"Miller's Crossing" (1990) Directed by The Coen Brothers

“What’s the Rumpus?”.

An immediate favourite film of the Coen Brothers, every re-watch is a joy as a stellar all time cast comprising of Gabriel Byrne, John Turturro, Albert Finney, Marcia Gay Harden, Jon Polito and Steve Buscemi conspire to bring the Brothers brilliant screenplay to life. A noir gangster film set in a 1920’s/1930’s American town, the conflict between various warring factions is brutally depicted, as are the varying dualities of the wonderful characters brought to life. Each seemingly has a duality, an unnerving side to them and all main characters are richly layered.

This joy of a film is cast from the very outset:

Opening with a long scene of “Leo” (Albert Finney), a local Mafia crime Boss determined to show his latest adversary “Caspar” (Jon Polito) who really runs and controls the town. Aided on each side by loyal Lieutenants “Tom” (Gabriel Byrne), a Consiglieri to Mafia Boss Leo, and “Dane” (JE Freeman) loyal to Caspar, beautifully shot by returning Director of Photography Barry Sonnenfeld, the scene is well and truly set. Cutting to the opening credits against the beautiful and iconic Miller’s Crossing theme from Carter Burwell, this ends with yet another iconic shot of a black hat blowing on the wind through secluded woods.

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The above opening paragraphs are taken from my spoiler free review of "Miller's Crossing" penned and published over a decade ago, transferred to my Medium blog site and which can now be read in full and for free via my Substack blog site and my original and updated article linked immediately below. I have also linked my career long and huge opus blog article on the films of the Coen Brothers below too:

https://ramblingmusings666.substack.com/p/millers-crossing-1990-61ffc5d59452

https://medium.com/@stephenblackford561/the-world-according-to-the-coen-brothers-f033b11d957d

This spoiler free review is also integral to volume 4 of my 7 volumes of "essential film reviews collection". Currently only available as e-books on Amazon and priced at £4.99 per volume however should you have an Amazon Kindle "Unlimited" package you can read each and every exhaustive volume of numerous spoiler free film reviews for free.

Volume 4

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0C4MG435K

All 7 Volume Series

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0C4HZSTTH?binding=kindle_edition&ref=dbs_dp_rwt_sb_pc_tukn

https://www.patreon.com/TheBlackfordBookClub
https://www.paypal.me/TheBlackfordBookClub
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/steveblackford

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