Written and directed by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen – Starring Gabriel Byrne, Albert Finney, Marcia Gay Harden, John Turturro, Jon Polito and J.E. Freeman
A fixer caught between two rival crime bosses finds himself trying to keep the peace while navigating a complicated web of loyalties, betrayals and double-crosses.
Miller’s Crossing is my favorite gangster movie.
I first stumbled across it in the middle of the night on a cable network with some friends, and we were glued to the screen. I don’t think I’d seen anything quite like it at the time.
It’s a gangster movie, but it’s also a detective story, a little bit of a comedy, an action movie, a suspenseful drama, and occasionally it can get pretty brutal.
I think the reason I like it so much is that it’s a gangster movie without any of the cliché trappings you get in a gangster movie.
It also feels very authentic. A big part of that is the dialogue. Nobody sounds like people from 1990 dressed like gangsters from another era. The slang, the rhythm and the way everyone talks make the movie feel like it belongs next to those old black-and-white classics.
Another reason the film works so well is the central character, Tom Reagan. Gabriel Byrne could have played Tom as some tactical genius who’s always ten steps ahead of everyone. A smooth operator. A charming rogue. Instead, he makes him feel intuitive and almost uncomfortable as a gangster. There’s a weariness to him that feels unique.
Tom is someone who has spent so much time in this world that he knows how to react when things go wrong. He can read people, improvise, and find his way through situations that should probably be impossible to get out of.
And from time to time, he gets lucky.
John Turturro gets to do something completely different as Bernie. He’s slimy, desperate, opportunistic, pathetic and surprisingly clever. Turturro makes you believe that Bernie is both completely outmatched and far more dangerous than people realize.
Jon Polito brings something completely different to Johnny Caspar. He’s a mob boss like none I’ve ever seen. He’s funny, intimidating and unpredictable, capable of making a scene feel threatening and ridiculous at the same time.
Albert Finney doesn’t need much help making Leo memorable. He’s got the presence you’d expect from a character like this, but the movie also gives him room to play Leo like a real person and not some Irish mob boss caricature. He also gets that incredible bedroom shootout, one of the best sequences in any gangster movie.
J.E. Freeman gives Eddie Dane an imposing presence that seems to hang over everything happening in the background. The character feels like a force of nature, with an almost supernatural ability to appear whenever things are about to get worse.
And Marcia Gay Harden gives Verna exactly the kind of presence the story needs. She’s this film’s version of the femme fatale at the center of so much of Tom’s trouble, but she never feels like she’s simply there to fill that role. There’s a real energy between her and Byrne, and she charges their scenes with something that makes their relationship feel dangerous.
The film’s greatest strength is that it isn’t interested in telling the usual gangster story. This isn’t the rise-and-fall about someone climbing his way to the top of the criminal world. Instead, this is something that is happening inside that world.
Miller’s Crossing has incredible dialogue, memorable performances, unforgettable scenes, and a voice that is completely its own. It’s the kind of movie I can get lost in every time I watch it.
Verdict: True Cinema