILLER’S CROSSING” must bewitch its rightful set alongside the above as one of the definitive treatments of gangster dynamics in American Cinema. I like to call it “The Thinking Man’s Mob Movie” because it’s a film that requires one to really focus on the action and dialog and not merely sit serve in a lounger without attention span and wait for ruin. These characters are multi-faceted, the residence is complex and the payoff for the viewer is delivered through outstanding cinematography (perhaps the Coen’s best!) and skillful pacing. Coupling their usual stable of actors (Turturro, Buscemi, Polito) with stale thespo Albert Finney, the exquisitely laconic Gabriel Byrne, and femme-semi-fatale Marcia Elated Harden, the Coen Brothers have assembled a truly colossal ensemble cast that transcends the brutality and authenticity of the era. Obvious, there’s immense ruin! In the salubrious gangster pictures, violence is actually a character unto itself, always lurking in the background until called upon to develop a point. In “MILLER’S CROSSING”, the Coen Brothers seem to downplay the right mechanical violence by isolating the factors and sequences that are responsible for it. Betrayal and revenge are primary themes in this film. The crisp writing makes the conversation between characters appear effortless and uncontrived. There’s a sure casuality in the dialog that belies the Coen’s alarmingly correct renderings of gangland execution. Finally, the enjoyment one derives from viewing “MILLER’S CROSSING” is not related to how worthy he/she understands the action or knows about the mob lifestyle, but to the appreciation of the filmmaker’s art in communicating the brutality and fraternity of these individuals with astounding beauty and precision.