Line #57 Film/MillersCrossing


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5	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_millerscrossing4.png]]
6	[[caption-width-right:350:''"Look in your heart!"'']]
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8
9	->''"That's you all over, Tom. A lie and no heart."''
10	-->-- '''Verna Bernbaum'''
11
12	''Miller's Crossing'' is a 1990 [[BlackComedy darkly-comedic]] [[FilmNoir neo-noir]] gangster film loosely based on Creator/DashiellHammett's ''Literature/TheGlassKey''. It is directed by [[Creator/TheCoenBrothers Joel and Ethan Coen]] and stars Creator/GabrielByrne, Creator/AlbertFinney, Creator/MarciaGayHarden, Creator/JohnTurturro, Creator/JonPolito, and J.E. Freeman.
13
14	Set in [[TheGreatDepression 1931]] in an [[WhereTheHellIsSpringfield unnamed Eastern metropolis]], it's the story of Tom Reagan, TheDragon for Irish-American mob boss Liam "Leo" O'Bannon. When Leo falls for FemmeFatale Verna Bernbaum ([[LoveTriangle who happens to also be sleeping with Tom]]), he ends up protecting her beloved brother [[{{Gayngster}} Bernie]], setting off a mob war -- with Tom caught right in the middle.
15
16	The film is something of a dark horse in the Coen Brothers oeuvre. Despite being a box-office failure at its release and lacking the massive cult following of ''Film/TheBigLebowski'' or the Academy Awards of ''Film/{{Fargo}}'' and ''Film/NoCountryForOldMen'', it remains one of the duo's most critically-acclaimed pieces. It's often referred to as "the ''other'' [[Film/GoodFellas great crime movie of 1990]]."
17	----
18	!!''I'll think about these tropes'':
19	* ActionFashionista: Several examples :
20	** Tic-Tac ''straightening his tie'' before [[spoiler:punching Tom]].
21	** Tom takes his gun ''and puts on his hat'', before [[spoiler:jumping from his apartment to shoot Bernie]].
22	** Leo ''puts his slippers on'' before he kicks ass.
23	* AintTooProudToBeg: Bernie breaks down into primal sobs and pleads for his life. It's harrowingly pathetic. [[spoiler:And it only works once]].
24	-->'''Bernie:''' Look in ya heart... I'm praying to ya... look in ya heart...
25	* TheAlcoholic: Tom. We actually never actually see him eat during the movie.
26	* AllThereInTheScript: It is never stated what year the film takes place in, although the screenplay states 1929.
27	* AntiHero: Tom is an UnscrupulousHero; a criminal and a deadbeat gambler who sleeps with his boss's girlfriend and backstabs his way through the film. However, he really does care for both Leo and Verna. All his plotting is for their benefit.
28	* BadassBoast: Leo sets the stage for other ones.
29	-->'''Leo''': Johnny. You're exactly as big as I let you be and no bigger, and don't forget it, ever.
30	* BadassInANiceSuit: it's a film full of gangsters dressed to the nines.
31	* BatmanGambit: Tom is a master at this.
32	* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: Tom (played by the [[MrFanservice Gabriel Byrne]]) is a rare male example of this trope -- no matter how many beatings he takes, he never gets anything worse than a split lip.
33	* BerserkButton:
34	** Johnny Caspar is sick of "the high hat" and there's nothing he can't stand more than "a [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder double-cross]] [[ManipulativeBastard artist.]]"
35	** Eddie Dane's is Mink. [[spoiler:It's a FatalFlaw.]]
36	* {{BFG}}: During a shooting in the middle of the gang war, Caspar's gang's already massive amount of firepower is topped off when they unveil a Browning M1917 machine gun.
37	* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Tom succeeds in killing Leo's rivals, but winds up alienated from both Leo and Verna, who enter into a foolish marriage.]]
38	%%* BlackComedy
39	* BoomHeadshot: TheMafia frequently mentions shooting a person "in the brain" [[spoiler:and it is how Mink, Bernie, and the Dane all die]].
40	* BottomlessMagazines: Leo fires a few ''thousand'' rounds from a Tommy gun without reloading. RuleOfCool is in full effect there, since it takes about 5 seconds of continous fire to empty a Thompson machine gun.
41	* BrotherSisterIncest: Bernie claims that Verna once tried to "cure" Bernie's homosexuality [[{{Squick}} herself]], though his word is less than trustworthy.
42	* BuryYourGays: [[spoiler:Bernie, the Dane, and Mink are all dead before the credits roll, although they're not the only casualties.]]
43	* TheCameo:
44	** Creator/SamRaimi appears as the two-pistoled gangster who gets shot at the police stand-ups.
45	** Frequent Coens collaborator (and wife of Joel) Frances [=McDormand=] appears as the Mayor's secretary.
46	* CatchPhrase: Tom's "I'll think about it", which he says whenever he has no intention of doing what's been asked of him. Caspar is smart enough to realise this, and so has his thugs beat Tom up when he tries the line on him.
47	* TheChessmaster: Tom sees all the angles.
48	* ChewingTheScenery: Creator/JonPolito (Johnny Caspar) and John Turturro (Bernie Bernbaum) must have been picking scenery out of their teeth for weeks.
49	* {{Chiaroscuro}}: Used in many scenes. It ''is'' a FilmNoir, after all.
50	* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Most of the cast, but ''especially'' Bernie. Bernie even lampshades it: "I can't help it, somebody gives me an angle, I play it."
51	* TheConsigliere: Tom to Leo, but then he becomes a TreacherousAdvisor to Johnny.
52	* CouldntFindALighter: Leo re-lights his cigar off a smoking tommygun after killing the would-be assassins who brought it.
53	* CrocodileTears: [[spoiler: Bernie. It saves his life once, but Tom has no problem ventilating his skull the second time he tries pulling his "look into your heart" ploy]].
54	* DeadpanSnarker: Tom and Verna, who engage in some classic noir reparte. Also Eddie, [[HypocriticalHumor who doesn't seem to like when others does it]].
55	* DeadMansTriggerFinger: A BlackComedy example, as Leo shoots a thug in the back with a Tommy gun and the thug shoots his own Tommy gun all over the place, including into his own feet.
56	* DeathByCameo: Creator/SamRaimi, the trigger-happy gangster with the GunsAkimbo
57	* DefiantToTheEnd: Aversion lampshaded by the Dane.
58	-->Ever noticed how the snappy talk dries up once a guy starts soiling his union suit?
59	* DelusionsOfEloquence: A variation in Johnny Caspar -- while all of the words he employs are in common use, he's given to excessive, long-winded, pontificating speeches that he seems to think are intelligent and witty, but show him to be an uneducated roughneck with a superiority complex. When making the case why he should get to kill Bernie in the opening scene, he frames the problem as an issue of "et'ics" while saying he suspects Bernie's cheating him, confusing the point he's trying to make; after Leo sneers he's clear "as mud", Johnny launches into ''another'' speech about ethics that's somehow even ''more'' rambling and indirect.
60	-->'''Caspar:''' I-i-it's gettin' so a businessman can't e-expect, no return from a fixed fight! Now if you can't trust a fix, what can ya ''trust?'' For a good return you gotta go bettin' on chance, and then, you're back with ''anarchy'' -- right back inna jungle. That's why et'ics is important. It's what separates us from the animals, beasts a' burden, beasts a' prey. Et'ics. Whereas, ah, Bernie Bernbaum is a horse of a different color, et'ics-wise. As in he ain't got any.
61	* DepravedHomosexual: [[PlayingWithATrope Played around with quite a bit]], most likely due to the trope's frequency in FilmNoir. Two of the three main antagonists, [[SmugSnake Bernie]] and [[PsychoForHire Eddie Dane]], are gay. Depending on how you look at it, they could be considered straight examples or [[AvertedTrope aversions]] -- Bernie's sexuality is never really connected with his villainy, while Eddie Dane is loyal to his employer and Mink. [[EvilVersusEvil Not to mention that the rest of the cast is also pretty villainous]], including [[VillainProtagonist the hero]].
62	* DidNotGetTheGirl: [[spoiler:Tom himself at the end. This is filmed as an {{Homage}} to ''Film/TheThirdMan''.]]
63	* DirtyCop: The police force that Leo has on his side, and that have later [[spoiler:sided with Caspar instead]].
64	* DirtyCoward: Bernie Bernbaum.
65	* TheDon: Leo for TheIrishMob and Johnny Caspar for TheMafia.
66	* TheDragon: Eddie Dane, to Johnny Caspar.
67	* DreamingOfThingsToCome: [[spoiler:Tom tells Verna about the dream he has of his hat blowing along a forest road (the opening title sequence). Verna interprets it by guessing the hat turns into a crown when Tom puts it on his own head, thinking Tom is planning for when he can take over from Leo. Tom rebukes that interpretation, finishing that in the dream he doesn't even chase after his hat as "there's nothing more foolish than a man chasing after his own hat." Played straight, however, by movie's end.]]
68	* EnigmaticMinion: Tom is a rare example of a protagonist (albeit a fairly villainous one) fitting this trope. The audience is kept in the dark as to his motives and intentions, and even when by the end of the film his goal becomes clear, his reasons for it do not. The most explanation he offers is the very enigmatic [[spoiler:"Do you always know why you do things, Leo?"]]
69	* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Caspar dotes on his son, even though he's not the brightest bulb in the chandelier.
70	* FaceDeathWithDespair: Bernie Bernbaum tearfully begs on his knees for Tom Reagan not to kill him: "I can't die out here in the woods, like a dumb animal!" [[spoiler:It doesn't work the second time around.]]
71	* FakeDefector: Tom defects to Caspar, but his loyalty remains with Leo.
72	* FakingTheDead: [[spoiler: Bernie uses Mink's corpse to fake his death.]]
73	* TheFarmerAndTheViper: Lampshaded by Bernie, who claims, while pleading for his life, that ripping people off is just "his nature". He demonstrates it when Tom spares him and Bernie immediately blackmails him for disobeying the order to kill him. [[spoiler:Subverted in that Tom [[FridgeBrilliance figured all along Bernie would do exactly that]], and twists the blackmail back on Bernie, forcing the next step in Tom's gambit.]]
74	* FemmeFatale: Verna. [[spoiler: While plenty of people die because of her, she's not directly responsible for any of them, even the one Tom blamed her for. She's the only person in the movie who genuinely doesn't want anyone to die, but her affair with Tom and her love for her brother get everyone else killed. She's a Femme Fatale despite her best efforts]].
75	* FilmNoir
76	* AFistfulOfRehashes: This picture is inspired chiefly by ''Literature/TheGlassKey'' and is about a gang war that starts when one boss puts a bookie (who the other boss had put a hit on) under his protection, with TheDragon to the first boss [[spoiler:(who, unusually for this trope, survives)]] PlayingBothSides.
77	* {{Foreshadowing}}: "That's you all over, Tom. A lie and no heart."
78	* GambitPileup: Tom has pretty much everything under control until [[spoiler: Bernie decides to blackmail him]].
79	* {{Gangsterland}}: A somewhat literal example in that the entire town consists of nothing but criminals.
80	* {{Gayngster}}: Bernie, the Dane, and Mink. Creator/JEFreeman, who plays the Dane, is gay himself. Interestingly, so is Jon Polito, who plays the straight (and ''married'') Johnny Caspar.
81	* TheGhost: we never get to meet Lazarre, the bookie whom Tom owes and who sends his thugs to rough him up.
82	* {{Greed}}: Bernie's motivation for just about everything.
83	* GreedyJew: Bernie is greedy and he is called Jewish slurs many times throughout the movie. On the other hand, most of the film's other criminal players are pretty venal too.
84	* GuileHero: Well, anti-hero at any rate. Tom may be brilliant, but he doesn't have much choice -- he's a [[NonActionGuy lousy fighter]].
85	* GunsAkimbo: Creator/SamRaimi in a cameo.
86	* HeManWomanHater: Eddie Dane, a {{gayngster}}, has no use or patience for women.
87	* HomoeroticSubtext: Tons on it. Notably, a lot of Tom and Leo's dialogue makes them sound like a couple, and the Tom/Verna/Leo LoveTriangle is arguably more about Tom and Verna competing for Leo's attention than Tom and Leo competing for Verna's. And then there's Bernie/Mink and Eddie Dane/Mink, but those are more text than {{Subtext}}.
88	* HypocriticalHumor:
89	** Caspar complaining that Bernie's antics are ruining his fixed boxing matches. If you can't rely on a fixed game, what can you rely on?
90	** The local police chief affably chats up Tom both times. Once when his cops are helping the Irish mob take out members of the Italians, and again when the power shifts to the Italians and the cops take out the Irish mob instead.
91	** When Tom hits the GiantMook who's about to beat him up across the face with a chair, the latter says plaintively "Jesus, Tom!" like his feelings rather than his face have been hurt.
92	** Bernie claims that Verna tried to [[BrotherSisterIncest sleep with him]] to convert him into heterosexuality and calls her a "sick twist." Tom counters that ''she's'' always spoken highly of Bernie. Bernie dismisses the observation with, "Well, you stick by your family."
93	* IdiotBall: Frankie and Tic-Tac are given orders to make sure Tom kills Bernie. So what do they do? They stand by the car and wait while Tom walks Bernie into the woods [[SoundOnlyDeath alone]], allowing Tom to fake Bernie's death. This is basically required for the rest of the plot to work. Dane beats them both up for being so stupid and goes to check for the body (which he [[spoiler:finds, because in the meantime Bernie had murdered Mink, dressed the corpse up to look like his, and left it at the Crossing]]).
94	* IronicEcho: Verna offhandedly mentions that Tom's all lie and no heart. Tom later lies to her brother to get his gun, outright calling himself heartless before shooting the stupid bastard.
95	* JerkassHasAPoint:
96	** Hypocrite though he is, Caspar's beef with Bernie is justified in the world of organized crime, and Caspar's going about things the right way in asking Leo's permission to deal with it. Tom tells Leo as much as soon as Caspar leaves the room.
97	** Tom is arguably a jerk towards everyone because of his bluntness; nevertheless, he is right about everything he warns Leo about and has to weasel himself out of the mess when Leo ignores him.
98	** Dane is a murderous psycho alright, but he is right about everything regarding Tom; [[spoiler:too bad he's always two steps behind]].
99	** Bernie plays Tom out of murdering him and blackmails him just because Tom exposed himself by doing so, leaving Bernie little choice (according to him) but to seize such a saucy opportunity.
100	* KickTheDog: The movie's full of them. Leo delights in screwing with Johnny just because he can (he claims it's to protect Verna, but the sheer joy in his voice after says otherwise). Bernie does it when he [[spoiler:kills his boyfriend to cover his own death]]. The king of it all, though, is when [[spoiler:Johnny Caspar is killed right outside Tom's apartment. It's meaningless, since Leo can take care of the police]].
101	* LargeHam: Johnny Caspar.
102	-->'''Caspar''': ''"Just like I tell all my boys...'''ALWAYS PUT ONE IN THE BRAAAAAAIIIINN!"'''''
103	* LoanShark: Lazarre and his underlings are AffablyEvil ones. His stooges feel free to rough up the right-hand man of the city boss, but only a little bit, and not breaking anything. They know Tom personally, they're sorry about doing what needs to be done, and advise Tom to stop borrowing so much when he's already in debt.
104	* LoveMakesYouDumb:
105	** Leo makes a "bonehead play" by protecting his lover's brother, which puts him in danger.
106	** [[spoiler:Eddie Dane, who easily sees through Tom's manipulations until Mink's death sends him into a blind rage, letting Tom turn Caspar against the Dane]].
107	* LoveTriangle: Tom/Verna/Leo and Bernie/Mink/Dane.
108	* MadeOfIron: Tom
109	* TheMafia and TheIrishMob: [[MobWar Dueling for supremacy]], as was TruthInTelevision at the time.
110	* TheManBehindTheMan: While Leo rules openly, even he admits he'd never dare challenge Tom directly. The moment Tom defects to Caspar's mob, Leo's falters. Leo's general lackadaisical attitude, and Tom's more serious one, suggest Tom's the real brains of the outfit.
111	* ManipulativeBastard: Tom and Bernie. Tom may well be a full-fledged MagnificentBastard, considering the eventual outcome of his scheming.
112	* ModestyBedsheet: Verna, post-coitus.
113	* MoodWhiplash: After the mostly comedic first half, the eponymous "Miller's Crossing" scene is pretty jarring.
114	* MoreDakka: During the siege of a BadGuyBar, dozens of cops and mobsters fire their pistols at the club and one of them even unveils a water-cooled Browning M1917 machine gun. Also Leo unloading his Thompson.
115	* MotorMouth: Mink talks fast, though it might simply be because he's nervous during his one and only scene.
116	* TheNamesake: there are a lot of characters crossing each other in the movie, none of them named Miller. Halfway through the film it turns out that Miller's Crossing is a location in the woods where mob executions take place.
117	* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Liam "Leo" O'Bannon's is a thinly-veiled reference to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_O%27Banion Dean "Dion" O'Banion]], an Irish mobster who was Al Capone's primary rival in the Chicago bootlegging wars. Unlike Leo, the real O'Banion lost.
118	* NoCommunitiesWereHarmed: It's set in an unnamed city, although it was filmed in [[TheBigEasy New Orleans]]. However, there is a clue late in the film which points to the New York City area: Tom tells Verna to leave town and go to "the Palisades" until everything blows over. The Palisades is a stretch of rocky cliffs of Bergen County in Northern New Jersey and Rockland County of New York State.
119	* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: One thing that sticks in everyone's minds for this movie is that Tom suffers these repeatedly throughout the movie from a variety of sources.
120	* NotSoStoic: When Tom is taken for his own walk in the woods, he doesn't beg for his life like Bernie. Just when it looks like he's going to FaceDeathWithDignity however, he stops and proceeds to StressVomit on the ground.
121	* OhCrap:
122	** The look on Tom's face when he finds out he's expected to kill Bernie.
123	** The realization that he's been OutGambitted slowly creeps up on Bernie [[spoiler:after Tom reveals that The Dane is already dead so Johnny Caspar's killing can't be pinned on him, Bernie had just given Tom the gun he used to shoot Johnny right before learning of this, and Tom also has Johnny's pistol and no desire to spare Bernie's life a second time]].
124	* PetTheDog: Tom spares Bernie in the woods even though he reaps no benefit from it and it actually places him in great danger, it is purely from moral conviction. He observes to Verna later when she hesitates in shooting him "Not easy, is it?". He also saves "Drop" Johnson from being beaten to death by Caspar, it would actually benefit him to shut Drop up permanently but he spares him purely as a matter of conscience. Tom actually seems very popular with many people, the bartender, the bookie etc, only The Dane seems to bear him any real animosity.
125	* PlayingBothSides: Tom schemes all the time to pull this off. Very similar or almost identical themes are seen in ''Film/{{Yojimbo}}'' and ''Film/AFistfulOfDollars'' since all these films are based on Dashiel Hammett works. [[spoiler:Eventually subverted, as Tom never broke loyalty to Leo.]]
126	* PhraseCatcher: "Jesus, Tom!" Also, "What's the rumpus?"
127	* PragmaticVillainy: the corrupt police chief wants everything to just keep running along smoothly with everyone getting rich and no violence. Tom actually agrees with him but can't admit this as it would be taking sides against Leo and then Caspar.
128	* PreMortemOneLiner: "What heart?"
129	* PsychoForHire: Eddie Dane ''really'' enjoys his job.
130	--> ''I am gonna to send you to a deep, dark place, and I am gonna have '''fun'''... '''doing it!'''''
131	* ReCut: The Criterion release trims out about two minutes of film, most notably the "Jesus, Tom" line, reportedly at the behest of the Coens. Controversy arose because at no point did Criterion mention that these cuts were made.
132	* RetiredBadass: Leo makes mincemeat out of a squad of hitmen, and still packs a mean right cross for an old guy.
133	* TheReveal: Who killed Rug? [[spoiler:Mink in a panic, thinking his affair with Bernie would get back to the Dane.]] Mentioned only briefly, and far too late for the knowledge to do anyone any good.
134	* RightForTheWrongReasons: The Dane is correct about the identity of the body found in the woods. He's entirely mistaken about who put it there, and why.
135	* SceneryPorn: Inevitable, since it's a Coen Brothers film.
136	** Leo's office in particular is one of those intimidating, shadowy rooms that sums up every Noir setpiece ever made. [[http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/millers-crossing-1990 Roger Ebert was impressed with the room]] (and felt that it took away from the rest of the movie!).
137	* ScreamsLikeALittleGirl: Bernie again. It's surprising he wasn't shot for it.
138	* ShoutOut:
139	** Tom Reagan's name references Tom Hagen from ''Film/TheGodfather'' and Sean Regan from ''Film/TheBigSleep''.
140	** A newspaper headline seen briefly reads "Seven Dead in Hotel Fire". This is a reference to ''Film/BartonFink'', which was released a year later than ''Miller's Crossing'' but written at the same time. Also, Tom's apartment is at the 'Barton Arms'.
141	** The opening scene is also something of a parodic parallel to the opening of the original ''Godfather'', where an Italian man gives a monologue to a mob boss, requesting a murder.
142	** Several nods to ''Film/TheThirdMan'', particularly the ending and many camera angles.
143	* ShovelStrike: [[spoiler:Johnny Caspar]] viciously does this to [[spoiler:the Dane]] when he [[spoiler:is manipulatied into thinking that the Dane is a traitor]].
144	* SissyVillain: Bernie.
145	** Subverted by [[spoiler:Dane, who is in a relationship with Mink and is implied to have a homosexual attraction to his employer]], but he is ''everything'' but.
146	* SlapSlapKiss: Tom and Verna.
147	* SleepingWithTheBosssWife: Tom sleeps with his boss Leo's girlfriend, Verna, resulting in [[spoiler: a heated mob battle among several parties.]]
148	* SmokingIsCool: Cigarettes or cigars, everyone looks cool.
149	* SmugSnake: Bernie Bernbaum isn't quite as clever as he thinks he is.
150	* SoundtrackDissonance:
151	** Leo guns down some mooks to a soulful rendition of The Londonderry Air ("Danny Boy") that he's playing on the gramophone.
152	** More generally, Carter Burwell's delicate and emotional score contrasts sharply with the dark and cynical tone of the film. It is a variation of "Lament for Limerick", a tune written to commemorate the end of the Williamite/Jacobite wars in Ireland, a conflict which drove rival factions who supported their vying kings to war, pitting brother against brother.
153	* SpottingTheThread: Done by [[spoiler:The Dane]]: "I wondered, why would Einstein want to talk with a gorilla".
154	* TheStarscream: Verna believes that Tom is planning to take over from Leo [[spoiler:when in reality he's cementing Leo's power over the city and has no interest in being a mob boss]]. See DreamingOfThingsToCome, above.
155	* SympathyForTheDevil: The scene from which the film gets its title.
156	* TapOnTheHead: Averted. When Tom is kicked in the head by one of Caspar's goons, the cop who wakes him up informs him that he's only been out for ten seconds or so.
157	* TheRoaringTwenties: It's prohibition times. Gangsters and flappers abound.
158	* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverKill: How many bullets did Leo unload into that ''one'' guy?
159	* TheyPlottedAPerfectlyGoodWaste: Some suspect the instances of tropes such as the aforementioned BeautyIsNeverTarnished are intentional throwbacks to the style and tropes of classic gangster flicks.
160	* TooCleverByHalf: The Dane's evaluation of Tom. Zigzagged as Tom's schemes [[spoiler:are about to backfire on him, but this gets subverted by dumb luck thanks to a second body disposed in the woods]].
161	-->'''The Dane:''' You are so goddamn smart. Except you ain't!
162	** [[spoiler:It's not dumb luck -- Bernie dumped Mink's body there (after shooting him in the face) so people would continue to think Bernie was dead. Of course Tom had no way of knowing this, until a mook just happened to stumble across it [[JustInTime just as the Dane was about to shoot him]], to the trope is played straight after all.]]
163	** This is also to assume that [[spoiler:Tom having refused to kill Bernie in the first place had everything to do with his schemes and nothing - with plain pity and mercy.]]
164	* {{Tuckerization}}: The Miller of the title comes from the Coen Brothers' frequent film editor, Michael R. Miller.
165	* UngratefulBastard: [[spoiler: Bernie repays Tom's humanity in sparing his life by blackmailing him and threatening to go public with proof that Tom failed to dispatch him like he was trusted to by Johnny Caspar.]] It's why Tom isn't nearly so forgiving the second time [[spoiler:Bernie]] ends up on the wrong side of his gun.
166	* UndyingLoyalty: [[spoiler:Tom looks like he betrayed Leo -- and in a way he was by sleeping with his favorite girl Verna -- but the entire gambit Tom plays to end the gang war was to protect Leo all along. Played straight with The Dane, who was always in Caspar's corner, but Tom is able to play on Caspar's quick anger to get him to kill the Dane.]]
167	** [[spoiler:Possibly played straight even with Verna. Tom never says a kind word about her to anyone, and openly admitted to her face that he was trying to drive Verna and Leo apart.]]
168	*** [[spoiler: His biggest problems with Verna was that her loyalty to Leo was compromised by her affair with Tom himself, and her protectiveness of her brother. Tom demolishes both, and while Verna's far from happy about it, does marry Leo at film's end.]]
169	* TheUnseen: Lazarre is more a force of nature than a person. He lurks over Tom's character for the whole film.
170	* VeryPunchableMan: Tom is a rare (maybe unique) ''main character'' variant. He commits two overt acts of violence in the movie (hitting a {{Mook}} with a chair and [[spoiler:killing Bernie]]). The rest of the time he's getting his ass kicked left and right -- often by [[MagnificentBastard design]].
171	* VillainProtagonist: While none of the cast is particularly "good," Tom is easily worse than most, and his machinations make him responsible for the deaths of every character in the film other than Rug (and possibly Mink?). Granted, [[NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished some of the worst difficulties he faces in the story come as a result of the few times he shows a sense of genuine human decency.]]
172	%%* VomitIndiscretionShot
173	* VoteEarlyVoteOften
174	-->'''Leo:''' You know O'Doul and the Mayor, right?
175	-->'''Tom:''' I ought to, I voted for him six times last November.
176	-->'''Mayor:''' And that's not even the record.
177	* WildCard: Tom is caught between Leo and Caspar in their gang war and proves to be the deciding factor.
178	* XanatosSpeedChess and GambitRoulette: [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation We can't know for sure]] if ThePlan was set from the start or improvised along the way.
179	* YiddishAsASecondLanguage: Several characters refer to Bernie as "The Schmatta," a Yiddish word meaning "rag," as a way of demonstrating their contempt for him and his Jewishness
180	* ZeroApprovalGambit: Tom pulls several:
181	** [[spoiler:He deliberately alienates himself from Leo (and takes quite a few beatings in the process) in order to eliminate Leo's competition and any threats to Verna while simultaneously providing himself an exit from his life of crime. This comes at the price of losing Verna to Leo.]]
182	** He [[spoiler:saves and (later) kills Bernie]] with full knowledge that these acts won't provide him any benefit whatsoever to anyone's eyes; still he proceeds out of principle and in both times it comes to bite him in the ass.
183	** Throughout the movie, Tom carries a gambling debt from Lazarre well aware that he will be eventually reached by his cronies. They do come to beat the crap out of him but they remind him that they'd rather not be hurting him because they (and Lazarre himself) actually like him.
184	** Curiously, the biggest gambits in the movie come from everyone who underestimates Tom. Even Dane falls victim to his machinations.
185	----
186
187	:: ''Ok kid, you think about it. TV Tropes is a mental state''
188

Context Film / MillersCrossing