Miller's Crossing

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Miller's Crossing
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 and stars Gabriel Byrne, Albert Finney and John Turturro. The film's plot depicts a power struggle between two rival gangs and how the protagonist (played by Byrne) plays both sides off each other. In 2005, Time magazine chose Miller's Crossing as one of the best 100 movies made since the inception of the periodical. 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".

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[edit] Synopsis

The film is set during the Prohibition era in an unnamed northeastern city (most of the exteriors were shot in New Orleans, taking advantage of that city's vintage architecture and streetcar line) where two warring gangs face off. Leo O’Bannon (Finney), a headstrong Irishman, controls the town, but his power is in danger of being usurped by a rival gang headed by the ambitiously violent Italian, Giovanni Gasparo, aka Johnny Caspar, (Jon Polito) and his deadly henchman, Eddie Dane (J.E. Freeman). Caught between the two warring sides is Tom Reagan (Byrne), 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.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Influences

Miller's Crossing contains references to many other gangster films and film noir; for example, the opening shot is a reference to the opening of The Godfather.[citation needed] 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. The film also shares a connection with Akira Kurosawa's classic samurai film, Yojimbo, where the protagonist sets two warring factions against each other.

[edit] Production

While writing the screenplay, the Coen brothers tentatively titled the film, The Bighead - their nickname for Tom Reagan. The first image they conceived of was that of a black hat coming to rest in a forest clearing, then, a gust of wind lifts it into the air sending it flying down an avenue of trees (This image begins the film's opening credit sequence.). Because of the intricate, dense plot, the Coens suffered from writer's block while working on the script. They went to stay with a close friend of theirs at the time, William Preston Robertson in St. Paul, Minnesota, in the hopes that a change of scenery might help. One night, they went and saw Baby Boom, returned to New York City and wrote Barton Fink in three weeks before returning to the Miller's Crossing screenplay. They even alluded to Fink in the film by naming Tom's apartment, the "Barton Arms."

The budget of the film was reported by film industry magazines as $14 million but the Coens claimed in interviews that it was only $10 million. During the casting process, they had envisioned Trey Wilson (who played Nathan Arizona in the Coens' previous film, Raising Arizona) as gangster boss Leo O'Bannon, but two days before the first day of principal photography he died from a brain hemorrhage. Albert Finney was subsequently cast in the role. The Coens also cast some of their family and friends in minor roles. Sam Raimi, film director and friend of the Coens, appears as the snickering gunman at the siege of the Sons of Erin social club and Frances McDormand, Joel Coen's wife, appears as the Mayor's secretary.

The Coens shot the movie in New Orleans because they were attracted to the look of the city. Ethan commented in an interview, "There are whole neighborhoods here of nothing but 1929 architecture. New Orleans is sort of a depressed city; it hasn’t been gentrified. There’s a lot of architecture that hasn’t been touched, store-front windows that haven’t been replaced in the last sixty years."[1]

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!"

[edit] Trivia

  • Albert Finney, in addition to his starring role as Leo O’Bannon, appears in a very brief cameo as an elderly female attendant in the ladies' room when Tom bursts in to confront Verna.
  • The role of The Swede was written for Peter Stormare, but could not be cast since he was playing Hamlet at the time. The name of the character was changed to The Dane, and Stormare went on to star in two Coen movies: Fargo and The Big Lebowski.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Levy, Steven. ""Shot By Shot," Joel and Ethan Coen: Blood Siblings", Plexus, 2000, pp. 75.

[edit] External links