WEBVTT - Miller's Crossing | Archive 0:00:21.244 --> 0:00:24.604 Film Spotting is presented by Regal Unlimited, the all you 0:00:24.645 --> 0:00:27.605 can watch movie subscription pass that pays for itself in 0:00:27.685 --> 0:00:31.365 just two visits. See any standard two D movie anytime 0:00:31.725 --> 0:00:34.845 with no blackoutdates or restrictions. Sign up now on the 0:00:34.885 --> 0:00:37.284 Regal app or at the link in our description and 0:00:37.445 --> 0:00:41.685 use code film spot twenty six to receive fifteen percent off. 0:00:45.885 --> 0:00:48.325 What kind of a show you guys putting on here today? 0:00:48.445 --> 0:00:49.525 You're not interested in art? 0:00:49.724 --> 0:00:51.404 Now? No, Look, we're going to do this thing. 0:00:51.405 --> 0:00:52.565 We're going to have a conversation. 0:00:55.045 --> 0:00:58.804 Hey, film spotters, we have for you what turned out 0:00:58.845 --> 0:01:04.165 to be maybe our longest conversation on the show ever, 0:01:04.285 --> 0:01:05.725 maybe longer than The Tree of Life. 0:01:05.725 --> 0:01:08.045 I don't know it's possible. We'll have to do the math, 0:01:08.525 --> 0:01:11.324 check the archives, but certainly it's in the top five 0:01:11.444 --> 0:01:12.565 longest reviews. 0:01:12.925 --> 0:01:20.365 Fargo thirtieth anniversary Pantheon Project review spoilers. We both quite 0:01:20.444 --> 0:01:23.965 like the movie. That conversation coming to you Friday, and 0:01:24.005 --> 0:01:28.324 then the next picture show just tomorrow. As you're listening 0:01:28.365 --> 0:01:31.964 to this, possibly on Wednesday, the day these archive shows drop. 0:01:32.405 --> 0:01:35.925 On Thursday, you'll hear the next picture shows pairing of 0:01:35.964 --> 0:01:38.325 Supergirl and the Cones true grits. So we thought, let's 0:01:38.365 --> 0:01:40.804 just keep it going. Let's keep the Cone Brothers love going, 0:01:41.244 --> 0:01:46.685 and let's drop our conversation from twenty eighteen when we 0:01:46.725 --> 0:01:50.285 gave the sacred cow treatment to Miller's Crossing. Let's put 0:01:50.325 --> 0:01:52.005 that back in people's feeds. And you have to be 0:01:52.045 --> 0:01:55.525 excited about that, Josh, considering where you have Miller's Crossing 0:01:55.605 --> 0:01:58.685 ranked in your con Brother's list. 0:01:58.325 --> 0:02:01.005 Number one, I'm sure it comes up. It's been there 0:02:01.045 --> 0:02:04.765 for a while. It remains spoiler, still remains after Firego. 0:02:04.805 --> 0:02:07.445 The Firego did get a little bump, as we'll come 0:02:07.485 --> 0:02:10.885 up in our conversation. But yeah, so good to dig 0:02:10.925 --> 0:02:14.565 back into one of the formative movies for me in 0:02:14.685 --> 0:02:18.044 terms of starting to wrap my mind around how good 0:02:18.085 --> 0:02:22.765 a movie could be and how it is actually functionally good. 0:02:23.205 --> 0:02:25.685 So Miller's Crossing, Yeah, seminole title. 0:02:25.725 --> 0:02:29.645 Here is that conversation about nineteen nineties Miller's Crossing. 0:02:29.685 --> 0:02:32.644 Bernie ain't satisfied with the honest dollar he can make 0:02:32.685 --> 0:02:36.245 with the victory. He ain't satisfied with the business I'd 0:02:36.285 --> 0:02:39.044 do on his book. He is selling tips on how 0:02:39.085 --> 0:02:41.925 I begged, and I mean's part of the payoff. They 0:02:41.924 --> 0:02:45.525 should be riding more. My nip is riding on someone else's. 0:02:45.764 --> 0:02:50.885 So back we go to these questions friendship, character. 0:02:52.245 --> 0:02:52.765 Ethics. 0:02:53.845 --> 0:02:56.084 It was the clinking ice that got me at him. 0:02:56.405 --> 0:02:58.805 The year was nineteen ninety and I was a budding 0:02:58.885 --> 0:03:01.684 high school cinephile, just beginning to take movies. 0:03:01.405 --> 0:03:03.165 Serious, and an aspiring whiskey drinker. 0:03:03.644 --> 0:03:06.525 Not yet, I'd get there eventually. W and I were 0:03:06.525 --> 0:03:08.445 on a big date downtown to see a movie that 0:03:08.565 --> 0:03:10.764 was just too artzy to be playing in the suburbs, 0:03:10.924 --> 0:03:14.885 the Coen Brothers Prohibition era gangster drama Miller's Crossing, in 0:03:14.924 --> 0:03:18.205 which Gabriel Burns stars as Tom Reagan, right hand man 0:03:18.285 --> 0:03:21.485 to older crime boss Leo played by Albert Finney. The 0:03:21.525 --> 0:03:23.885 movie opens with the two of them in Leo's office, 0:03:23.924 --> 0:03:26.845 listening to the complaints of a lower ranked racketeer played 0:03:26.845 --> 0:03:30.005 by John Pallito. Specifically, the movie opens with a close 0:03:30.085 --> 0:03:32.765 up of Tom dropping ice into a glass, then tipping 0:03:32.845 --> 0:03:35.765 some of that whiskey. Something about the way the ice 0:03:35.845 --> 0:03:38.325 is shot, the way the camera slowly moves away from 0:03:38.365 --> 0:03:40.605 the glass, the way the sound design reminds us of 0:03:40.605 --> 0:03:43.165 that glass throughout the rest of the scene. I mean 0:03:43.205 --> 0:03:45.325 Tom says everything he needs to by the way he 0:03:45.365 --> 0:03:49.245 clinks those cubes, squirls them, or keeps them silent. I 0:03:49.325 --> 0:03:51.685 snapped to attention and realized what it was like to 0:03:51.725 --> 0:03:54.605 watch a movie in which the filmmakers were in masterful 0:03:54.605 --> 0:03:57.965 control of every element, so that image, movement, sound came 0:03:58.005 --> 0:04:01.725 together exactly the way they intended and for a particular effect. 0:04:02.165 --> 0:04:04.445 In short, Miller's Crossing was the first time I can 0:04:04.485 --> 0:04:08.965 remember realizing, oh, yeah, this is a real movie. We 0:04:09.045 --> 0:04:11.965 decided to revisit Miller's Crossing, which met an early demise 0:04:12.005 --> 0:04:14.845 in our film spotting Madness Tournament of nineteen nineties Films 0:04:15.165 --> 0:04:18.605 for a Sacred Cow review Adam and guess what. Oh yeah, 0:04:18.725 --> 0:04:20.085 this is still a real movie. 0:04:20.205 --> 0:04:22.885 Yeah, everyone really just stopped listening right now and rewatch 0:04:22.925 --> 0:04:23.645 Miller's Crossing. 0:04:23.725 --> 0:04:26.045 That's a good idea. I want to talk about so much, 0:04:26.085 --> 0:04:29.485 the performances, the Carter Burwell score, the hats. I do 0:04:29.605 --> 0:04:31.565 have a grand unified hat theory. 0:04:31.645 --> 0:04:32.045 Can't wait. 0:04:32.205 --> 0:04:33.725 But first I want to hear if there was a 0:04:33.765 --> 0:04:36.765 scene on this revisit that enthralled you like the movies 0:04:36.805 --> 0:04:39.845 opening enthralled me, or are you going to give me 0:04:39.885 --> 0:04:42.325 the high hat? And claim that on this revisit, Miller's 0:04:42.325 --> 0:04:45.924 Crossing struck you as a lesser Cohen Brothers movie. It 0:04:46.005 --> 0:04:46.805 sounds like you're not. 0:04:47.045 --> 0:04:49.245 No, I'm not going to be doing that. In fact, 0:04:49.284 --> 0:04:52.164 it has moved up my Coen Brothers ranking list. I 0:04:52.205 --> 0:04:56.205 love it three spots and could go higher over on letterbox. 0:04:56.245 --> 0:04:56.925 I have that. 0:04:57.005 --> 0:04:59.165 Yeah, if anyone cares in our show notes at filmspotting 0:04:59.165 --> 0:05:01.445 dot net, and maybe we'll get into that list a 0:05:01.485 --> 0:05:04.245 little bit more here in a moment. First though, I 0:05:04.365 --> 0:05:07.365 do want to point out Josh that that setup was wonderful, 0:05:07.485 --> 0:05:10.525 really nice job with the intro, but really you missed 0:05:10.525 --> 0:05:12.765 a great opportunity there. All you had to say was Adam, 0:05:12.765 --> 0:05:18.724 what's the rumpus they like? And as our regular film 0:05:18.765 --> 0:05:21.005 spotting listeners know, the people who subscribe to the pot 0:05:21.005 --> 0:05:24.325 podcasts and have been following along with our Vincent Manelli marathon, 0:05:25.045 --> 0:05:29.044 this is that bit of serendipity, that bit of coincidence spotting. 0:05:29.085 --> 0:05:31.964 We sometimes get crossover between films that have no other 0:05:32.005 --> 0:05:35.685 similarity to each other whatsoever. There's a rumpus reference in 0:05:35.725 --> 0:05:37.845 The Bat and the Beautiful. I missed that, now there is, 0:05:37.964 --> 0:05:39.284 It's right there. I'll have to look up what the 0:05:39.284 --> 0:05:41.765 exact line is. But having just seen Miller's Crossing, it 0:05:41.805 --> 0:05:47.325 definitely stuck with me. You were a more sophisticated film connoisseur, 0:05:47.885 --> 0:05:49.965 Well you are now you were then? 0:05:50.325 --> 0:05:52.805 Well kind of good? What ten months on it? Yeah, 0:05:53.325 --> 0:05:54.445 it must have been the ten. 0:05:54.365 --> 0:05:58.484 Months, but it took me longer to fully appreciate Miller's Crossing. 0:05:58.525 --> 0:06:01.245 In fact, it took me this viewing of Miller's Crossing 0:06:01.284 --> 0:06:03.924 to really love this film as much as you love it. 0:06:03.964 --> 0:06:05.285 And I do want to go back a little bit 0:06:05.325 --> 0:06:08.685 before I answer your direct question there. I've said before, 0:06:08.685 --> 0:06:10.845 I think on the show recently that this was my 0:06:10.964 --> 0:06:13.924 first Cone Brothers film, and that's not actually true, because 0:06:13.964 --> 0:06:17.165 I saw Raising Arizona fifty times as a kid in 0:06:17.205 --> 0:06:18.885 the eighties and loved the movie, but I had no 0:06:19.005 --> 0:06:22.565 awareness of it as a quote Coen Brothers film even 0:06:22.565 --> 0:06:24.885 in nineteen ninety one or maybe ninety two. Josh, by 0:06:24.925 --> 0:06:26.605 the time I saw this, I think you were a 0:06:26.605 --> 0:06:29.045 little bit ahead of me in becoming a cinephile. It 0:06:29.085 --> 0:06:31.525 was around the time of my senior year, the summer 0:06:31.565 --> 0:06:34.005 before and watching this movie on VHS. I definitely did 0:06:34.005 --> 0:06:36.845 not see Miller's Crossing in the theater in Iowa. Who 0:06:36.925 --> 0:06:38.844 knows if it even came to a theater in Iowa 0:06:38.885 --> 0:06:41.245 at that time, honestly, But I was just starting to 0:06:41.245 --> 0:06:43.885 get into film, and this movie, yes, was being presented 0:06:43.885 --> 0:06:47.245 to me as a film of note by directors of note. 0:06:47.284 --> 0:06:49.565 But I had no precedent for it whatsoever. I had 0:06:49.605 --> 0:06:52.885 no sense of their style, their preoccupations, all the things 0:06:52.885 --> 0:06:55.044 that we have come to most of us love and 0:06:55.045 --> 0:06:57.805 appreciate about the Coen Brothers. Had no sense of it then, 0:06:57.844 --> 0:07:00.805 of course, And I do remember being struck by some 0:07:00.844 --> 0:07:04.364 of the same sequences I was this time. I'll go 0:07:04.404 --> 0:07:07.685 to the two big stylistic set pieces, of course, Danny Boy, 0:07:08.485 --> 0:07:13.405 the failed hit on Leo. Just a beautiful dialogue, free dance, 0:07:13.765 --> 0:07:16.405 a tracking shot from the open window. You don't see 0:07:16.405 --> 0:07:19.525 the perpetrator come in. Just the sound the curtains blowing. 0:07:19.605 --> 0:07:22.285 You know someone's in the room. See the bodyguard killed, 0:07:22.325 --> 0:07:24.325 you just hear it. Then you see his body in 0:07:24.365 --> 0:07:27.285 the killer's legs walking away to the door. He opens it. 0:07:27.325 --> 0:07:30.125 Another killer with guns comes in, and then the smoke 0:07:30.245 --> 0:07:33.205 we see, but they don't as they go up the stairs, 0:07:33.245 --> 0:07:35.685 cross cutting with Finny in bed, just enjoying the music, 0:07:36.005 --> 0:07:39.085 smoking a cigar, his puff of smoke down to the 0:07:39.125 --> 0:07:42.285 smoke he smells coming through the floorboards, and the killer's 0:07:42.325 --> 0:07:44.405 walking and we only see their legs up the stairs. 0:07:44.605 --> 0:07:46.805 Perhaps an homage to the Godfather. I can't help but 0:07:46.885 --> 0:07:50.285 think about that first assassination attempt on Vito Corleone and 0:07:50.285 --> 0:07:53.365 the Godfather, where we just see their legs as they 0:07:53.605 --> 0:07:56.965 run past that fruit stand and shoot veto Finny escaping 0:07:56.965 --> 0:07:59.165 out the window, shooting the one killer through the window 0:07:59.165 --> 0:08:01.965 with a thousand bullets, just the spray. Perhaps there an 0:08:02.005 --> 0:08:04.565 homage to the spasm of death at the end of 0:08:04.565 --> 0:08:06.605 Bonnie and Clyde, a reference I would not have been 0:08:06.645 --> 0:08:09.124 able to make back when I saw this the first time, 0:08:09.285 --> 0:08:11.485 and then the gunfight with the car down the street. 0:08:11.485 --> 0:08:15.645 There are cinematic pyrotechnics and actual pyrotechnics in this sequence. 0:08:15.845 --> 0:08:19.885 Why wouldn't a budding teenage cinephile be blown away? And 0:08:20.205 --> 0:08:24.445 this middle age cinephile was just as impressed. Of course, 0:08:24.485 --> 0:08:26.525 the other one you have to point to with this movie, 0:08:26.645 --> 0:08:28.885 Look Into Your Heart, just as good the second time 0:08:28.925 --> 0:08:31.565 as it was the first time. Bernie Burnbaund played by 0:08:31.605 --> 0:08:34.885 the great John taturo a Coen Brothers regular being taken 0:08:34.925 --> 0:08:37.405 out to the title Miller's Crossing where he's going to 0:08:37.445 --> 0:08:41.245 be killed by Gabriel Burns Tom Reagan, and the tension 0:08:41.285 --> 0:08:45.165 of that, the precision of the movement, cutting between Tom 0:08:45.405 --> 0:08:49.125 his quiet terror as he moves still slowly with Bernie's 0:08:49.165 --> 0:08:52.365 desperate terror, both men anticipating that that scene is only 0:08:52.445 --> 0:08:55.365 going to end one way, with both of them being dead, 0:08:55.804 --> 0:08:58.845 and we as viewers, see no way out for either guy. 0:08:58.965 --> 0:09:01.005 It's intense. It's wonderful, Tom. 0:09:01.125 --> 0:09:04.324 And you can't do this. You don't bump guys. You're 0:09:04.325 --> 0:09:11.605 not like those animals back there? Is that right, Tom? 0:09:11.845 --> 0:09:15.485 The can't makers do this is the wrong situation. The 0:09:15.525 --> 0:09:18.245 can Mackers different people than we are. Wull im muscled dom. 0:09:18.885 --> 0:09:21.965 I never killed anybody. I used a little information, that's all. 0:09:22.485 --> 0:09:26.165 It's my name, just to get out. But somebody here's me. 0:09:26.564 --> 0:09:28.245 I play it. I don't just have to die. But 0:09:28.405 --> 0:09:31.804 hat do you think I do? I will say, even 0:09:31.804 --> 0:09:34.605 though I wasn't as sophisticated as you. Then that opening 0:09:34.645 --> 0:09:37.405 scene was another one that really caught my attention and 0:09:37.684 --> 0:09:39.724 frankly stunned me. And I think it's just partly the 0:09:39.804 --> 0:09:43.005 rhythm of the dialogue, the words, the phrasing that we 0:09:43.045 --> 0:09:45.084 have come to associate with the Coen Brothers. Even just 0:09:45.205 --> 0:09:47.684 ending on that line Leo has Finny says, take your 0:09:47.725 --> 0:09:51.925 flunky and dangle and just listening to a character not 0:09:52.125 --> 0:09:55.965 just ask for something, but frame it by expressing his worldview, 0:09:56.085 --> 0:09:57.964 which is what John Polito does. We've seen that in 0:09:58.005 --> 0:10:01.125 a lot of Coin Brothers. So good. I just died 0:10:01.125 --> 0:10:04.485 in September twenty sixteen, and he's He's the unsung hero, 0:10:04.605 --> 0:10:07.245 He's the MVP of this movie. And that's it. Josh. 0:10:07.325 --> 0:10:10.485 Is what really stunned me, I think, as a newcomer 0:10:10.564 --> 0:10:13.005 to the Coen Brothers, and really to sin him as 0:10:13.045 --> 0:10:18.485 a whole, was the performance John Polito's performance, that character, 0:10:19.165 --> 0:10:23.885 that sweaty, expressive gesturing. Johnny Casper is exactly the type 0:10:23.885 --> 0:10:26.645 of mannered, idiosyncratic character that we've seen now so many 0:10:26.645 --> 0:10:29.485 times in other Coen Brothers movies, including sometimes by John 0:10:29.525 --> 0:10:32.605 Polito himself. I know for sure he appears in Barton Fink. 0:10:33.125 --> 0:10:36.365 That felt so new and fresh to me at the time, 0:10:36.765 --> 0:10:39.245 and the way the con Brothers keep the camera focused 0:10:39.285 --> 0:10:42.165 on him for almost two minutes before anyone else in 0:10:42.205 --> 0:10:45.965 the scene speaks. And here's another potential homage to The Godfather. 0:10:46.165 --> 0:10:48.245 It's like the opening scene of that film where we 0:10:48.325 --> 0:10:52.005 have the character sitting across from Veto. It's a close 0:10:52.085 --> 0:10:54.765 up on him and he says, I believe in America. 0:10:54.885 --> 0:10:57.525 He expresses his worldview even as he's asking for a 0:10:57.525 --> 0:11:01.925 favor from someone who is capable of granting it. And 0:11:02.564 --> 0:11:05.365 in The Godfather, it starts on that close up and 0:11:05.405 --> 0:11:07.605 pulls back to a wider shot. Here it's the opposite. 0:11:07.605 --> 0:11:10.685 It actually starts wider on Polito and moves in. It 0:11:10.684 --> 0:11:13.804 gets closer as the scene goes on. But how animated 0:11:13.804 --> 0:11:16.845 he is contrasted with the stillness and the quiet of 0:11:16.885 --> 0:11:18.925 everyone else in that scene. Other than clinking the glass, 0:11:19.125 --> 0:11:21.564 Tom pretty much doesn't move except for the moment when 0:11:21.564 --> 0:11:23.444 he walks back from the room to the yeah, from 0:11:23.485 --> 0:11:25.804 the back over to Leo's side, and we'll get to 0:11:25.804 --> 0:11:28.005 that a bit later as well. By the end of 0:11:28.045 --> 0:11:31.765 this five minute plus scene, Polito is bent over yelling 0:11:31.765 --> 0:11:33.765 at Leo, and he's so worked up that it seems 0:11:33.765 --> 0:11:35.325 like he's about to have a heart attack for real, 0:11:35.445 --> 0:11:38.405 right there in front of us on screen. Again, it 0:11:38.485 --> 0:11:42.805 just felt so new and exciting. It's exciting now, and 0:11:43.125 --> 0:11:45.285 this time I did notice even other aspects of the 0:11:45.285 --> 0:11:47.925 scene that excited me even more. But I've talked enough, 0:11:47.965 --> 0:11:50.165 and I want to know what experience you had with 0:11:50.205 --> 0:11:52.125 that opening scene and with the film as a whole 0:11:52.125 --> 0:11:52.925 the second time around. 0:11:54.445 --> 0:11:57.085 Some gemmy fresh off the boat and you can kick me, 0:11:57.365 --> 0:11:59.885 but I'm too big for that. Now. I'm sick. I'm 0:11:59.885 --> 0:12:02.165 taking a scrap from you, Leo. I'm sick. I'm not 0:12:02.285 --> 0:12:06.085 turning this goddamn office the kitchen I was ass and 0:12:06.205 --> 0:12:06.724 I'm sick of. 0:12:08.085 --> 0:12:10.245 The opening scene is the one that I always think of, 0:12:10.445 --> 0:12:14.444 just because that memory is so indelible of experiencing it. 0:12:14.645 --> 0:12:18.604 Watching it again, though, it did strike me what Burne 0:12:18.725 --> 0:12:22.285 is doing yes with the ice, and how the Cohens 0:12:22.325 --> 0:12:24.405 are of course framing him, and you talked about it. 0:12:24.445 --> 0:12:26.525 I think the reason we see Polito originally in a 0:12:26.564 --> 0:12:29.525 wider shot is so that we also notice that shadow 0:12:29.605 --> 0:12:32.165 in the back and we connect it with the bar 0:12:32.325 --> 0:12:34.165 that we see and we think, oh, that's the guy 0:12:34.205 --> 0:12:37.725 who is making the drink. We are always, no matter 0:12:37.765 --> 0:12:40.964 how gripping Polito is and what he's saying, we are 0:12:41.085 --> 0:12:44.765 always aware of Tom Reagan and that scene, and that 0:12:44.965 --> 0:12:46.805 is the point, because he will turn out to be 0:12:46.885 --> 0:12:49.725 the main character and it's all about him, and I 0:12:49.804 --> 0:12:53.804 watch it again just last night, and what he's essentially 0:12:53.845 --> 0:12:58.525 doing is affirming what Johnny Casper is saying so without 0:12:58.684 --> 0:13:01.925 by using that ice. It's like a punctuation mark to 0:13:02.005 --> 0:13:05.645 his complaints. So he's letting Leo know that this guy's 0:13:05.645 --> 0:13:08.485 got a point, he's got a beef. You should listen 0:13:08.525 --> 0:13:11.605 to him. And then we get Leo's response, We get 0:13:11.605 --> 0:13:15.525 the close up shot of Tom's look of surprise because 0:13:15.564 --> 0:13:19.205 he thought everyone was on the same page. And that's 0:13:19.245 --> 0:13:24.005 the first domino that falls in an incredibly intricately plotted 0:13:24.485 --> 0:13:27.925 film noir narrative that just on its own is a 0:13:27.925 --> 0:13:31.245 pleasure to try to follow and put together, but also, 0:13:31.485 --> 0:13:35.165 you know, is rooted in this moral conundrum that's really 0:13:35.165 --> 0:13:36.724 at the heart of this film. It's not even a 0:13:36.765 --> 0:13:37.604 moral conundrum. 0:13:37.605 --> 0:13:38.645 That's for me. 0:13:38.684 --> 0:13:42.685 Miller's crossing is asking should we bother with moral conundrums? 0:13:42.965 --> 0:13:45.725 That's kind of the foundational question, and then it lets 0:13:45.804 --> 0:13:50.445 us watch its characters squirm and wrestle with that themselves. 0:13:50.965 --> 0:13:52.604 I think that's why Johnny Casper is going to have 0:13:52.605 --> 0:13:55.765 a heart attack because of he doesn't get the quote 0:13:55.804 --> 0:13:59.925 unquote morality he expects, and of course Tom Reagan wrestles 0:13:59.925 --> 0:14:01.645 with that as well. So let me just hit a 0:14:01.645 --> 0:14:04.005 couple of the other moments though that did jump out 0:14:04.085 --> 0:14:06.045 at me as much as that opening you mentioned the 0:14:06.085 --> 0:14:12.005 dialogue free elements. How about that silent movie moment of 0:14:12.085 --> 0:14:16.365 revealing Rug Daniels dead in the alley? Okay, no one 0:14:16.405 --> 0:14:18.725 says a thing. Instead we get a shot of the dog, 0:14:19.645 --> 0:14:21.805 shot of the boy we don't know what they're looking at, 0:14:22.365 --> 0:14:25.645 and then comes the money shot of Rugg Daniels with 0:14:25.645 --> 0:14:28.565 his wig askew, and we realize, oh, this is the 0:14:28.565 --> 0:14:31.725 guy they were just talking and all of that information 0:14:32.285 --> 0:14:34.405 is plotted, but also something that could be pulled from 0:14:34.445 --> 0:14:37.125 almost to Charlie Chaplin short, like a really grim right 0:14:37.205 --> 0:14:38.325 Charlie Chaplin short. 0:14:38.365 --> 0:14:40.365 There's a great joke in there too, right that it 0:14:40.445 --> 0:14:42.845 comes up multiple times throughout the film that Tom Reagan, 0:14:42.885 --> 0:14:46.205 the brains who's always piecing everything together based on evidence, 0:14:46.805 --> 0:14:49.525 is sure that he knows certain things about this whole 0:14:49.525 --> 0:14:51.445 scenario because of what happened to Rug Daniels, and he's 0:14:51.445 --> 0:14:54.205 trying to figure out what happened to the two pey 0:14:54.365 --> 0:14:57.045 is if that has significance. We're the only ones who know. 0:14:57.245 --> 0:14:58.725 We're the only ones who know that a kid just 0:14:58.765 --> 0:15:03.005 took it, and it has no grander cosmic point beyond it. 0:15:03.205 --> 0:15:06.565 But it's stymying Tom throughout the entire film. 0:15:06.325 --> 0:15:08.165 And there's some of that dark humor that they're is 0:15:08.245 --> 0:15:11.885 so well known for. I mentioned in The Bad and 0:15:11.885 --> 0:15:15.125 the Beautiful review earlier this week as part of our 0:15:15.165 --> 0:15:18.085 Manelli marathon, you talked about a dissolve you noticed in 0:15:18.125 --> 0:15:20.805 that film. How about this is that great dissolve of 0:15:20.805 --> 0:15:22.805 all time, one of the greats, at least from Tom 0:15:22.805 --> 0:15:25.925 alone in the woods at Miller's crossing, standing still in 0:15:25.965 --> 0:15:29.845 his overcoat. His hands are down, the gun is pointing down, 0:15:30.285 --> 0:15:32.645 and we just dissolved to the two henchmen who brought 0:15:32.725 --> 0:15:35.565 him there, leaning against the car back on the road, 0:15:35.765 --> 0:15:40.685 exact same spot, and man, that whole setting. It only 0:15:40.725 --> 0:15:43.565 appears twice in the film, although we kind of get 0:15:43.605 --> 0:15:46.245 it when Tom recounts in credits and during the credits, 0:15:46.285 --> 0:15:49.805 so maybe two significant scenes. But that music, the Carter 0:15:49.885 --> 0:15:54.165 Burwell score, and those pines and looking up from the 0:15:54.165 --> 0:15:57.285 ground to the sky as we slowly track through them. 0:15:58.285 --> 0:16:00.765 That's one of the transcendental moments in cinema for me, 0:16:00.845 --> 0:16:04.885 And by that I mean it's incredibly moving in a 0:16:04.925 --> 0:16:10.005 way I can't quite pinpoint. There's something ennobling about it, 0:16:10.085 --> 0:16:15.085 even though it's marking a march of death essentially, and 0:16:16.165 --> 0:16:18.645 having those two things held together in the same moment 0:16:18.685 --> 0:16:22.325 with nothing but music and camera movement is It's miraculous. 0:16:22.485 --> 0:16:25.165 Yeah, it is. There's something poetic obviously about the way 0:16:25.205 --> 0:16:28.205 it's constructed, but something poetic just in that gesture of 0:16:28.245 --> 0:16:31.045 looking up towards the sky trying to somehow make sense 0:16:31.085 --> 0:16:33.805 of this, which is really the point of this whole film. 0:16:33.845 --> 0:16:35.805 And I do want to go back, just briefly to 0:16:36.245 --> 0:16:38.445 the opening scene, though, Josh, because what really stood out 0:16:38.445 --> 0:16:42.725 for me this time, beyond all the great points you made, 0:16:42.765 --> 0:16:45.925 is the movement, exactly how Tom is moving from the 0:16:45.925 --> 0:16:48.085 beginning of the scene to the very end of the scene, 0:16:48.125 --> 0:16:51.765 even after John Pallito has exited. And I'll confess sometimes 0:16:51.805 --> 0:16:54.205 I'm a bad movie watcher. This was the first time 0:16:54.245 --> 0:16:56.125 I'd seen this movie since that time in ninety one 0:16:56.205 --> 0:16:59.325 or ninety two, and even after finishing it and loving 0:16:59.325 --> 0:17:01.205 the opening scene, if you had asked me again, how 0:17:01.245 --> 0:17:03.525 does Miller's Crossing open, I would have said, the first 0:17:03.565 --> 0:17:07.525 shot is John Pallito's face. I didn't remember the glass clinking, 0:17:07.725 --> 0:17:10.445 I didn't remember the drink. I just put so much 0:17:10.485 --> 0:17:13.085 weight it was so vivid in my mind Polito's face 0:17:13.405 --> 0:17:14.925 that I was sure that's how it started. I was 0:17:14.925 --> 0:17:17.925 also sure that's how it started because I thought it 0:17:18.005 --> 0:17:20.285 was this homage to The Godfather. They were riffing on 0:17:20.365 --> 0:17:23.044 that idea of opening with that favor being asked for, 0:17:23.445 --> 0:17:25.925 and I wanted to see just how closely they were 0:17:26.445 --> 0:17:28.845 paying tribute to it, if in fact they were. I 0:17:28.845 --> 0:17:30.885 also just wanted to watch the movie again because it 0:17:30.925 --> 0:17:33.045 was so much to him fun the second time here 0:17:33.125 --> 0:17:36.285 the first time on this revisit that I started the 0:17:36.285 --> 0:17:40.205 film again, and I was immediately struck by the brilliance 0:17:40.245 --> 0:17:42.805 of how they use the space. And it's through the 0:17:42.925 --> 0:17:46.245 entire film. There are seven examples I could point to 0:17:46.605 --> 0:17:49.244 of characters being at a distance or at a very 0:17:49.325 --> 0:17:52.325 close proximity to other characters in the scene that other 0:17:52.365 --> 0:17:55.285 filmmakers just don't frame people in that way, and it 0:17:55.325 --> 0:17:57.565 doesn't add to the psychology, and it doesn't add to 0:17:57.605 --> 0:17:59.484 the humor the way the Coen Brothers do it. But 0:17:59.525 --> 0:18:02.925 it starts right in that opening scene because it opens 0:18:03.005 --> 0:18:05.845 on that drink, as you've noted, the ice, the whiskey, 0:18:05.925 --> 0:18:08.085 the sound first appropriate, as you said, because there are 0:18:08.085 --> 0:18:12.005 so many instances of that throughout this film, and it's 0:18:12.045 --> 0:18:15.605 appropriate for its influences. This movie's influence is on screen 0:18:15.645 --> 0:18:17.925 and in fiction. Thinking about Dashal Hammond, how much of 0:18:18.205 --> 0:18:20.445 his influence you see and their work. The drink and 0:18:20.445 --> 0:18:22.925 we know this from any hard boiled film we've seen 0:18:23.005 --> 0:18:25.485 or read the material. That's just going to be a 0:18:25.485 --> 0:18:27.725 recurring motif. They're going to walk into any scene and 0:18:27.725 --> 0:18:30.045 pour a drink. So okay, you don't really think too 0:18:30.125 --> 0:18:32.285 much of it. But then when it does cut to 0:18:32.405 --> 0:18:35.565 Casper for the first time, you don't really know in 0:18:35.605 --> 0:18:38.725 the background who's holding that drink. It looks like it 0:18:38.765 --> 0:18:42.165 should be whoever that is. He's not in focus, but 0:18:42.245 --> 0:18:45.045 he's holding something and he seems to be by the bar. Okay, 0:18:45.085 --> 0:18:47.245 we're going to come to learn that it's Tom. He's 0:18:47.325 --> 0:18:51.605 on Polito's side of the table. He's not on Leo's side. 0:18:51.765 --> 0:18:54.765 You do see one guy, a sort of henchman, you assume, right, 0:18:54.805 --> 0:18:58.045 behind Polito a bodyguard of some kind. But what side 0:18:58.085 --> 0:19:00.165 is this guy, the mysterious guy in the back on, 0:19:00.525 --> 0:19:02.925 It's not clear yet. A minute into the scene, still 0:19:03.005 --> 0:19:06.605 completely out of focus the whole time, Tom, this mystery man, 0:19:07.045 --> 0:19:10.005 starts walking towards the camera along the side of the frame. 0:19:10.125 --> 0:19:13.245 Casper actually notices him, and the corner Brothers show in 0:19:13.285 --> 0:19:16.565 close up him noting him going by. It's significant, Yeah, 0:19:16.565 --> 0:19:19.205 he gives him a glance once that shadow crosses him. 0:19:19.325 --> 0:19:23.205 Once Leo speaks, breaking up Polito's dialogue, that's when we're 0:19:23.245 --> 0:19:26.605 finally introduced to Tom, and he's clearly entrenched on that 0:19:26.765 --> 0:19:29.845 side of the table, on that side of this potential dispute. 0:19:30.245 --> 0:19:32.085 As the movie then cuts back and forth a little bit, 0:19:32.205 --> 0:19:34.485 it's a two shot for three or four shots in 0:19:34.525 --> 0:19:38.045 a row. It's always pairing Leo and Tom together in 0:19:38.085 --> 0:19:40.885 this frame. And when we do see that Tom disagrees 0:19:40.925 --> 0:19:42.965 with him. He thinks his boss is making the wrong play. 0:19:43.205 --> 0:19:45.125 He tells him, and where does he do it? As 0:19:45.125 --> 0:19:48.925 soon as Polito finally exits along with the Dane, Tom 0:19:49.005 --> 0:19:51.165 goes and sits not even just right across from him 0:19:51.165 --> 0:19:54.245 at his desk. He goes and sits halfway across the 0:19:54.325 --> 0:19:58.245 room on a couch. He's halfway between where the scene 0:19:58.285 --> 0:20:00.645 began over on that side of the room, where he 0:20:01.005 --> 0:20:03.925 was for most of the scene, right behind Leo. Visually, 0:20:04.005 --> 0:20:07.525 he's backing him that entire time. Now he's not. Now 0:20:07.565 --> 0:20:09.845 he's right in the middle of it all, just as 0:20:09.885 --> 0:20:11.685 he's going to be for the rest of the movie. 0:20:11.685 --> 0:20:14.165 He's going to be stuck playing both sides. You're never 0:20:14.205 --> 0:20:16.925 sure completely where his loyalty lies, You're never sure what 0:20:16.965 --> 0:20:19.845 his angle is, You're never sure what his motivation is. 0:20:20.125 --> 0:20:22.925 And they emphasize that really subtly, just with where he's 0:20:22.965 --> 0:20:25.045 positioned in the frame right in that opening scene. 0:20:25.125 --> 0:20:27.965 Yeah, and how he's trying to balance that deference to 0:20:28.085 --> 0:20:31.244