Patrick's Crossing

For my last night of Saint Patrick's Day, I gave myself two choices: The Quiet Man or Miller's Crossing. I asked myself, which did the preceding year of my life resemble more? We'd all like to say The Quiet Man but I had to admit it was Miller's Crossing. So I watched that.

My two favourite Coen Brothers movies, The Big Lebowski and Miller's Crossing, are both loosely based on classic noir novels, Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep and Dashiell Hammett's The Glass Key, respectively. Obviously, The Big Lebowski is more of a departure from the novel but it's interesting to reflect on how Miller's Crossing is different. Tom is not as lucky as Ned, his counterpart in the novel. He constantly loses when he gambles. He generally loses a lot more than Ned, who's more of a hyper-competent pulp protagonist. Both the Dane and Bernie manage to get the drop on him multiple times.

There's also the fact that he's Irish, of course. I was surprised to read that it was actor Gabriel Byrne's idea to use his native Irish accent. I guess it makes sense, though. The movie's otherwise a total homage to a '30s gangster movie (moreso than it is to a noir, really). The Irish accent doesn't fit in terms of the homage and yet it fits with the stylised dialogue so perfectly I wish there were more movies like it.