Miller's Crossing

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Movie
German title Miller's Crossing
Original title Miller's Crossing
Country of production United States
original language English , Italian , Irish Gaelic , Yiddish
Publishing year 1990
length 115 minutes
Age rating FSK 16 (after re-examination)
Rod
Director Joel Coen
script Ethan and Joel Coen
production Ethan Coen
music Carter Burwell
camera Barry Sonnenfeld
cut Michael R. Miller
occupation

Miller's Crossing is a feature film of the Coen brothers from the year 1990 . Her third film is a gangster film set in the United States during the prohibition era .

action

Johnny Caspar, an aspiring criminal, asks the gang boss Leo for permission to kill the petty crook Bernie Bernbaum because he interferes in Caspar's betting business with manipulated boxing matches. Against the recommendation of his advisor Tom Reagan, Leo does not authorize this murder. Tom thinks Caspar could cause more trouble than Bernie is worth, but Leo is in love with Bernie's sister Verna and wants to marry her. Tom, however, knows what to think of this love: he himself has a secret relationship with Verna.

The situation escalates when Leo, concerned about Caspar's threats, has Verna shadowed. When Verna's minder is found murdered, Leo thinks Caspar is the culprit and lets the corrupt police take Caspar's establishments up. Tom tries desperately to appease: He knows that Verna had a motive to kill her guard herself - she was with Tom that night. To stop the gang war, Tom Leo confesses his relationship with Verna. Furious, Leo beats up his advisor and ends the collaboration.

Then Tom enters the service of Caspar, whose position towards Leo is getting stronger and stronger. Even the mayor and the police run over to him. As a vote of confidence, Tom delivers Bernie, whose address Verna unsuspectingly gave him, to Caspar. Caspar wants another vote of confidence: Tom is supposed to drive with Bernie to Miller's Crossing , a lonely intersection in the forest, and kill him. But instead of killing Bernie, who is begging for his life, he lets him go on condition that he be gone forever.

Bernie obeys and disappears, but only briefly. With no money or friends abroad, he decides to return - he has realized that Tom now has to take care of his own safety in order to keep the secret of his disobedience to Caspar. Tom now works out a plan in which both Caspar and Bernie are ordered to the same meeting point without knowing each other. Bernie shoots Caspar when he arrives at the meeting point, whereupon Tom now shoots Bernie - his true loyalty, it turns out, was only for Leo from the start.

At Bernie's funeral in Miller's Crossing cemetery , Leo makes a new offer of collaboration to Tom; However, Tom refuses.

criticism

“It would be easy to say that the story doesn't matter at all: it just creates the pretext for improvising rhythms and melodies. But that would not be enough for the Coens. Only at the end does it become clear how perfectly constructed, how well structured your script is structured down to the smallest detail. They may ask a lot from the viewer, but they give a lot more back. "

- epd film

“The striking decal of a 'film noir' is more reminiscent of comic strips. The film hardly provides any description of the milieu or atmosphere, nor any convincing characters, but there is plenty of brutal violence. "

- film service

Awards

Joel Coen won the San Sebastián International Film Festival's Silver Seashell in 1990 and was nominated for a Golden Seashell . He also won the 1991 Critics' Prize at the Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival . Donna Isaacson and John S. Lyons were nominated for the Artios Prize of the Casting Society of America in 1991 .

background

Despite strong reviews, the Coen brothers' work flopped, grossing only about five million dollars in the United States . One of the reasons for the failure was that in 1990 with Good Fellas , Dick Tracy and the Coppola sequel The Godfather III three gangster films were presented in the cinemas. There is disagreement about the budget of the film: while the film magazines said it would cost 14 million dollars, the directors claimed that the film was produced for only 10 million dollars.

The name of the film title Miller's Crossing stands for the secret cemetery in the forest, in which some of the film's protagonists are buried.

The plot of the film follows, even if no credit indicates it, in large parts Dashiell Hammett's novel The Glass Key , which was filmed in 1935 (with George Raft ) and 1942 (with Veronica Lake and Alan Ladd ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Certificate of Approval for Miller's Crossing . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , November 2010 (PDF; test number: 64 788 V).