All Movie Guide

For their third feature, Miller's Crossing (1990), Joel Coen and Ethan Coen focused their film-literate gaze on the gangster genre, blending it with the film noir legacy they first explored in Blood Simple (1984). Set during Prohibition, the film evokes 1930s gangster film classics and Dashiell Hammett novels in its portrayal of Irish and Italian gangsters and the conflict touched off between them by a complicated web of betrayals involving a sinister crime boss (Albert Finney), his right-hand man (Gabriel Byrne), and a glib bookie John Turturro. Barry Sonnenfeld's shadowy cinematography lends a somber cast to the events, while set pieces like the forest execution and a chandelier-splintering shoot-out to the strains of "Danny Boy" revel in the Coens' talent for combining violence, drama, and high style. Though a few dissenters viewed Miller's Crossing as all surface and no substance, critics were impressed by the strong cast -- especially Turturro and Finney -- and bravura technique, declaring that the Coens had fully come into their own as filmmakers. The writer's block the Coens reportedly suffered while working on the screenplay became fodder for their next film, Barton Fink (1991). Lucia Bozzola

All Movie Guide

Joel and Ethan Coen's third collaboration, the gangster film Miller's Crossing, stars Gabriel Byrne as Tom Reagan, the right-hand man of big-city Irish mob boss Leo (Albert Finney). The film opens with Italian mobster Johnny Caspar (Jon Polito) and his second in command Eddie Dane (J.E. Freeman) informing Leo and Tom that they are going to kill bookie Bernie Bernbaum (John Turturro) because he has been revealing Caspar's fixed fights to other gamblers. Leo informs Caspar that Bernie pays for protection and is not to be touched. After the Italians leave in a huff, Tom informs Leo that he should give up Bernie. Tom and Leo are both involved with Verna (Marcia Gay Harden), Bernie's sister. After a failed hit on Leo starts a full-scale mob war, Tom reveals to Leo the truth about his relationship with Verna. This leads to a falling-out between the pair. Tom goes to work for Caspar, but in truth, he is still loyal to Leo. Tom figures out how to manipulate all of the situations so that Leo survives, but this may cost Tom his relationship with Verna. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

Product Details

• UPC: 024543073833
• Source: 20TH CENTURY FOX
• Region Code: 1
• Aspect Ratio: Theatre Wide-Screen (1.85.1)
• Presentation: Wide Screen
• Language: English, Français, Español
• Subtitles: English, Español
• Time: 1:55:00
• Sales Rank: 7,274

This DVD is also available as part of a box set:

• Coen Brothers Gift Set

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