Jay’s Birthday Bash Film #1 – Miller’s Crossing (1990)

In honor of my friend Jay from Life vs Film and the Head Shepherd at the LAMB‘s Birthday today, I allowed him to choose 4 films for me to review.

Check out my thoughts on the first of 4 films below!

Happy 31st Jay!  and many more…..

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“I’m talkin’ about friendship. I’m talkin’ about character. I’m talkin’ about – hell. Leo, I ain’t embarrassed to use the word – I’m talkin’ about ethics. ” – Ethics

Number of Times Seen – Between 3-5 Times (Cable in the 90’s and 5 Aug 2018)

Brief Synopsis – A mobster gets caught between two rival gangs as they both vie for control of their city during the 1930’s.

My Take on it – This film has always been one of my favorite Coen Brother films and even after nearly 30 years it still is great.

The way that the film was presented was done so well especially since one the one hand it feels completely original in the story and yet also feels very reminiscent of other gangsters films from the past.

The characters are all created quite well and you never know who to cheer for or even who to trust along the way.

The cast is superb and each character is developed really well that you can feel as if they are not mere stereotypes.

The story itself moves along at a great pace which allows us to savor everything that happens as things progress.

The music by Carter Burwell is amazing and I can easily think of it whenever I think of this film or even the trailer because it fits this film so perfectly.

It also allows the story to have such a great atmosphere with the way the music moves.

Bottom Line – Great gangster film that feels so original even though it utilizes so many known aspects of films in the genre. The cast is superb and they all are cast so well in these roles. The story moves along at a great pace and it gives us so much to enjoy along the way,. The music is excellent and helps give the film such a great atmosphere.  One of the Coen Brothers’ best film IMHO. Highly Recommended!

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – Writers Joel Coen and Ethan Coen suffered writer’s block while writing Miller’s Crossing (1990). They took a three week break and wrote Barton Fink (1991) a film about a writer with writer’s block. The name of Tom Regan’s residence is “The Barton Arms”. In one of the newspapers an article reads ‘Seven Dead in Hotel Fire,’ another reference to Barton Fink.  (From IMDB)

Rating – Oscar Worthy (9/10)

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