Coen Brothers: Ranking Their Films From Worst To Best

7. Miller's Crossing (1990)

I mentioned genre-hopping in the entry for The Man Who Wasn't There (.13), and Miller's Crossing was the film that immediately leapt to mind when writing that phrase. A perfect example of niche-filmmaking in that a director could easily spend their career making the likes of Miller's Crossing over and over again with a few changes in cast and scenery. Martin Scorsese has been accused of as much, and while that may be a little harsh, Scorsese certainly has made a living and a reputation in mob and mafia movies. But once is enough after Miller's Crossing, both for gang life and for the Prohibition Era, at least for a while. The dialogue absolutely crackles throughout this film, with the best of it delivered by Gabriel Byrne in the greatest performance of his career. His Irish fixer Tom Regan is at the center of the conflict between rival gangs, and his loyalties are further tested by femme fatale Verna. The symbolism in Miller's Crossing is also some of the best of any film in the Coen canon; mainly the black fedora. Tom's dream about foolishly chasing his hat in the wind, the repeated times he's beaten and his hat falls off of his head, and his comment about the thing being "just a hat" are all intriguing. His words say more about his character than any action sequence in the film; his world is the real world, a hat is a hat, and if you expect someone to be the type of person who'd double-cross you, you're probably right.