(1990) Twice this violent depiction of rivalry between Prohibition-era gangs from screenwriters Joel (director) and Ethan (producer) Coen, drawing on film noir and Dashiell Hammett's novels Red Harvest and Glass Key, enters the woods of Miller's Crossing - also the setting of a dream - for an intricate double crossing.

With heavy irony, guinea mob boss Johnny Caspar (Jon Polito) complains to the city's mick political boss Leo (Albert Finney) about the lack of character and absence of ethics on display in sheeny bookie Bernie Bernbaum's (John Turturro) leaking the odds on fixed fights. Refusing to remove his protection from Bernie, Leo reminds the wop: "Johnny, you're exactly as big as I let you be, and don't forget it."

Morose rationalist Tom Reagan (Gabriel Bryne), the smartest guy in the room, counsels Leo to give up Bernie to avoid a gang war, but Bernie's sister Vera (Marcia Gay Harden) is the boss's twist, having Leo's heart in knots; Tom also recommends dumping the tramp (while she's in his bed).

Running a bad streak with bookie Lazar and short on funds, Tom (unlucky with horses but the recipient of fortuitous intervention throughout the film) gets offers from Bernie to pay off the debt in exchange for friendship and from Caspar, for turning over Bernie he'd make Tom square with Lazar.

Just in time as Tom's facing Caspar's muscle, Leo sends the cops (the police chief and the mayor for the time being are in his pocket) to bust up Caspar's club; Johnny returns the favor by having two hoods go to Leo's home at night, armed with Thompson machineguns - as the brutal scene takes place, bullets raking the dark and the house aflame, a phonograph plays the lilting tune "Danny Boy."

While the violence has a visceral impact, the vileness of the characters on both sides of the conflict, are undeserving of sympathy. Bernie begs Tom to look into his heart: "We're not like these animals." The Coen brothers keep us off balance with a farcical undertow, barely concealing their puckish sense of humor.

Caspar's cartoonish, stupid, obese son is an obvious instance of their behind-the-scenes guffaw. But even Tom, heartless with ice water in his veins, repeatedly taking beatings from both sides and thrown head first down stairs, gets up each time, retrieving his fedora, without showing much more damage than a split lip.

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Copyright © 2009 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
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