Miller's Crossing (1990, Coens)

Friendship, character, ethics - those are the words spoken in the lengthy opening monologue of the Coen's hybrid ode to 40's noir and 30's gangster films. This is the key distinguishing factor about the setup - it is unlike anything seen in movie lore before. Gangsters didn't behave like characters out of a Raymond Chandler novel. They behaved like Gangsters - cruel, ruthless and living by a code that guaranteed their existence. In 'Miller's Crossing', Gabriels Byrne's Tommy is in love with a woman who is in love with an Irish mob boss that Tommy has pledged allegiance to. Its a confusing, convoluted setup, not unlike Bogey's "The Big Sleep", where we hear more about characters than we see them. The confusion adds to the intrigue and the film builds to a terrific mid-section, the "Crossing" of the title, where Tommy has to 'whack' Bernie (a hypnotic turn by John Turturro), brother of his mistress, to show his loyalty to the Italians displeased by Bernie's cheating ways and the rising mobsters in town. Albert Finney is commanding and just plain fantastic.

The film is deadly serious and compelling, but it is also showingly manufactured, not fluidly constructed. For instance in the way the brutal, stylish, though pointless scene of a tommy gunfight between the town police force and a local gang holed up inside a bar plays out, it serves little purpose. The world that is created is a little like the world in "Sky Captain", it is an odd mix of eras that never existed together. Since this is a Coen brothers film, the lack of irony is compensated by their ear for smart, sassy word play. Even if in the fight between the Irish and the Italians, the Italian boss comes across as less threatening (after all, he is taking on a slugger like Finney), he is funny and cruel. Like the opening promises, this is a film about those fine juicey themes of friendship, character, ethics and that favourite theme of the Coen's - family. If it was not recognized during its original release as a great, albeit different kind of gangster film, today it is credited as being something truly unique.

P.S. Has some of the finest, best edited screen transitions put to screen featuring trees, hats and even billowing curtains.

Rating: 4/5

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