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Meaning of the opening shot (the glass and ice)

posted 10 years ago by hafabee
3 replies | jump to latest

The opening shot of Miller's Crossing features an empty glass with 3 other glasses behind it, and 3 colourful flasks to the right. Tom drops ice into the glass one, two, three, and then pours whiskey over top of the ice, and gives it a swirl.

I get the impression from that shot, and the scene, that the ice cubes represent Leo, Caspar, and Eddie Dane, all getting mixed in together with Tom holding the glass and in control.

[–] 10 years ago

[deleted]

[–] ksf-2 9 years ago

Tommy is drinking hard liquor during prohibition.

power. flaunting the law.

anyone else want to take a whack at it?

[–] easy_fritzy 9 years ago

In the book, the character Tom is based on is an alcoholic or atleast is hitting the bottle hard while having a streak of bad luck in gambling. The first voice we hear is Caspar talking to Leo but the first thing we see is the drink Tom is pouring. So we see what Tom is seeing and hear what he is hearing... this tells us that Tom is the protagonist. My $0.02.