In association with

Miller's Crossing [1990]
from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
starring Gabriel Byrne, Marcia Gay Harden, John Turturro, Jon Polito, J.E. Freeman
directed by Joel Coen, Ethan Coen

Features:

• Anamorphic
• PAL
• Widescreen

Editorial Review:

Arguably the best film by Joel and Ethan Coen, the 1990 Miller's Crossing stars Gabriel Byrne as Tom, a loyal lieutenant of a crime boss named Leo (Albert Finney) who is in a Prohibition-era turf war with his major rival, Johnny Caspar (Jon Polito). A man of principle, Tom nevertheless is romantically involved with Leo's lover (Marcia Gay Harden), whose screwy brother (John Turturro) escapes a hit ordered by Caspar only to become Tom's problem. Making matters worse, Tom has outstanding gambling debts he can't pay, which keeps him in regular touch with a punishing enforcer. With all the energy the Coens put into their films, and all their focused appreciation of genre conventions and rules, and all their efforts to turn their movies into ironic appreciations of archetypes in American fiction, they never got their formula so right as with Miller's Crossing. With its Hammett-like dialogue and Byzantine plot and moral chaos mitigated by one hero's personal code, the film so transcends its self-scrutiny as a retro-crime thriller that it is a deserved classic in its own right. --Tom Keogh

Widely acknowledged as one of the greatest gangster films ever made, Miller’s Crossing is directed from an original screenplay by legendary left-field film-making brothers Joel and Ethan Coen (Intolerable Cruelty, Fargo, Raising Arizona and Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?). It is a brooding gangster noir movie, dark and cold as gun metal. Set in prohibition-struck 1929 in an unnamed eastern American city, the Coen brothers’ gangster drama is inspired by the works of Dashiel Hammett which will surprise and delight fans of the horrific Blood Simple and the manic Raising Arizona. In filming Miller’s Crossing, the brothers assembled a team of old and new collaborators and a first-rate ensemble cast.

It’s the compelling story of a friendship between the local political boss, Leo (four time Academy Award nominee Albert Finney - Tom Jones, Erin Brockovich) and Tom Reagan (Gabriel Byrne - The Usual Suspects, End of Days), the ‘man behind the man’. The men’s friendship is severed when Leo and Tom both fall in love with the same woman, Verna (Academy Award winner Marcia Gay Harden - Pollock, Mystic River). Tom joins ranks with Johnny Caspar (Jon Polito - Barton Fink, The Singing Detective) Leo’s foremost enemy and rival for political power, and a bloody gang war erupts. The lynchpin between them all is Verna’s brother, Bernie (John Turturro - Oh Brother, Where Art Thou, Mr Deeds) who crosses and double crosses all parties. Will Tom sell out to a friend? Is Verna still Leo’s girl? Can Johnny muscle in? Or will Bernie turn the tables on his friends and family? Miller’s Crossing is propelled by gripping action, stunning cinematography and black humour to create an intense and twisting plot that walks a deadly tightrope.

• Featurette with Barry Sonnenfeld
  
• Gabriel Byrne interviews
  
• John Turturro interviews
  
• Marcia Gay Harden interviews
  
• Stills Gallery
  
• Miller’s Crossing trailer
  
• Raising Arizona trailer

DVD Technical Information:

• Original Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 (16 x 9)
  
• Sound Quality: English 4.0
  
• Language: English
  
• Subtitles: English for the Hard of Hearing, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish
  
• Feature Running Time: 110 minutes approx.

An Irish gangster (Albert Finney) and his trusted lieutenant (Gabriel Byrne) and counselor find their domination of the town threatened by an ambitious Italian underboss (Jon Polito). Just as this threat erupts, the two sever their friendship when they realize that they love the same woman (Marcia Gay Harden). When one joins ranks with the enemy, a bloody gang war erupts. Violent and compelling work from the Coen brothers.

Customer Reviews:

• Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0

• Quirky Heartless Story of Quirky Heartless Characters
  This is not a great movie.
  I watched Blood Simple for the first time a few weeks ago and really enjoyed watching Francis McDermott. She was fantastic in Fargo. Fargo was a great movie with all the right moves, excellent tone, bizarre characters, and a flatly affected but very strong pregnant cop played by McDermott. The Coen brothers are known for their slightly off-kilter films. Raising Arizona with Nicholas Cage and Holly Hunter was a very successful and entertaining quirky movie. Strange characters... more info

• Very watchable
  This is an entertaining film. The Irish vs Italian gangster storyline gives a nice twist and there is also much more to the storyline than the usual mobster type movie.
  The humanity shown by the Gabriel Byrne character is refreshing & the sniveling brother makes your toes curl.
  It is quite honestly one of the few films in my collection that I go back to willingly again and again.

• Verbose, darkly comic and visually energetic deconstruction of the gangster genre.
  As Blood Simple and Raising Arizona had previously done with the respective genre of film-noir and the screwball comedy, Miller's Crossing attempts to do with the American gangster film. Here, the Coen's aren't simply attempting to pastiche the style of Hollywood mob films of the 30's and 40's, but rather, create a customized deconstruction of every single narrative contrivance or characteristic prevalent in those films. Naturally, in keeping with the film's they'd made before (and those that they would go... more info

• Is This The Best Film Of The Last 20 Years?
  There are plenty of contenders for sure, but Miller's Crossing is the only movie I can think of which is brilliant from start to finish. It's the Coens' best work by an absolute mile, closely followed by the under-rated Barton Fink. Boasting an incredibly smart script, beautiful cinematography, near perfect direction, great set pieces and a gorgeous score by Carter Burwell, it's both deeply serious and highly entertaining at the same time. Also, courtesy of John Turturro, we're treated to one of the most... more info

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