NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Criterion Blu-ray (February 2022): Criterion have transferred the Coen brothers' Miller's Crossing to Blu-ray. It is cited as being from a "2K digital restoration, approved by director of photography Barry Sonnenfeld and filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen".

NOTE: Okay, so the big issue that has been mentioned in many places; the Criterion Blu-ray is 2 1/2 minutes shorter than the 20th Century Fox Blu-ray from over a decade ago. Notably when Tom (Gabriel Byrne) hits Frankie (Mike Starr) with a chair and his response is removed. I believe he says "Jesus, Tom". I also could not get an exact Blu-ray frame match for THIS specific screen grab from the Fox Blu-ray (the scene remains and it is very close but not that exact positioning as he opens his palm to reach for the gun.) It is somehow truncated on the Criterion. So these are presumed to be Coen-derived edits as we have seen other director's do (they also did it with their Blood Simple.) Strangely, Criterion does not mentioned this anywhere on the release - ex. that it is a 'director's cut edition', only that DoP Barry Sonnenfeld and the Coens approved of the restoration. So be it. I would not have noticed without it being mentioned elsewhere or by analyzing our running times above which indicates the Criterion to be about 2.5 minutes shorter. Perhaps someone one day will document these exclusions in totality.

The new image is very close to the 20th Century Fox 1080P but it has superior contrast losing some of the green hue on the older rendering. Criterion wins in terms of the visuals looking a shade crisper as well.

NOTE: We have added 58 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Criterion use a DTS-HD Master 5.1 surround track (24-bit) in the original English language. I couldn't detect much of a difference - both are very robust and can export deep bass as the lossless track handles all the film's aggression and haunting mood music via Carter Burwell's score (The Spanish Prisoner, and many Coen films including; Barton Fink, A Serious Man, No Country for Old Men, The Big Lebowski etc.). There is other music used in the film; Danny Boy sung by Frank Patterson, Come Back To Erin performed by John McCormack etc. Atmosphere is solidly buoyed via the lossless transfer with some nice subtleties in the surround. The Fox offered multiple foreign language DUBs and subtitles options where the Criterion offers only optional English (SDH) subtitles on their Region 'A' Blu-ray.

The Criterion Blu-ray makes definitive improvement in the supplements. There are plenty of new interviews conducted by Criterion (in 2021.) We get a new conversation between Megan Abbott (author of a lot of hardboiled crime fiction) and filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen about film noir and crime dramas influence for almost 1/2 hour. There are new interviews with actors Gabriel Byrne and John Turturro, moderated by Abbott for just over 1/2 hour. More interviews with director of photography Barry Sonnenfeld, for 1/4 hour, composer Carter Burwell talking with music editor Todd Kasow for 16-minutes, and production designer Dennis Gassner for 10-minutes. Included are the 1990 interview sound bytes with Byrne, Turturro, and actors Marcia Gay Harden and Jon Polito expanded from the ones available on the 2011 Fox Blu-ray release. The package has liner notes with an essay by film critic Glenn Kenny and sports a beautiful cover by Patrick Leger. 

The Coen brother's Miller's Crossing is brilliant. There is always some irony in their films - as well as homage/tribute. This looks at the dark cinema of the 30's to 50's crime genre with keen biting dialogue and a complex story of gang war, betrayals, irreverent toughness, loyalty etc. while spreading the delightfully excessive motifs across the entire running time. It's a modern masterpiece and the Criterion Blu-ray gives us the unannounced director's cut with a superb a/v and a plethora of new extras. It is strongly recommended!

Gary Tooze