Miller's Crossing

 SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

 

Miller’s Crossing (1990) has the Coen Brothers again delving into the darkness of the film noir genre. The world is corrupt, with politicians on the take as gangsters rule. There is the stylized, sharp dialogue, and a femme fatale. But the Coens, as usual, imprint their own slanted, often humorous, style onto the conventions of this type of story. It is a tale that uses hats, heads, and hearts symbolically to address themes surrounding masculinity versus vulnerability, and intelligence versus emotions.

 The film opens with a shot of a fedora hat blowing in the wind in a forest. In literature, the forest is a hidden place where deeds are done that are outside the laws of the civilized world (think of the movie Deliverance). This image will be revisited during the story as it takes on more meaning. There is a shift to the gangster Johnny Casper (Jon Polito) who is in a struggle for control of the city (unnamed, but may be New York during the 1920’s). Casper has an adviser whom he trusts, Eddie “The Dane” (J. E. Freeman). But, as was noted on this blog concerning the film The Grifters, when laws are made to be broken, one becomes suspicious of everybody. Casper is an ironically morally conflicted character, since, although he flaunts the law, he desires that there should be honor among thieves. So, he tends to contemplate questions involving the correct way to behave. He says, “You double-cross once, where’s it all end? An interesting ethical question.” He and The Dane are talking about Bernie Bernbaum (John Turturro), a grifter who is selling information about the boxing matches that Casper is rigging so he can collect on the prearranged outcomes. Bernie is cutting into Casper’s profits. The angry Casper says, “It’s gettin’ so a businessman can’t expect no return from a fixed fight. Now, if you can’t trust a fix, what can you trust?” If you must rely on “chance,” Casper says, “you’re back with anarchy, right back in the jungle.” He wants to violate society’s rules so he can gain financially, but contradictorily wants prohibitions on anyone else not following established guidelines, even if they are corrupt standards. 

 

Casper asks the opposing criminal leader, Leo O’Bannon (Albert Finney), to allow him to kill Bernie. This request is troublesome for Leo because he is romantically involved with Bernie’s sister, Verna (Marcia Gay Harden), who is the femme fatale of the story, and most likely has attached herself to Leo to protect her equally scheming brother. Everyone is working an angle in this alternate outlaw realm. Leo refuses the request and after Casper leaves, confers with his confidante, Tom Reagan (Gabriele Byrne), who is the film’s main character. The movie had a working title of “The Bighead,” which was to refer to Tom. He is mostly a thinker and a plotter. Tom is the supreme manipulator among the many schemers in the movie. But his intellect can’t compete with the world of chance (where “anarchy” exists according to Casper) which he keeps trying to beat by gambling. He constantly loses and is in debt to a loan shark. During the course of the film he sustains multiple beatings which shows he can’t always outsmart the “jungle” world Casper is worried about.

 Tom is practical and tells Leo that he should let Casper get rid of Bernie. But Leo, unlike Tom, is ruled by his heart. The next morning Tom wakes up after a night where he lost his hat in a card game. Since hats are worn on the head one of their symbolic meanings in the story refers to brain power. So, when Tom gambles, he loses his money because his mental ability can’t help him beat the odds. His loss of the hat means his intelligence has been defeated. But when it comes to people, Tom is quite adept at planting ideas in the minds of others to sway their behavior. As Adam Nayman points out in his book, The Coen Brothers - This Book Really Ties the Films Together (the subtitle obviously referring to the Dude’s carpet in The Big Lebowski), Tom is described as “the man who walks behind the man and whispers in his ear.” The first shot of him, Nayman points out, has Tom in the background, suggesting he is the “power behind the throne.” 

 

To support Casper’s paranoia about the proliferation of the double-cross, we learn that Tom is having an affair with Verna. One evening, Leo shows up at Tom’s place and confides that he can’t find Verna. He hired a private detective to track her, a man named “Rug” Daniel. He has that name because he wears a hairpiece. There is a later scene where a boy finds the corpse of Daniel and pulls the wig off of the man. (Was he killed by Verna or Bernie?). Nayman says that head coverings are also symbols of masculinity in the film. So, the fact that Daniel didn’t have real hair and he was killed shows he wasn’t manly enough to survive in this unlawful world. The removal of the wig could imply being scalped, which is a sort of symbolic emasculation. Even though Tom is Leo’s close friend, at that moment while he is visiting Tom and is worried about Verna, she is actually in Tom’s bedroom. It shows how Tom’s loyalty is not what it seems on the surface in this universe which lacks “ethics,” and people keep their motives hidden, like under one’s hat. As Tom says at one point, emphasizing the lack of transparency that is prevalent, “Nobody knows anybody. Not that well.”

 

Tom finds Leo in a meeting with the corrupted mayor and chief of police. Leo is escalating the conflict with Casper’s organization by informing the city officials about Casper’s illegal clubs so they can shut them down. Tom warns against increasing hostilities and again advises Leo to turn Bernie over to Casper. The snappy film noir dialogue is present here as Tom tells Leo to think about the cost of protecting Bernie. Leo says, “Oh, come on Tommy. You know I don’t like to think.” Tom’s response is, “Yeah. Well, think about whether you should start.” The exchange also contrasts Tom’s “big head” approach with how Leo follows his feelings. 

 

Casper meets with Tom and suggests he’ll take care of Tom’s gambling debts (he already refused the offer from Leo, showing his independence) so that Tom will work for him. Tom is sarcastic with Casper, who does not like anybody snubbing him, or as he puts it giving him “the high hat.” The use of this term again associates the head covering with masculine hierarchy, and, as Nayman notes, connects to the image of the floating hat in the first scene. Casper has his men beat up Tom, who is saved by the cops raiding the place, courtesy of Leo’s complicity with the police. 

 In retaliation for the raids, Casper sends hitmen to kill Leo at his home. This scene is a terrific action sequence as it shows that the older Leo retains his cool and lethal capability. He is relaxing comfortably in his upstairs bedroom in his pajamas and robe when he notices smoke coming through the floor which is a result of a burning cigarette in the fingers of a dead bodyguard. Leo calmly extinguishes his cigar, puts on his slippers, and then shoots the bedroom invader once in the foot and then in the head, ironically mimicking Casper’s rule to take down the enemy first and then put “one in the brain.” The stress on shooting a bullet in the head again brings up the motif that suggests a symbolic death due to decapitation of one’s manhood. After all, the penis has a “head,” and in the Mafia, “capos” translates to “heads,” which are leaders in that gangster organization. Leo takes the hitman's Thompson machine gun, slides down the roof of the house, and opens fire, killing his assailants. In an over-the-top image Leo shoots a hood in his bedroom, and the man discharges multiple rounds from his automatic weapon as he dies, as if merging the medieval connection of sex and death, as he literally “shoots his load.” Feathers rain down from the blasted pillows, which as Nayman says, joins violence with softness in Leo’s character. After Leo fires at a retreating car driven by one of the thugs, it explodes in flames, accentuating Leo’s success at self-defense, which he celebrates by pulling out his cigar (another phallic symbol) to show his triumphant manliness. 

 After this attack, Tom again presses Leo to give up Bernie because he knows there will be further attempts on Leo’s life. When Tom realizes he can’t convince Leo to change his mind, he puts a plan into action which at this moment isn’t obvious to the audience. He admits that he and Verna are having an affair. The outraged Leo follows Tom out of his office and proceeds to punch him in the face - Tom’s head getting a beating, which again shows Leo’s high testosterone potency. Since he’s breaking ties with Tom, he says it’s “the kiss off.” Even as he is saying goodbye to Tom, the expression suggests a loving relationship that has gone bad. Nayman says that if Miller’s Crossing is a love story, it's between “Tom and Leo.” 

 

Tom meets with Casper again because as we eventually learn Tom’s public break with Leo allows him to convincingly accept Casper’s previous offer to join his side of the fight. This way, Tom can undermine Leo’s enemy. But The Dane doesn’t trust Tom, and we get more of those tough film noir exchanges. When The Dane asks Tom how he got a “fat lip,” which was courtesy of the loan shark’s men, Tom’s response is, “Old war wound. Acts up around morons.” There is more homosexual subtext involving The Dane and Mink (Steve Buscemi), Casper’s bookie, who is double-crossing (no “ethics” again) Casper by giving Bernie information on the fixed fights. Also, Mink may be intimately involved with Bernie. In any event, Casper wants Tom to prove his loyalty by telling him where to find Bernie and then killing him.

 

After acquiring Bernie, Tom rides out with Bernie and two of Casper’s thugs, Frankie (Mike Starr) and Tic-Tac (Al Mancini) to Miller’s Crossing, a forest, divorced from society, that we saw in the initial image of the film, where illegal actions can take place. Frankie tells Tom to take Bernie out into the woods and to carry out Casper’s two-shot assassination rule. As Nayman notes, Tom has his hat on, a sign of masculine power, and Bernie’s head is uncovered, indicating his weakness. Bernie is on his knees pleading for his life, asking Tom to look inside his “heart.” Tom fires two shots, deliberately missing Bernie, and tells him to leave town. He is Verna’s brother after all, and if he is gone, Tom probably figures Verna will stop using Leo. Tom returns to the car and tells Frankie and Tic-Tac that Bernie is dead.

 

Casper tells Tom that Mink is missing and The Dane goes to Verna’s place to find out where Leo is. He shoots two of Leo’s men who show up after finding out Leo’s location from one of them. The Dane tells Verna that she doesn’t have to concern herself with Tom anymore since Tom killed Bernie. So, Verna believes she has been betrayed. The very much alive Bernie sneaks into Tom’s apartment instead of running away as Tom told him to do. Bernie gets satisfaction out of saying he fooled Tom with his tearful plea for mercy. Bernie figures he has leverage over Tom who he wants to kill Casper. Otherwise, Bernie will divulge that Tom let him go, and Casper would then kill Tom for not killing Bernie. We now get how Tom acts in a situation that is similar to what happened to Leo. Tom was smoking a cigar, as did Leo, before someone entered his place. Both men have their homes invaded. As Bernie leaves, Tom slips out his window, as did Leo. But Tom’s attempt to ambush Bernie is unsuccessful as Bernie trips him and kicks him in the face. Nayman notes that Leo wore slippers when defending his home, but Tom is barefoot, implying Tom “can’t fill Leo’s shoes.”

 

The Dane is skeptical that Tom killed Bernie when he finds out that Frankie and Tic-Tac didn’t witness the shooting. He obviously wants Bernie dead for personal reasons given his jealousy concerning Mink. He forces Tom to go back to Miller’s Crossing to make sure there is a body there, because if there isn’t one, The Dane says that Tom’s corpse will do. As they walk into the woods, Tom’s fear gets the better of him. He becomes faint and he vomits. He loses his hat in this scene which goes along with the motif that an uncovered head is a sign of male weakness or impending doom. Tom gets a reprieve because Casper’s men do find a body, but the man was shot in the face. He is dressed like Bernie so The Dane assumes it is Verna’s brother. However, we discover later that Bernie shot Mink and left him there to make it look as if Tom killed Bernie. As Nayman stresses, there are many duplications of scenes in this film. As was noted, there are the home invasions of Leo and Tom. Here we have two scenes set at Miller’s Crossing. There are the Tom-Leo-Verna and The Dane-Bernie-Mink love triangles. The scene where Leo has a meeting with the city’s on-the-take officials is repeated with Casper in control. Nayman says that this repetitiveness points to all the double-crosses that take place in this lawless underworld that exists below the social appearance of legality.

 There is an earlier scene between Tom and Verna that also involves the hat symbolism. Tom says he had a dream that the wind blew his hat away. Perhaps the opening shot was a dramatization of Tom’s dream. Verna tries to psychoanalyze him, saying he probably chased the hat and when he caught it, “it changed into something else, something wonderful.” Tom is dismissive of her interpretation, and says, “It stayed a hat and I didn’t chase it.” He then adds, “Nothing more foolish than a man chasin’ his hat.” In spite of himself, Tom is revealing his own insecurities concerning his manhood by way of the hat symbolism in the film. As Nayman points out, Tom’s Irish accent makes “hat” sound like “heart,” and that sets up a metaphorical “dichotomy” between Tom’s brainy side versus his emotional one. He cares about Leo and he let Bernie live. Verna says to him, “Admit it isn’t all cool calculation with you … that you’ve got a heart - even if it’s small and feeble and you can’t remember the last time you used it.” But she knows how his cold side can take over when she says to him, “I’ve never met anyone who made being a son-of-a-bitch such a point of pride.” 

 Tom uses an ex-boxer, Drop Johnson (Mario Todisco), who Bernie was placing bets with, as a go-between to contact Bernie. When he gets in touch with Bernie he sets up a meeting at Tom’s apartment. At Casper’s house, Tom acts as if the dead Mink, who double-crossed Casper by divulging the fixed fights, is still alive and will be at Tom’s place at the same time Tom told Bernie to show up. The Dane and Mink were very close and Tom exploits that closeness to undermine The Dane. The Dane found out from Drop Johnson that Bernie is still alive and he wants to kill Tom. But, Casper slams him with a fireplace shovel, and repeats his slogan, “Always put one in the brain,” as he shoots The Dane in the head. As Nayman says, Tom figuratively “put one in the brain” of Casper, planting the idea that The Dane helped Mink double-cross Casper. As was said earlier, Tom is the fellow who “walks behind the man and whispers in his ear.”

 

Casper says he will go to Tom’s place and kill Mink himself. Tom walks to his apartment and allows his plan to play out. He knows that there will be a confrontation between Bernie and the surprised Casper who thought he was going after Mink. He hears shots and finds Casper dead on the stairs since Bernie killed him. Tom takes money out of Casper’s wallet and asks Bernie to give him his gun so they can frame The Dane. But, after he has the pistol, he says The Dane is dead, and Bernie will take the blame. Tom points Casper’s gun at Bernie who, yes, duplicates his earlier performance, asking Tom again to “Look in your heart.” But, Tom wanted Bernie gone before to ease tensions between the warring factions and his response this time is, “What heart?” He shoots Bernie and makes it appear as if Casper and Bernie killed each other. Tom also uses Casper’s cash to pay off his gambling debts. 

 At Bernie’s burial, Verna now knows for sure that Tom killed her brother, and she is hostile and drives off leaving the two men to walk back, stressing that the love story is between these two men. Leo acknowledges to Tom what a “smart play” Tom concocted to protect Leo’s interests. Even though he is going to marry Verna, Leo is the one with the “heart,” since he is willing to “forgive'' Tom concerning his affair with Verna. Nayman says the “queer subtext” appears as Leo tells Tom, “I need you.” But Tom says he didn’t ask for forgiveness and he doesn’t want it, and refuses to go back to work for Leo. Leo looks like a scorned lover as he walks off angry. The last shot is a zoom in on Tom as he tugs on the rim of his hat. He has his virility, but his refusal to allow himself to be open to affection, which carries with it being emotionally vulnerable, means he must go it alone.

The next film is A Hard Day’s Night.