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Released by: Fox
Released on: 5/20/2003
Director: Joel Coen
Cast: Gabriel Byrne, Marcia Gay Harden, John Turturro, Jon Polito, Albert Finney
Year: 1990
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The Movie:
In Miller's Crossing, Albert Finney (The Man Who Wasn't There) plays Leo, an Irish mobster, in an unnamed big city during the prohibition era. Leo gets involved in a gang war with the local Mafia boss, Johnny Caspar (Jon Polito of The Man Who Wasn't There) that was set in motion when that is set into motion when a bookie named Bernie (John Turturro of Barton Fink) and his sister Verna start double crossing Leo.
Verna is also engaged in a tumultuous affair with Leo's right hand man, Tom (Gabriel Byrne of Gangs of New York) that, of course, Leo has no knowledge of. Tom gets caught in the middle of not only the love triangle involving Verna and his boss, but also the gang war between the Irish and Italian mob factions.
Miller's Crossing has everything that a good mob story should have - backstabbing henchmen, double-crossing dames, smart talking criminals, and plenty of violence and a thoroughly engrossing power struggle. And the Coen Brothers do it all oh so well.
The movie begins with an homage to Coppala's classic The Godfather and while maybe the film does owe it a small debt, it is actually able to hold it's own against Brando and company and even It's as elegently shot, brilliantly written and superbly acted as any modern day gangster film and it's a shame that Miller's Crossing, like too many of the Coen's films, hasn't found a larger audience.
The cinematography on display in the film is reason alone to see it, but add to that some set design work that almost takes on a life of it's own, some stand out performances from Gabriel Byrne and the eccentric but always reliable John Turturro and you've got almost two hours of near cinematic perfection. Highly recommended.
Video/Audio/Extras:
While the film does suffer from some minor grain and is a bit shimmery in a few spots, the 1.85.1 anamorphic widescreen presentation is quite detailed with nice, accurate colors, deep blacks, and a pleasant color scheme that hints at just a bit of sepia tone, giving the film a nice, old fashioned look that really works for it.
The film was originally presented theatrically in Dolby Digital 4.0 and that is how Fox has presented it on DVD as well. Dialogue is clean and clear, levels are nice, and there are no hiss or distortion issues. The only complain, and it's a minor one, is that there could have been just a bit more bass in the mix.
The main extra on the disc is a featurette entitled Shooting Miller's Crossing: A Conversation With Barry Sonnenfeld that runs just over fifteen-minutes. It's an interesting interview with the films director of photography that provides some great behind the scenes information and a lot of technical details as well. There's also a lot of great humor included in the piece as well: Sonnenfeld has a great sense of humor and it really shines through in this piece.
There are also brief interviews with Gabriel Byrne, Marcia Gay Harden and John Turturro included as well, and a decent still gallery too. Finally there are trailers included not only for Miller's Crossing but also for Raising Arizona and Barton Fink as well.
The Final Word:
Fox has delivered a great looking, good sounding presentation with some nice supplements of an underrated and totally under appreciated classic.