Miller's Crossing Is Another Early Coen Brothers Winner

For their third directorial effort, The Coen Brothers (though only Joel Coen is credited as a director) returned to the crime genre that has served them well so many times in their expansive careers. For this particular take on the crime movie formula, they decided to go in the direction of a period piece, setting the tale in the 1920's specifically. Despite being set in the era where the sale of alcohol was banned, the film, entitled Miller's Crossing, was actually taking more cues in its tone and style from 1940's noir features, particularly ones like The Big Sleep involving a single lead character trying to use their wits to make a whole bunch of other peoples agendas work in his favor.

The Big Sleep Is Yet Another Excellent Humphery Bogart Noir Feature

I felt an immense sense of relief to learn, after watching The Big Sleep for the first time, that the plot is considered by many to be a tad hard to make out. I thought I had missed something while watching the film, maybe a crucial line that clarified the whole story, but it turns out that even some of those responsible for the feature would be the first to admit that certain plot points (like who was behind the murder of a driver) don't get resolved. But this is one of those times where something like a convoluted plot that might be a debilitating problem in another movie actually works in the favor of The Big Sleep as it helps make the larger conspiracy that detective Phillip Marlowe (Humphery Bogart) has found himself inadvertently caught up in feel wide-spanning and makes it seem like the odds are truly up against Marlowe.