This is why we have English class
Posted by robyngiannini on February 9th, 2007
After watching Miller’s Crossing, I have to say that I really enjoyed the movie. However, we talked a lot in class about every detail in the movie occurring for a reason. I think that I am not yet a sophisticated enough movie-watcher to uncover the subtle meanings behind the various symbols and motifs in the movie. I feel like there was a lot going on that I havn’t really been able to work out in my head. There are a lot of different themes going on. One which struck me as particularly relevant was the theme that was repeated throughout that “You never know anybody. Not that well.” A lot of the movie seemed to support the idea that no matter how much you think you know about a person or a situation, you might be completely wrong. The movie showed a lot of different perspectives. For instance, Bernie’s death. Each character in the movie had a completely different perspective of Bernie’s death, and each character was convinced they knew the truth. The Fat guy whose name escapes me (is that Shad?) was so convinced that Bernie was dead by the hands of “Tommy” that he killed his partner to protect Tommy’s honor–honor that was utterly non-existent. Yet Tommy is honorable, or at least he was to Bernie, until Bernie double crossed him. Which brings us to another consistent theme in the movie–that of honor. And the contrasting views of honor. How you can kill someone and still be honorable; betray someone and still feel honorable. Every character in the movie had their own unique honor code, most of which didn’t make much logical sense. As you see by this very convoluted blog entry, there is so much happening in this movie that I’m not sure where to start, but I hope class today will give me more direction in terms of really understanding Miller’s Crossing.