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— Jeppe Kleijngeld
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Miller’s Crossing is another great one from the prime gangster film year 1990 and second best from that year according to me and Ethan Coen, who once generously confessed that he thought GoodFellas was better.
Miller’s Crossing is stylistically based on Dashiell Hammett’s novels The Glass Key and Red Harvest and tells the story of Irish crime boss Leo O’Bannion (Albert Finney) and his gambling addicted Nr. 2 Tom Reagan (Gabriel Byrne) who rule over an unnamed American city in the 1930’s.
They enter into a conflict with Italian competitor Johnny Caspar (Jon Polito) and his lethal henchman Eddie Dane (J.E. Freeman) over the unreliable bookie Bernie Bernbaum (John Turturro) who Caspar wants to kill and Leo protects.
When a gang war erupts, Tom and Leo’s friendship gets strained over a woman (Verna, played by Marcia Gay Harden) and Tom joins Caspar’s gang. But to what end?
Many scenes in Miller’s Crossing are reminiscent of The Godfather, but Coen Brother style which means darkly comical and at times outright bizarre, but also brilliantly executed.
The complex screenplay is an ingenious piece of work. Famously, the brothers got a writing block while penning it, so they took a break to write their next movie Barton Fink, which is about a screenplay writer with a terrible case of writing block. Then they returned to Miller’s Crossing and I think it became one of their best screenplays; full of hard boiled dialogue and layered characters.
The casting is also great. Gabriel Byrne was never better as the headstrong and principled Tom. All of the supporting cast members are excellent as well in equal measure. And the thrilling camerawork (lot’s of riding and swooping camera moves) seems to be inspired by the Coen’s best friend Sam Raimi who plays an amusing bit part in this film.
There are also lots of hats in this movie, but they don’t really mean anything.
Michael Mann’s Heat is mostly known for the pairing of screen legends Al Pacino and Robert De Niro (who were also together in The Godfather: Part II, but didn’t share a scene together).
As expected, they are sensational. Total dynamite. But the movie has much, much more to offer. The screenplay, to begin with, is a masterpiece full of rich characters, deep insights into the world of crime and intelligent storytelling.
At the core of the story is the parallel between the lives of two men on opposite sides of the law. Neil McCauley (De Niro) is a master criminal who and his highline crew take down one major score after another. Lieutenant Vincent Hanna (Pacino) leads the Robbery-Homicide Division of the LAPD and obsessively hunts down thieves and killers.
Both men are pack leaders, admired and respected by their men for their superior skills and leadership abilities. They also both struggle with maintaining private lives as their chosen professions are all-consuming.
From the large number of memorable scenes, two stand out: McCauley’s and Hanna’s face-to-face in the coffeeshop, for the sheer acting power involved and the beautiful dialogues, ànd of course the massive shoot-out in the L.A. streets after the botched robbery.
Rather than dubbing in the gunshots, Mann had microphones carefully placed around the set so that the audio could be captured live. This added to the impact of the scene, because it sounds like no other gunfight before or after. Also, because you’ve become attached to the characters – both cops and robbers – it is an unbelievably tense scene. A truly heart pounding motherfucker if ever there was one.
And that is where Heat really separates itself from other crime flicks; it is surprisingly touching. Whether you watch Hanna comfort a woman whose daughter is just found murdered, or at the end in the final scene when he is holding the hand of a dying McCauley, you will truly feel that apart from a hyper cool crime movie, Heat also has a really big heart.
Quentin Tarantino’s sledgehammer arrival in cinemaland is a terrific crime thriller. The screenplay is the stuff of dreams with too many memorable dialogues and scenes to mention. And the non-linear storytelling is absolutely brilliant.
The video clerk turned filmmaker Tarantino managed to assemble an exceptional cast for his project: Harvey Keitel is solid as a rock, Steve Buscemi is funny as hell and Tim Roth is seriously convincing as the tormented Mr. Orange.
Then there are two actors portraying very realistic ánd very scary psychopaths: Michael Madsen as Mr. Blonde and Chris Penn as Nice Guy Eddie. The scene in which the terrible Mr. Blonde tortures a police officer is still extremely hard to stomach.
What is so special about Reservoir Dogs is that it is a very clever homage to heist films, but outclasses many of the films it pays homage to (while they are really good films).
At the same time, it has the impact of an extremely hard hitting horror film. Without a doubt, the most sensational debut ever in Hollywood. If it wasn’t for Michael Mann’s Heat, this would be the top heist film on the list.
Director: Brian De Palma Writers: David Mamet (screenplay), Oscar Fraley (book), Eliot Ness (book) Stars: Kevin Costner, Sean Connery, Robert De Niro, Andy Garcia
In the 1970’s, Francis Ford Coppola reinvented the Gangster genre with his two brilliant The Godfather movies. In the 1990s, Martin Scorsese reinvented the genre again with his masterful GoodFellas and Casino. The 1980’s belonged to Brian De Palma who delivered two absolute classics to the gangster genre that decade: Scarface (1982) and The Untouchables (1987).
The Untouchables was originally a successful television series in the sixties in which treasury agent Elliot Ness took on Al Capone and other famous American criminals in the prohibition era. The villains in this show were always deliciously cast and over the top, while the G-men were pretty boring. De Palma prevented this by creating a memorable government team featuring strong performances by Kevin Costner, Andy Garcia, Charles Martin Smith and an Oscar winning Sean Connery. Still, De Niro steals the show as Al Capone. Typical of the actor, he really becomes the hot headed gangster in his performance.
The movie is set up as a typical cop versus robber story, with the gangsters being framed as pure evil in the beginning when they blow up a bar and kill a young girl in the process. De Palma takes mob violence to a next level here. The blood in The Untouchables is deep red and the amount of it spilled during several killings is shocking.
What makes this such a fantastic film is the many brilliantly executed sequences. Just one example is the suspenseful set piece at the train station in which Elliot Ness and Andy Garcia’s character try to apprehend Capone’s bookkeeper. Every shot is a little masterpiece in itself. This scene especially put De Palma in the same league as Hitchcock as an inventor of highly effective thrillers.
The epic score by Ennio Morricone and some pure poetry in the script by David Mamet ensure that this is the definitive film adaptation of the story of Al Capone and Elliot Ness.
Welkom op Fragmenten uit het Schemerland, mijn persoonlijke website en content-verzameling. Je vindt hier veel artikelen over films en series in de FilmDungeon. Ook vind je op deze site mijn achtergrondverhaal, een selectie van mijn professionele werk, en een groeiende collectie blogs – fragmenten genaamd – over uiteenlopende onderwerpen. Veel leesplezier en bedankt voor het bezoeken van mijn blog!
