The Coen Brothers Final Blog Post

Jim Emerson believes Miller's Crossing (Coen 1990) to be the greatest movie of the 90s, and after reading his review I've been persuaded to change my initial opinions of the film. Miller's Crossing represents some of the Coen Brothers' finest works through its views into the minds of powerful characters, its deliberately abrupt violence, and its intentionally stylized representation of a region.

In Miller's Crossing the viewer gets the opportunity to peek into the minds of the evil. Through Tommie's character in Miller's Crossing the viewer wants him to do the right thing but watches as he slowly and painfully turns bad. Through this first picture you can see how the Coen brothers have helped Tom Reagan (Gabriel Byrne) to look the part of a hard-boiled gangster. They created a film noir type lighting and mis-en-scene by having the gun the most focused part of the frame and having only half of Tom's face lit up. This shows that he's really thinking about the gun and how this moment changes who he is. Throughout the film the lighting gets more and more low-key showing Tom's turn to the darker side with the final showdown scene almost in complete darkness. At first we want to just agree that Tom is the protagonist, and that his moves are the right ones, but by the middle-end of the film we find ourselves seriously doubting our opinions. This kind of theme also shows up in Fargo and No Country for Old Men with the "good guys gone villains". In Fargo we don't know when to stop (or even start) trusting Jerry and his elaborate scheme, and in No Country for Old Men the Llewelyn Moss character we assume is just trying to get some dough but he takes it a bit too far putting his whole family in danger.

The deliberately abrupt violence in Miller's Crossing seems to be a common thread through the Coen brothers' works. A famous scene in Miller's Crossing shows the violence the Coen brothers were going for. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcDAPjRvjAE <---- Watch that, unless you have a weak stomach or big heart. For those of you who can't handle it, the scene has Oh Danny Boy playing quite loudly the whole time, and shows two gangsters break in to try to kill one of the main characters, and ends in crazy violent machine gunning and explosions. Instead of making the scene just crazy intense they decided to put Oh Danny Boy playing through it which brings in an element of sadness and awe at the horrendous lives of these characters. In other scenes the silence before someone gets beat up makes the tension build, as seen quite a bit in No Country for Old Men. Just when you think they won't show something, they do.

The 1930s are portrayed as just a little dreamlike as always in this Coen brothers film. The scenes at Miller's crossing with the gorgeous forest and beautiful trees are stark contrasts to the violence happening in the city. The Coen brothers use this technique in No Country for Old Men and Fargo as well. In No Country for Old Men you can see the expansive beauty of the desert and the way it sharply contrasts to the sudden violence that seems to happen around every corner. In Fargo you also see the wonderfully deserted Minnesota landscape in January immediately contrasted with the violence coming from the main plot. It almost seems as if the Coen brothers use these contrasts to bring you more into the movie world and out of the documentary feeling. When watching the films you know that after 90-120 minutes you won't be looking around your house for bad guys, because the directors have made it very clear that the film is meant to stay a film and not jump into reality. The beautiful landscapes paint pictures of hope, where after you realize you're watching a Coen brothers film you should realize there is none.

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In conclusion, although I may have nodded off the Coen brothers as being very unnecessarily violent and intense, I think they deserve some credit for making some damn good movies.