The Coen brothers have been one of my very favorite film teams ever since their first classic Blood Simple and I'm a die hard defender of almost every film they've done.(even the misguided Crimewave with Sam Raimi) But there is one film of theirs that I hold above all others and that's Miller's Crossing.
One of the reasons I love this movie is that it is so *deliberate*. There are no accidents in this film. Everything that happens on screen happens for a reason, and every character and line serves the film and the world that is being created. In that respect, I consider this to be a perfect film. There is nothing in it that, for me, breaks the magic. And the other reason I love it so is that it's both a straight up hard-boiled crime film and a rather intelligent parody.
The film is like every single Noir film taken up three notches.
Consider the ridiculously over-the-top sequence featuring Albert Finney fearlessly leaping out of a window like some circus acrobat and then pumping a million bullets into the guy in his room above and then the fleeing car.Consider the ridiculous number of beatings Gabriel Byrne takes without ever showing the slightest sign of inconvenience. Notice also that they all end with him delivering a wisecrack.Consider the ridiculously over-the-top violence going on in the background whenever Tom walks out to talk to the chief - who is a loaded caricature of powerless police chiefs of both cinema and literature.Consider the exchanges between Tom and Verna, which all follow the path of tepid greetings -> descent into unpleasantness and mutual despising -> jumping into bed/ripping each other's clothes off etc in about two mintutes.Consider the relationship between the mob and the police. Collusion between both parties is always implicit and occasionally explicit in gangster movies - but in Miller's Crossing the mobsters actually lead the police. Look at the hilarious shootout scene (which has a great comedy machine-gun reveal) - it's the mobster who leads the attack. And finally Consider the exchanges between Tom and Verna during the 'hat dream' speech. Most action/gangster flicks hit a point where the lead protagonist regales some experience or dream that had life-changing consequences. Verna plays along with this:'And you chased it, right? You ran and ran, finally caught up to it and you picked it up. But it wasn't a hat anymore and it changed into something else, something wonderful. Only for Tom to cut her and the audience dead with a response that highlights the silliness of it all:Nah, it stayed a hat and no, I didn't chase it. Nothing more foolish than a man chasin' his hat.
Most of the examples I've cited above also come from Red Harvest. Everything in the film that has to do with cops and the mob -- right from the book. the city leaders in Leo's pocket, the mob running the cops, the new mobsters becoming cops after a regime change, and the casual and constant background violence. All of which makes Miller's Crossing even better. It's a spectacular film because it has such a mixture of serious action, commentary and pure outrageousness. It manages to be deadly serious and take the piss at the same time. The film is meant to be funny, absolutely, but it's also intelligent complex and as morally dark as the great noir films added an extra layer to it.
Miller's Crossing is one of my very favorite films and one of the great subversive gangster movies ever made.
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