In a recent Time Magazine article, the elusive Cormac McCarthy and the Coen Brothers sat down for a little chat. At one point in the conversation, McCarthy praises The Coen’s 1990 Miller’s Crossing by saying simply “I don’t want to embarrass you, but that’s just a very, very fine movie.” To which Joel Coen replies, “Eh, it’s just a damn rip-off.” And McCarthy concludes, “No, I didn’t say it wasn’t a rip-off. I understand it’s a rip-off. I’m just saying it’s good.” A pastiche of modern and classic gangster conventions, film noir and even Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo set to the rhythm of the Coen’s mighty gift for good gab, to say there is a lot going on in Miller’s Crossing is a bit of an understatement. Story, characters, production and cinematography are all spot on. The feather in the cap, however, is how almost every scene has touches that amp things up to 11 without spoiling the flow, feel or texture of the film. Along with the ridiculously quotable dialogue (“Now take your flunky and dangle”), this becomes the essence of the film.
The scene which comes the closest to running the film off the rails, almost becoming a cartoon (It’s operatic and silly in the way the Warner Brother’s Looney Tunes did Wagner), is one that sticks out on first viewing, but then becomes something that you just cannot help but look forward to on subsequent viewings.
Gang boss Leo, played by the great Albert Finney, who is a bit of a bumbler and a blowhard in the film up to this point, is ambushed in his mansion by two assassins as he settles down in his bed with a cigar. Noticing smoke coming up from the floor boards (the result of a slaying in another part of the house) he springs to action resulting in a vicious head shot of one of the killers (considering the constant hat motif in Miller’s Crossing, any head shot probably isn’t by accident). Seizing the dead mans Tommy Gun and diving out a window (still in his nightrobe), Leo opens up on the other assassin and fires and endless stream of bullets first at the man, then at the getaway car and driver. He just keeps firing and firing (and firing) until the car finally crashes and explodes. The whole scene plays like orchestrated slapstick with a gory grace note or two and Irish ballad “Danny Boy” crescendos on the soundtrack. But the thing that really and truly makes the scene own the screen is that all the gunplay and murder is for Leo like great sex (or it is just the thrill to be alive?) In a bit of movie-only foresight, just before the shooting must have started, Leo thoughtfully kept his extinguished cigar close at hand. At the end of the rumpus he produces it from his nightrobe and plants it in his mouth with pure satisfaction.
There are hundreds of moments, both large and small, in Miller’s Crossing worthy of comment and consideration, but the joyous lunacy of this sequence is a signature Coen Brothers invention. Hardly the rip-off that the brothers themselves self-deprecatingly consider it. Heck, Miller’s Crossing might just be the best American Film of the 1990′s *Wink Wink*
Wow, Kurt, that’s for the Times interview link. I’m not sure how I ever missed that. Fascinating. I only wish it had been longer, but I’ll take what I can get, eh?
C.M. It was basically trained to kill people.
J.C. It was basically trained to kill people.
I loved that part of the interview, because in the three McCarthy novels I’ve read, that’s a dialogue device he uses constantly, the statement by one character being repeated immediately by another. Just kinda funny seeing that.
As for Miller’s Crossing, definitely one of my favorite films of the 90s, although I give both Fargo and The Big Lebowski the slight edge, but maybe just because those are the films that first introduced me to the genius that was Joel and Ethan Coen.
MILLER’S CROSSING is a great film, certainly one of the brother’s five best (and I have to say NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN makes that list as well…if you haven’t yet seen it, run out immediately to do so. It’s the second best film I’ve seen in 2007, behind only GRINDHOUSE).
If I were to rank the Coen films, it would be:
1. FARGO
2. NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN
3. MILLER’S CROSSING
4. THE BIG LEBOWSKI
5. BLOOD SIMPLE
I’ve always preferred the Coen’s ‘dark’ stories to their comedies, though only slightly. The only film of theirs that really didn’t do it for me was INTOLERABLE CRUELTY.
As for the scene from MILLER’S CROSSING mentioned above, it is a great one. My favorite moment, however, is when Tom is being walked through the woods at gunpoint by The Dane and his two henchemen, looking for Bernie’s body. The tension is strong in that scene, and the surprise ending to it really caught me off-guard.
I have a hard time buying that Grindhouse is a better film than No Country for Old Men (or The Assassination of Jesse James or Gone Baby Gone or Rescue Dawn or Lars and the Real Girl, for that matter).
I guess I’m actually going to have to cave in and watch it, so I can have some basis to my trashtalking.
I hate to rank Coen Brothers films. It’s a darn near impossible task the way they hop genres (both from film-to-film and within their films).
Jonathan: What I found appealing about GRINDHOUSE, apart from it being very entertaining, was that it was a great movie-going experience, with fake trailers, old-time “feature presentation” graphics and two very fun films. It’s a hard movie to top, in my opinion, but NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN came damn close (and so did THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES, for that matter).
Kurt: As for ‘ranking’ Coen brothers films, I agree with you. I really haven’t seen one I didn’t like (wuth the exception of INTOLERABLE CRUELTY, as mentioned above). However, like most fans, I have my favorites. The list was really intended to point out which ones they were, and my using the word ‘rank’ at the top of the list was most likely an error (forgive me: I posted that at 5:30 a.m. local time)
Heck, I even like Intolerable Cruelty. What’s not to love about Geoffry Rush singing Simon & Garfunkle so over-the-top badly! And George Clooney giving the big ‘slow-clap’ speech. There are so many great moments in there. Plus there just aren’t enough filmmakers out there making Screwball Comedy any-more (exception: David O. Russell). It’s no secret that the Coen’s love Preston Sturges (they named a film after him), and Intolerable Cruelty is as close as we’re going to get to him in this day and age.
Intolerable Cruelty is the only Coen brothers movie I haven’t watched. I’ve been debating with myself for a while now on when I should finally take the plunge and watch it. Since I consider Joel & Ethan Coen two of my all-time favorite filmmakers, I guess I owe it to them to give them the benefit of the doubt and since I’ve enjoyed every single one of their movies (even The Ladykillers, to an extent – that extent probably just being Tom Hanks’s character), I guess there is just about no reason for me not watching it.
A trip to the movie store may be in order here.
I like Intolerable Cruelty as well. The worst film (IMO) is definitely Ladykillers.
On the off subject, Grindhouse will likely be my #1 movie of the year. NOT the best movie; not by a long shot. But it certainly is done well and is HIGHLY entertaining. The only movie I’ve seen twice in the theater this year.