So far my favorite scene in Miller’s Crossing has to be the sight gag with the dog. The scene with Tom and Verna in Tom’s apartment where the sence ends by Verna saying “you’re a real son-of-a-bitch, Tom.” The scene then cuts directly to a shot of the dog looking at the dead body. Oh, Coen Brothers… 

 Okay so far (from the first thirty minutes) this is the score:

Burlesque – take all the “hard-boiled” detective stuff from The Glass Key (sex and violence) and multiply it by about 10. The sex (way more in-your-face than in the world of Mr. Hammit) and violence (he threw is glass at her… what?!) are definitely being amplified. Not to mention that we see way more of Ned/Tommy’s vices.

Nostalgia – So far, not really getting much nostalgia here. I mean, there is the Prologue, with all the gangster/”hard-boiled” talk…

Demythologization (MythBusters, Film, Text, and Culture Edition) – The over-exaggeration of sex and violence, may not be over-exaggeration at all. Maybe, the Coen Brothers are showing us the real Glass Key world that the first movie was too afraid too. The glamour is definitely non-existent.

Recuperation of Myth as Myth – Seems to me that the basics are all still there: the sex, the violence, the drinking, the women, the gambling, the Coen Bros haven’t discounted any of that. In fact, they seem to be embracing it more. So far it looks like this is a tied game.