Miller’s Crossing – I’m Always Home. I’m Uncool. http://blogs.elsweb.org/lscot7ow The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what we share with someone else when we're uncool. -Almost Famous Sun, 22 Apr 2007 18:56:17 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.3.2 And…They’re Off! http://blogs.elsweb.org/lscot7ow/2007/02/08/andtheyre-off/ Thu, 08 Feb 2007 21:38:27 +0000 http://blogs.elsweb.org/lscot7ow/2007/02/08/andtheyre-off/ Coming around the corner its Burlesque and Demythologization, followed by Recuperation of Myth as Myth, with Nostalgia trailing. Here they come; it’s a close finish… and, oh it looks like it’s going to be a photo finish with Burlesque and Demythologization, Recuperation of Myth as Myth in second, and Nostalgia bringing up the rear.

 

Yes, looks like the smart money was on Burlesque and Demythologization in Miller’s Crossing. After having seen the film in its entirety, I think that it is more of a Burlesque/ Demythologization film than anything else. The film was VERY self aware (you can tell from the very characteristic “gangster” types, Albert Finney’s fantastic scene with a Tommy Gun, the low camera angles when we see our “Jeff,” and not to mention that absolutely hilarious scene between Mike Starr and Gabriel Byrne), and it had a clear message, at least the message that I feel as though I got.

 

Everything in this film was over the top. Maybe not satirical, farcical over-the-top, but definitely over-exaggerated (I think that the two best scenes to explain what I am saying are the two aforementioned scenes… which, incidentally, I could watch over and over again and never get tired of them). And the Burlesque quality of this film definitely demythologized the original Alan Laad/Veronica Lake Glass Key. Being in the dirty politics business isn’t as glamorous as all those wonderful soft-focus shots would leave you to believe. It’s full of gangsters with Tommy Guns, friends and lovers turning on one another, sex, violent riots, the mayor and chief of police being wrapped about your little finger, hangovers, and seeing dead bodies decomposing.

]]> Sight Gags and Keeping Score http://blogs.elsweb.org/lscot7ow/2007/02/05/sight-gags-and-keeping-score/ Mon, 05 Feb 2007 21:10:32 +0000 http://blogs.elsweb.org/lscot7ow/2007/02/05/sight-gags-and-keeping-score/ So far my favorite scene in Miller’s Crossing has to be the sight gag with the dog. The scene with Tom and Verna in Tom’s apartment where the sence ends by Verna saying “you’re a real son-of-a-bitch, Tom.” The scene then cuts directly to a shot of the dog looking at the dead body. Oh, Coen Brothers… 

 Okay so far (from the first thirty minutes) this is the score:

Burlesque – take all the “hard-boiled” detective stuff from The Glass Key (sex and violence) and multiply it by about 10. The sex (way more in-your-face than in the world of Mr. Hammit) and violence (he threw is glass at her… what?!) are definitely being amplified. Not to mention that we see way more of Ned/Tommy’s vices.

Nostalgia – So far, not really getting much nostalgia here. I mean, there is the Prologue, with all the gangster/”hard-boiled” talk…

Demythologization (MythBusters, Film, Text, and Culture Edition) – The over-exaggeration of sex and violence, may not be over-exaggeration at all. Maybe, the Coen Brothers are showing us the real Glass Key world that the first movie was too afraid too. The glamour is definitely non-existent.

Recuperation of Myth as Myth – Seems to me that the basics are all still there: the sex, the violence, the drinking, the women, the gambling, the Coen Bros haven’t discounted any of that. In fact, they seem to be embracing it more. So far it looks like this is a tied game.

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