MovieChat Forums > Miller's Crossing (1990) Discussion > Too much repetetive 30's lingo

Too much repetetive 30's lingo

posted 9 years ago by MongoLloyd
12 replies | jump to latest

I just watched this again and was struck by the repetition of certain phrases like "what's the rumpus." I wasn't around in the 30's but I'm pretty sure everyone didn't walk around saying "what's the rumpus" all day.

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[–] RugGuy 9 years ago

do you hear people walking around today saying "what's up?" "what's going on?" "what's happening?"

[–] MongoLloyd 9 years ago

Yeah, all of those things and more, not the same thing all the time.

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[–] PillowRock 9 years ago

I wasn't around in the 30's but I'm pretty sure everyone didn't walk around saying "what's the rumpus" all day.

The movie didn't show "everyone" doing it. It was all in one, fairly small, social circle / subculture: namely the bootleggers in one city. Some odd catch phrase being extremely common within one particular social circle isn't exactly an uncommon thing.

Or, would you still be complaining about the repetition if every "What's the rumpus?" was replaced by "Hello"?

[–] MongoLloyd 9 years ago

It's ludicrous and sounds ridiculous:

Tom - 2 times
Caspar - 2 times
Mink - 1 time
Bernie - 1 time
Drop - 1 time

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[–] Soodinum 9 years ago

This wasn't a documentary, it was a stylized period movie. The dialogue reflects that. People probably didn't talk exactly like that even back then. But just as a comic book has it's own dialogue style, so does this film.

How many times was the word 'twist' used? Do you know the Coens? It's almost a certainty that this repetition wasn't happening accidentally. While this isn't a cartoon/comic book it would be helpful to cut it slack in that regard, the stylistic dialogue (repetition included).

'Then' and 'than' are different words - stop confusing them.

[–] strawdawg 9 years ago

You actually COUNTED the number of the times the phrase was used?

Ok.

give me a stage where this bull here can rage and though I can fight I'd much rather recite.

[–] kmags84 9 years ago

The Coens filmed this like a film from that time. Not that the lingo would be realistic, but it was how CINEMA portrayed the Gangsta Genre... I was watching The Untouchables(The Old Show) the other night and you could see some similarities to how both were filmed. They made a "Period Piece" but more on the film side, not reality...

[–] doubl3 9 years ago

It was nothing, compared to this ANNOYING movie called Brick, which people claim is oh so good. At first I thought this movie was going to be as bad as that with the dialogue, but luckily it wasn't. Brick bored me literally to sleep all through it,. I had to keep going back and rewatching scenes I was asleep during.

[–] NuckyThompson 9 years ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-A-t2PxRrg

[–] johnbayer79 8 years ago

Nitpicky argument

[–] muzhik_dva 8 years ago

You've got to have the perspective to see Tom as a 1920's cool guy. Kind of a Don Draper of his time. Get past the period slang like "what's the rumpus". That's in there for authenticity. Great portrayal with a well written script.

[–] 8 years ago

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