Coen Brothers

“Leave it to the Coen brothers, Joel and Ethan, to do right smart by True Grit, the 1968 Charles Portis novel that a year later became the Western that won John Wayne his only Oscar.

“The superbly labyrinthine plotting of Blood Simple must have been a hard act to follow; praise be, then, to the Brothers Coen for confounding all expectations with this fervently inventive comedy.

“West Texas, 1980. Out hunting deer in the desert down by the Mexican border, Vietnam veteran Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) happens on a heap of carnage: torn-apart trucks, corpses of men and dogs, the bloody bodies of others who’d be better off dead, and a case packed with cash: about $2 million.

“The Coen brothers, Joel and Ethan, are children of movie technique. In their first two movies, Blood Simple and Raising Arizona, they executed stylistic leaps and somersaults like young circus tumblers.  Now, in Miller's Crossing, producer/writer Ethan and director/writer Joel have come of inevitable age. Their routine's become more than just twists and turns.

2 OSCAR NOMINATIONS - BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY & SOUND MIXING