Day #10 - Millers Crossing

I've made it to double digits on my 365 Days of Film Project.  I'm also half way through my Coen Brother marathon.  Millers Crossing is their third film.  It was released in 1990.  It is a period gangster piece staring Gabriel Byrne, Albert Finney, Marcia Gay Harden and cast of what will become Coen Bros regulars. 

I have seen this movie several times now, but watching it as part of this marathon I really noticed the maturity of the film making.  Blood Simple was them learning the ropes of how to use a camera to tell a story.  Raising Arizona was where their unique writing style first shone through.  Millers Crossing fuses both together to create a sophisticated, mature, intriguing gangster picture.

Perhaps I am a little bias.  I love gangster movies.  They are my favorite sub-genre.  The thing that separates Millers Crossing is they came to with as if they had never seen a gangster picture.  All of the standard troupes have been erased.  It is story of a organized crime boss with a soft heart his right hand man, and the woman who would come between them.

I have decided that once this marathon is over I will provide several Top 5's from these films.  Things like Top 5 Characters, Top 5 Scenes and Top 5 Quotes.  Millers Crossing will most compete for 2 of the favorite scenes.  There is a scene with Albert Finney using a Thompson Sub-Machine gun like Picasso used a paint brush.  Also a wonderful scene where John Turturro is lead out into the woods.  These are iconic images in the Coen cannon. 

As far as the performances go, it doesn't get any better than Albert Finney.  Anytime he shares the screen with any of the other players it is all they can do just to hold their own.  Gabriel Byrne is good and Marcia Gay Harden is beautiful in her Prohibition era garments and hairstyles.  Joe Polito is over-the-top in a good way as Johnny Casper.  The up and coming thug challenging Finney's "Leo" for his seat.

The movies plot twists and turns for nearly 2 hours.  Everyone is playing every other person.  Grifting is an art form and no one see all the angles like Bryne's "Tom".  A street smart punk on a bad streak when it comes to the ponies and his bookie.  This movie is a pleasure and it deserves it place on the shelf with the other American ganster picture classics.  It is amazing how the Coen's made a ganster movie so reminisent of all the other gansters movies, but so original at the same time.  I give this a 4/5 stars.  For more information check out the link below for the trailer.  Tonight will be Barton Fink!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkJIcFMN_pc