Miller's Crossing
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| Miller's Crossing | |
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| Directed by | Joel and Ethan Coen (Ethan uncredited) |
| Produced by | Joel and Ethan Coen (Joel uncredited) |
| Written by | Joel and Ethan Coen |
| Starring | Gabriel Byrne Albert Finney Marcia Gay Harden John Turturro Jon Polito Steve Buscemi |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
| Release date(s) | September 21, 1990 (USA) |
| Running time | 115 mins. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $14,000,000 (est.) |
| IMDb profile | |
Miller's Crossing (1990) is a gangster film directed by Joel and Ethan Coen.
The action in Miller's Crossing takes place in 1929 in an unnamed American city (most of the exteriors were shot in New Orleans, taking advantage of that city's vintage architecture and streetcar line). The film's plot depicts the journey of Tom Reagan, the right-hand man of the boss of an Irish crime gang. Tom is an ambivalent, enigmatic protagonist, who may or may not be plotting against his boss. Either way, he ends up caught in, and partly causing, a bloody gang war.
Miller's Crossing is a highly allusive film that contains references to many other gangster films and film noir; for example, the opening shot is a reference to the opening of The Godfather. Many of its situations, characters and dialogue are derived from the work of Dashiell Hammett, especially his novel The Glass Key and the 1942 movie that was adapted from it. Though several important plot points are different, there are significant parallels between the two stories and many scenes and lines are culled directly from Hammett's novel. Another important source was Hammett's novel Red Harvest, which details the story of a violent internecine gang war in a corrupt American city, a gang war initiated by the secret machinations of the main character.
In 2005, TIME Magazine chose Miller's Crossing as one of the best 100 movies made since the inception of TIME. TIME movie critic Richard Corliss said that the movie is a "noir with a touch so light, the film seems to float on the breeze like the Frisbee of a fedora sailing through the forest".
[edit] Cast
- Gabriel Byrne as Tom Reagan
- John Turturro as Bernie Bernbaum
- Marcia Gay Harden as Verna Bernbaum
- Albert Finney as Leo O'Bannion
- Jon Polito as Johnny Caspar
- J.E. Freeman as Eddie Dane
- Steve Buscemi as Mink
[edit] Trivia
- Trey Wilson, the actor who played Nathan Arizona, Sr., in the Coens' earlier film Raising Arizona, was originally cast to play mob boss Leo but died before filming. The role then went to Finney.
- Sam Raimi, film director and friend of the Coens, appears in a cameo as the snickering gunman at the siege of the Sons of Erin social club.
- Frances McDormand, Joel Coen's wife, appears in a cameo as the Mayor's secretary.
- Albert Finney appears in a very brief cameo as an elderly female attendant in the ladies' room when Tom bursts in there to confront Verna.
- Tom's apartment is located in the 'Barton Arms' - an allusion to the Coens' subsequent film, Barton Fink. During the writing process, the Coens hit a wall in trying to figure out how exactly to end Miller's Crossing. They took time off from the script to write Barton Fink, a story about a writer with writer's block, then returned to their original project.
- During filming the New Orleans Police would arrive semi-regularly to assess fines for permits the film crew had already procured. Joel Coen commented to Premiere Magazine during shooting, "they are acting precisely like the cops that we're depicting in the movie, and they don't even care!"
- At one point the body of Mink(Steve Buscemi) is mistaken for Bernie(John Turturro). This is highly unlikely, as John Turturro is 6'3", while Steve Buscemi is only 5'8". Also, Turturro's skin is a few shades darker than Buscemi's, though this would be less likely to be noticed, as only the hands would be exposed and intact enough to tell.
[edit] External links
- Coenesque: The Films of the Coen Brothers
- You Know, For Kids! Miller's Crossing page
- Miller's Crossing at the Internet Movie Database
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