Miller's Crossing
The movie poster.
Directed by	Joel Coen
Produced by	Ethan Coen
Written by	Joel and Ethan Coen
Starring	Gabriel Byrne Albert Finney Marcia Gay Harden John Turturro Jon Polito
Music by	Carter Burwell
Cinematography	Barry Sonnenfeld
Editing by	Michael R. Miller
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date(s)	September 21, 1990
Running time	115 min.
Country	US
Language	English
Budget	$14,000,000 (est.)
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Miller's Crossing (1990) is a gangster film directed by Joel and Ethan Coen and stars Gabriel Byrne, Albert Finney, Marcia Gay Harden, 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 100 greatest movies ever 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".

Synopsis

The film is set during the Prohibition era in an unnamed northeastern US 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.

Cast

• Gabriel Byrne as Tom Reagan
• John Turturro as Bernie Bernbaum
• Marcia Gay Harden as Verna Bernbaum
• Albert Finney as Leo O'Bannon
• Jon Polito as Giovanni Gasparo aka Johnny Caspar
• J.E. Freeman as Eddie Dane
• Steve Buscemi as Mink Larouie

Influences

Miller's Crossing contains references to many other gangster films and film noir. 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. Red Harvest was also the source for Akira Kurosawa's film Yojimbo.

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. After watching Baby Boom one night, they returned to New York City and wrote Barton Fink (in three weeks) before resuming the Miller's Crossing screenplay. They alluded to Barton 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. Finney also appears in a very brief cameo as an elderly female ladies' room attendant. 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 role of The Swede was written for Peter Stormare, but could not be cast since he was playing Hamlet at the time. J.E. Freeman was cast and the name of the character was changed to The Dane, but Stormare went on to be featured two Coen movies, Fargo and The Big Lebowski.

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!"

Soundtrack

The score to Miller's Crossing is written by Carter Burwell, the third of his collaborations with the Coen Brothers.

The main theme bears a striking resemblance to "Limerick's Lamentation" an Irish slow air dating back to the 16th century commemorating the fall of Limerick in 1691 to the English.^{[citation needed]}

Selections of the soundtrack are reflective of the American 1920s era in which the film is set, with jazz band tunes such the "King Porter Stomp" and "Running Wild". The soundtrack also includes "Danny Boy", sung by Frank Patterson, an Irish tenor, which is played during the scene in which Albert Finney's character Leo evades and then kills his assassins with a Thompson submachine gun.

References

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

External links

• Miller's Crossing at the Internet Movie Database
• Miller's Crossing Fan Site
• Coenesque: The Films of the Coen Brothers
• You Know, For Kids! Miller's Crossing page

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