Poll Position: Miller’s Crossing (1990)

I’m glad we did a John Turturro poll, because I’ve only heard amazing things from his acting skills. And sadly I’ve seen him in 2 movies: “Mr. Deeds” and “Transformers”. Even worse, he isn’t a serious character in either, more part of the comedy factor. So I was hoping that “Miller’s Crossing” would win, being a gangster film and I fancy for those types of movies. And obviously hoping that this movie will forever change what I think of Turturro as an actor. After the jump, I dig deeper into what I thought about my favourite performance of Turturro.

During the glorious Prohibition Era in the US. Two rival gangs lead by Leo O’Bannon and Johnny Caspar are in a heated battle for control of the city. Tom Reagan (Gabriel Byrne) is the middleman trying to keep peace between the two gangs without siding with any. The spark that started all this was that Bernie (John Turturro), a bookie, has been cheating Caspar by revealing what boxing matches he fixes. Caspar wants Bernie dead, but Leo is protecting him. Well he has to, his girlfriend Verna, is Bernie's sister. This all goes to the hell when Verna is cheating on Leo with Tom and Caspar wants Tom to kill Bernie. How does Tom make a moral decision during the times of sin and immorality?

Reagan might have the toughest job in the 30’s.

To start off, the story is rather complex. Connections between people, who likes who and who wants who dead, makes a complicated web. This is a tad bit off putting, at least for me. It took me a while to fully get into the swing of things. But when I did get the hold of what was happening, the movie seemed to get a bit more enjoyable. It just turns out that everyone is in it for themselves and for their own personal gains.

Overall the acting isn’t all that impressive besides Byrne and Turturro. Tommy is the moral police who tries to solve everything with a hint of equality. Too bad that is impossible whenever everyone has a wack on everything that talks back. What I especially like about Tommy is his subtle hint of black comedy that incorporates every action he takes. This includes his fairly sinister relationship with the cops. Byrne really made this character come to life and made this movie a bit more bearable.

Turturro puts up an amazing performance playing Bernie.

Turturro on the other hand has a very small role, but an important one. The most amazing aspect of his character is the few different relationships Bernie's has with Tommy. Fair warning, this is slightly a spoiler. Bernie starts off by trying to be Tom’s friend, but when Tom is sent to kill him, Bernie quickly changes into a man begging for mercy. But right after Tom finds out Bernie pulled a fast one over him, Bernie tries to show his upper hand on Tom when the tables have turned. I just found him changing his roles with Tom great to watch. But I’m glad I can finally use Bernie as the main character I can reflect Turturro to, and not some comic relief.

But overall, I didn’t really like this movie all that much. It is fairly boring, and it takes a while for the movie to really get into the fun stuff. Most disappointingly is that there is very little action, a few shots to the head and a scene of big gun fight with 50 cops and 2 gangsters with tommy guns. Funny thing was they were shooting 20 feet from each other, and all the bullets were hitting everything but people. And the worst part is that “Goodfellas” would of came out near the same time as “Miller’s Crossing”, and there is no doubt in my mind what the better movie is.