Miller's Crossing (1990) First Time Watching! Full Movie Reaction!!
Added 2024-06-05 04:38:23 +0000 UTC
Comments
Just joined up. So glad I chose this as my first watch. Great film and wonderful reaction.
James Rogers
2024-06-23 00:46:50 +0000 UTCFunny you mentioned Sean Penn after the movie 'cause watching this I thought is Tom played by Sean Penn?! No, it can't be, lol.
Juice
2024-06-13 16:51:05 +0000 UTCReally enjoyed watching this one with you both. Forgot how clever it was. Still got a handful of Coen Brothers films to go but the two I highly recommend are Barton Fink (1991) and O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000).
James Miley
2024-06-08 04:39:21 +0000 UTCLooking back, I think it was more than a year before I actually saw the whole movie from the beginning. When I was younger it didn't bother me to join in on a movie that already started - as an adult it drives me crazy. 😅
Brandon
2024-06-06 14:10:50 +0000 UTCJust finished, and it’s a great reaction. Dan was right about the character in question being Sam Raimi. For the June drawing I’ve entered ‘A Simple Plan’, which is directed by Raimi. Hopefully the spinning wheel will be favorable. There are so many anecdotes and observations about this one, it’s hard to know where to start, but some have been mentioned by other posters. The greatest aspect of the Coens is the weird lens through which they see and write. Details otherwise insignificant, have a way of sticking with you and becoming oddly iconic. I look forward to your eventual viewing of Barton Fink, which is a major role for John Tuturro. He’s a great character actor with huge range. His cousin (also a Tuturro) played Tony Soprano’s sister Janice. So far as Marsha Gay Harden, another member mentioned her being in ‘Pollock’, and it’s one of the great artist biopics. She costars with Ed Harris, who plays the deeply troubled artist Jackson Pollock. Amazingly enough, it’s also Ed Harris’s directorial debut, and he was perfect in both positions. Very highly recommended.
David Wilkins
2024-06-06 02:59:52 +0000 UTCThis is all just my interpretation, but I think the unspoken truth (especially once you've seen the movie and you know how Bernie acts once Tom lets him go) is that 1) Tom is totally right that Leo should just give up Bernie, and 2) Tom is accustomed to Leo listening to him all the time. There's a quick shot of him doing a very subtle double-take when Leo declines to give Bernie up in the first few minutes. I also feel like Tom is genuinely partnering with Casper in the middle of the movie, because of course he really was sleeping with Verna, so the fight between him and Leo is based on actual anger. My feeling is that when he frames it that way at the end, it's a way to end the tension between them, because Leo either believes or assumes that Tom's confession that he slept with Verna was part of the "secret plot." I also feel like Verna is honestly pretty innocent. She admits upfront that she does what she has to in order to protect her brother, and although the time she spends with Tom is strategic, I don't think any manipulation there is cruel so much as the way one has to be in that time in order to get what they want. Her feelings for Tom are genuine, and tells him around the middle of the movie that he should've just asked her to break it off with Leo if he cared about her, which he does (but some sort of stubborn pride in himself won't let anyone else solve his problems for him). Her big character flaw (aside from the weird hinted at brother-sister thing, assuming you believe anything Bernie says) is that she won't tell Bernie how much of a nuisance he is for everyone. I personally don't think there's more than one Coen movie potentially worth skipping. The Ladykillers (2004) is definitely not one of their greatest works, but it does have a ridiculously weird Tom Hanks performance at the center of it, so even that's probably worth seeing once. I also like their other "fallow period" film, Intolerable Cruelty, in part because it was the first Coen Brothers movie I ever saw and in part because I think it's actually pretty good at being what it's trying to be, which is an old-fashioned screwball comedy (it doesn't strike me as much sillier than Raising Arizona, which has a similar over-the-top energy). If you just keep going chronologically, you get Barton Fink, which I like and most people love, and then the movie I most want to see you two react to out of the rest of their catalog, the tragically underrated Hudsucker Proxy, with Tim Robbins and Jennifer Jason Leigh. I've mentioned this before, but the Coens have been friends with Sam Raimi for a long time: Joel was assistant editor on The Evil Dead, and Sam gave them pointers for the fake trailer they made to sell Blood Simple (which featured Bruce Campbell, although you never see his face). All three wrote Sam's second movie together, the disowned misfire Crimewave, which started out on the wrong foot when the studio wouldn't let Campbell play the lead, and got worse from there. As you saw, he had a cameo here, and then they would go onto write Hudsucker Proxy together. Then I'm pretty sure you jump all the way to another hugely underrated gem, The Man Who Wasn't There, a pitch-perfect neo-noir with an incredible Billy Bob Thornton performance. On the other side of Intolerable Cruelty and The Ladykillers you get some more less-popular masterpieces: Burn After Reading and A Serious Man, two of their funniest movies. And that just gets you to the 2010s! Last but not least, many have pointed out that Miller's Crossing is in part a tribute to the crime writer Daishell Hammett. Another great movie influenced by Hammett is the first film by Knives Out writer/director Rian Johnson, also a neo-noir, called Brick, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Brick takes this kind of hard-boiled detective language and transplants it to a Los Angeles high school, which makes it kind of funny without taking the dark edge off of the mystery. Another film I'd love to see you two watch.
Tyler Foster
2024-06-06 01:56:27 +0000 UTCOne thing worth noting is that while the Coens are credited on "Fargo," they have no creative input whatsoever. They probably haven't even seen the show. It's just honorary -- the show is all creator Noah Hawley's baby. Also, any references to the Coens' filmography in "Fargo" is definitely intentional -- I've only seen Season One, but the scene you're talking about in Season Two is almost certainly a direct reference to Miller's Crossing. From what I hear, they have some cast peppered in (like Thornton in Season One), some musical references, and other more direct reference like the one you mentioned.
Tyler Foster
2024-06-06 00:24:39 +0000 UTCNow, at this point, I have to check this out.
PIG
2024-06-06 00:23:34 +0000 UTCIf you guys ever get around to Meet Joe Black (which coincidentally is directed by Martin Brest, per the conversation in the BHC thread), you'll see Marcia Gay Harden as a thoroughly charming and deeply lovable character.
Paul Cox
2024-06-05 18:13:33 +0000 UTCYES!
dieselbeast
2024-06-05 17:39:12 +0000 UTCMore DePalma! -Sam
TBR Schmitt
2024-06-05 17:37:34 +0000 UTCSo many iconic moments in this one! -Sam
TBR Schmitt
2024-06-05 17:37:24 +0000 UTCOh nice! I definitely want to watch more of her work! -Sam
TBR Schmitt
2024-06-05 17:36:46 +0000 UTCHow could you not, starting with that scene, wow! Coen Brothers are incredible! Can’t wait to check out Barton Fink! -Sam
TBR Schmitt
2024-06-05 17:35:54 +0000 UTCAh, he looked familiar but couldn’t place him! -Sam
TBR Schmitt
2024-06-05 17:34:26 +0000 UTCYou're probably being recommended snake eyes because it was also directed by Brian de Palma lol
dieselbeast
2024-06-05 17:33:34 +0000 UTCLeo getting attacked in his house and turning the tables is one of my favorite scenes in this movie. Walking down the road shooting a Tommy Gun and then putting his cigar back in his mouth is iconic. Also I love how loyal Tom is even though he's an absolute bastard.
Tostito Buddy
2024-06-05 16:48:01 +0000 UTCGreat catch on the Fargo Season 2 reference! When Bear walks his niece into the woods, Miller's Crossing was the first thing I thought of.
Mike Miner
2024-06-05 16:15:14 +0000 UTC👍👍👍
Greg & Lilian
2024-06-05 15:36:42 +0000 UTCThis is my favorite Coen Brothers movie! FYI Marcia Gay Harden went on to win an Oscar for “Pollack” — a biopic about artist Jackson Pollack.
Michael Soukup
2024-06-05 14:47:56 +0000 UTCWell, Dan and Sam, this was a fantastic pick!!!! you know I played the iconic theme song on youtube this morning in celebration. :)
Chris Bruneau
2024-06-05 12:51:29 +0000 UTCI first saw this on cable when I was around 13. My mom knocked on my door and told me there was a gangster movie on that I might like. I changed the channel and the first thing I saw was the scene with Leo taking on the goons that attack him at home. After that I was a Coen bro for life. The Coens had writer's block while figuring out the plot and took some time off to write the screenplay for their next film 'Barton Fink'. It's one of the most dense and abstract movies they've ever made. It just blows my mind that THAT is what they came up with while suffering from writer's block.
Brandon
2024-06-05 11:41:21 +0000 UTCThis movie was my everything in my teenage years, the same period of my life that I discovered Dashiell Hammett and classic American crime noir. Still love this flick, although I feel that with entries such as The Big Lebowski, Fargo, and No Country for Old Men, among others, the Coen Brothers have far surpassed their earlier work--you know, but in a good way. That said, this, Blood Simple, and Barton Fink all hold a special place in my heart. Can't wait to watch this later when I get home from work.
Steve Mercier
2024-06-05 10:09:22 +0000 UTCThey're big fans of Hammett and Raymond Chandler. Hence the dialog in a lot of their earlier work
Smooticus
2024-06-05 09:45:14 +0000 UTCMiller's Crossing was heavily influenced by the novels of Dashiell Hammett, particularly The Glass Key and Red Harvest. Those books were also an inspiration for Akira Kurosawa when he wrote Yojimbo (which then, of course, got remade as A Fistful of Dollars).
Brad P
2024-06-05 09:43:52 +0000 UTCDid you guys notice that Bernie was played by John Turturro, who played "The Jesus" in The Big Lebowski?
Tenn Seven
2024-06-05 06:11:36 +0000 UTChahaha a mess! -sam
TBR Schmitt
2024-06-05 05:20:33 +0000 UTCBest intro so far. Never a dull moment with you guys 😅🤣
Guston Zimasheen
2024-06-05 05:19:55 +0000 UTCDan: "This is my wife... uh... Samantha?" Sam: "Yeah, remember me?! LOL!
Mr. Writhms
2024-06-05 04:55:51 +0000 UTC
