Blu-ray Review: Miller's Crossing - Poor Presentation and Lacklustre Features Tarnish This Masterpiece

To say Miller's Crossing is a masterpiece is not to casually throw the word around as a euphemism for "very good indeed". It's the product of a group of people at the uppermost peak of their creative powers - a fact made all the more impressive when you consider who these people are. It's one of the most dazzlingly, intelligently and wittily written screenplays by the Coen Brothers who also direct one of their most tight and highly disciplined films to date and one that overflows with iconic, stand-out moments. Carter Burwell's scoring as never been more emotive and softly sweeping. DP Barry Sonnenfeld (yes, the guy who makes those Men in Black movies) is also on top form to ensure the whole thing looks like whiskey tastes. And add to that career best performances from actors of the finest pedigree: Gabriel Byrne (The Usual Suspects), Oscar winner Marcia Gay Harden, Coen mainstays John Turturro and Steve Buscemi, and the great Albert Finney. A gangster movie, though by no means a straightforward genre piece, Miller's Crossing is about Byrne's Tom Regan - the loyal lieutenant of (and brain behind) Albert Finney's robust and avuncular Irish mob boss Leo O'Bannon. But when a rival Italian gang boss, Johnny Caspar (the excellent Jon Polito), demands the right to kill the Jewish booky Bernie Bernbaum (for me the finest ever performance from Turturro), who he believes has cheated him out of money, Leo refuses on account of his girlfriend Verna (Gay Harden) - a friend of Bernie's. Tom advises Leo to give in to Caspar for the sake of peace, but he refuses and the insulted Italian then makes a play for Leo's territory. Tom is also seeing Verna. Bernie is seeing Mink (Buscemi), who is also involved with Caspar's own lieutenant Eddie Dane (J. E. Freeman): a cold-blooded hitman. A complicated, expertly crafted plot ensues in which Tom plays plays all the angles, turning both sides against the middle - his motive and ultimate loyalty forming the film's central mystery. All the Coen Brothers' hallmarks are on display in Miller's Crossing, with moments of extreme tension and graphic violence underpinned with ice-cold black comedy. The Coen's don't do heroes and the extreme fear and physical weakness of almost everyone involved - begging, vomiting and trembling in moments of high-tension - is another thread you can trace through their work, up to William H. Macy's Jerry Lundegaard in Fargo to the cast of Burn After Reading. The same obvious fascination with affectations of speech and small-town colloquialisms also penetrates the film, as does their familiar penchant for repeated phrases ("Jesus Tom!"). Yet it's as straight-faced and heartfelt as they've ever been too, easily the equal of their recent Oscar winners or the fantastic Barton Fink made the following year. Yet though Miller's Crossing is dialogue-driven even by Coen Brothers standards, the film's mob warfare scenes are unmatched, with the best being the slickly staged assassination attempt on Leo - in which Finney calmly offs two heavies in a dressing gown and slippers before jumping out of his burning house to the sound of Danny Boy on a scratchy record player, shooting a Tommy gun at his fleeing assailants before putting a cigar in his mouth. It's a classic moment in a rare film that truly warrants the word masterpiece. Extras A lacklustre set of extras give the impression that this is a hurried HD re-issue not befitting such a masterful movie. Nothing here makes use of the blu-ray format, from the short, looping clip on the main menu (tailored for the restrictions of DVD) to the awful features themselves which aren't even presented in HD. Or even the correct aspect ratio. There are two trailers (again not HD) - one of which is for the Coen's Raising Arizona for some reason - and ugly archive interview footage of Gabriel Byrne, Marcia Gay Harden and John Turturro. The centrepiece is presumably the 16 minutes the viewer is invited to spend in the company of Barry Sonnenfeld, the film's DP. Though this is less about Miller's Crossing specifically and more about his move into the industry and career up to 1990. There is also a still gallery which no one will ever watch/use/click through because it's a tedious feature and a hangover from the uncertain early years of DVD. A truly great movie has been given a shoddy set of features which don't even feature a single contribution from the filmmaker's themselves. Very poor. Miller's Crossing is out on Blu-ray today.