First and foremost I’d like to point out that the sound heard in the darkness was not, at least I do not believe, the ice going inside the glass. It was someone picking ice out of a container. I replayed it a couple times and that is what I’ve concluded. Whether or not it’s relevant is something that deserves pondering. An interesting interpretation of there being a sound in darkness would be relating it to Tom’s ability to tell people things without them seeing it. He tells Jasper a phony story to get what he wants, as well as Bernie. That’s just an undeveloped idea but I just wanted to throw it out there.
Now I’m going to point out some shots that I thought were very interesting. The first I’ll point out is the title sequence shots of the trees. Sure there’s that whole looking at the heavens, almost like praying, (as we find out later it is Tom’s point of view), but I’d like to point out the similarity it has to the shot in Kurosawa’s Rashomon. Rashomon was the first film to shoot directly into the sun. The shot in Rashomon has the sun seen through numerous tree branches. As the film is about different events seen through different witnesses, the sun can be seen as the truth and the trees as different paths to the sun. In respect to Miller’s Crossing this shot doesn’t make quite as much sense because there is no sun and the trees aren’t tangled as much. But the idea is still there. Tom is telling Casper, Leo, Bernie, and Verna different stories. The only difference between this narrative and Rashomon‘s is we know a little more about what’s going on in Miller than we do Kurosawa’s film.
Another interesting shot I found doesn’t really have anything to do with analysis but rather how the Coen brothers put together a movie. In the shot where Tom is reading a newspaper, there is a fade into it. Our attention is immediately drawn to the headline “Gangland Slaying” before the entire frame is done fading. They accomplish this by putting more light onto that part of the newspaper. I thought it was really cool as a filmmaker myself.
In the final shot I’ll bring up is early in the film: when Tom breaks into the ladies room drunk to see Verna. The shot is a point of view forward tracking shot (Tom’s POV) as he is approaching Verna. If you look at all the other women in the room, they look EXACTLY the same. Same haircut, dress, makeup, etc. Verna looks entirely different from all of them. Tom has clearly singled her out from all the other women and him being in an intoxicated state manifests this even further, as the camera is in POV. When one is intoxicated, you are usually single-track minded and can focus on one thing at a time. In this case, it’s Verna. All other women are just moving around him and all he wants is for them to get out of his way.
Random point: There is a reference to the western genre when Leo says “they took his hair” and Tom replies “maybe it was injuns.” Thought that was cool.
The most interesting observation I had in this film was at the end of Miller’s Crossing we find out the film wasn’t a love story about Verna and Tom, but rather Leo and Tom. Tom did everything for Leo. He gave and took beatings. He even killed the brother of the woman he loved. It’s amazing how strong his love for Leo is. Early in the film they have a lover’s quarrel when Leo doesn’t follow Tom’s advice. Tom says before leaving, “my opinion used to matter here.” If that doesn’t sound like an old married couple I don’t know what does. At the end of the film, there is an extended shot of Tom looking out at Leo as he walks away. If this isn’t a clear indicator of his love for Leo I don’t know what is.