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RARA-AVIS: Miller's Crossing (was: Introduction) 

William Denton:
>Matthew F. Stevens:
>: 2) When I saw the film "MILLER'S CROSSING," by the Coen brothers (a
>: damn fine film, by the way), the similarities between the story and
>: THE GLASS KEY were glaringly obvious to me.
>
>There's been talk about this in the mystery and past-films
>newsgroups. [cut]

Heh.  A bit ago, I posted a comment to ram.past-films about how
disappointing and generally annoying I found the film, but it got no
response.  Now that I can consider myself goaded into reproducing
it, here it is from Deja News.

>A bit ago I finally got around to seeing MILLER'S CROSSING
>(1990).  When it came out, I remember it getting good comments,
>and I generally like gangster movies, so I don't really know
>just why it took me so long.  But after seeing it, I know that
>I wouldn't have missed a thing if I never had.
>
>I'm also a fan of Dashiell Hammett, and it wasn't long into the
>movie before I realized what I was watching.  A thinly disguised
>version of Hammett's novel _The Glass Key_, with Coen-style bells
>and whistles added.  Flashy gunfire, funny-looking characters,
>visual spectacles in general.
>
>Those visuals are quite striking, I won't deny that.  Too striking
>perhaps, too planned and calculated.  This brings me to my basic
>complaint, one that to one extent or another I've had of all the
>Coen movies I've seen - but never this strong except perhaps in
>THE HUDSUCKER PROXY.  I get the feeling that the Coens are not as
>interested in telling stories as they are in being noticed and
>recognized.  I can imagine them in their office with a rough draft
>of the script saying "What worries me is that, as it is, the
>audience might spend too much time thinking about the story
>instead of about *us*.  We better put in something to grab back
>their attention to where it belongs."
>
>It was like spending a couple hours in a room with a precocious 
>child, who won't stop showing off for fear you might miss how
>brilliant and wonderful he is.

--
Ken Yousten             "...someday I'm gonna be lucky and run into
Blacksburg, VA           you when I'm carrying a bowl of goldfish"
kyousten@bev.net                Ginger Rogers, "Stage Door"
<http://acm.vt.edu/~yousten/lewton.html> --  Val Lewton WWW page
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