Miller's Crossing Opening scene

Here is the theatrical trailer to Millers crossing, it shows the basic concept of the gang life theme and of double cross between so called friends, this type of theme is rife in the thriller genre due to the amount of chances to show twists and corruptions in the plot. I was influenced a lot by this film in relation to our own thriller opening as you can probably tell.

The opening scene to Miller's Crossing is told through the narrative of the characters Leo and Tom (the main protagonist). This film also seems to be filmed with a brown filter on it so everything seems dirty and sleazy, which is one of its many thriller signifiers.

The first shot is a close-up of ice being thrown into a glass and slowly zooming out to see a bottle pouring what looks like whiskey into it, this introduces us the main habit of our male protagonist (flawed hero thriller signifier), drinking. We can hear someone talking continuously in the background, showing that he is nervous although we cannot yet see the man talking. Cut to the man talking now sitting in front of a wooden desk in a long brown coat talking directly to the audience as we are seeing him (Johnny Caspar) through Leo's eyes behind the desk. The is another slow zoom from the mid-shot of Johnny to a close-up of his face adding significance and importance to his speech about the man he wants killed (Bernie). There is a man standing in the background holding a glass of drink presumably the one from the beginning shot but he is out of focus (mystery) and there is another man standing next to Johnny of whom we can merely see his midriff in a black coat holding a hat. This man looks like a henchman of Johnny's and looks very dangerous and evil dressed all in black and very tall. This characterization is what i gained inspiration for Smith from.

Next we see the man he is addressing (Leo) dressed in grey which contrasts with the brown and black of the other two symbolizing that the other two play dirty but he is in charge because he is fair and powerful, this amplifies what Johnny is saying about fixing bets and the double cross of Bernie who he wants dead. In addition to this Leo is sitting sideways on to show that he is in charge and does not need to show full respect to the other man, plus they are in Leo's territory so Johnny and The Dane (man in black/henchman) can not harm him.

The man with the drink (Tom Reagan) walks to behind the desk with Leo, we see him walk blurred up from behind Johnny's chair then we only see his midriff lean against the wall behind Leo, this shows us who he is allied with and the two sides on opposing sides of the table. The sides are shown with the shots switching between mid-shots of both top gangsters with their men standing behind them as they discuss Bernie.

The first shot we see of Tom is a head and shoulder shot when Johnny is talking about trust. he seems to have spaced out a bit and does not seem interested in what is being said, but is staring at the floor as if his mind is on other things. When anarchy is mentioned by Johnny we get a mid-shot of The Dane, who is wearing all black and a trilby hat that is covering the top of his face as he is looking down, but at the sound of the word anarchy he lifts his head so that the rim of his hat is just above his eyes and he smirks. From this we can tell that he is not a good nice person but instead enjoys the thought of chaos and panic. This slightest piece of movement seems to wake Tom up and he looks at The Dane with complete contempt and disgust.

A low vantage shot showing The Dane and Johnny together as a pair/team. This shot makes the Dane look extremely tall but with chubby Johnny in the forefront of the shot it is obvious that he is his boss, although it makes the audience not trust The Dane. In addition to this it shows that Johnny Caspar has got too big for Leo's liking and too powerful. The next shot frames Leo and Tom in it at Leo's height when sitting down. This is a balanced shot but Leo is in the forefront so he is in charge and is of a higher station than Tom, although compared to The Dane and Johnny there is a big gap between Leo and Tom showing that Tom does not belong to Leo they are just friends not co-workers like Johnny and The Dane.

When Johnny loses his temper later in the scene he jumps up and leans forward on the desk in a rage, we see this from Leo's point of view seeing him from across the desk then tilting the camera slightly up to see his whole red angry face. You can see The Dane in the background all blurry not moving a muscle, showing that he is very cool and collected.
An over-the-shoulder shot behind Johnny can see Leo's reaction to this outburst as just being blank faced and not interested.

When it looks like Johnny is going to far The Dane steps in and touches his shoulder to tell him to calm down. All of these factors added together make the audience think that Leo is going to burst, although he seems calm he is obviously bottling it all up and this makes us think that Leo is going to shoot him. However Johnny stands up puts on a hat and leaves. All this time the camera is sitting in Leo's chair watching them walk to the door when Leo says something and we get a close-up of Johnny and The Dane's reaction being sarcastic.

As of yet Tom Reagan has not yet spoke even though he is the main protagonist this keeps his character mysterious, but due to Gabriel Byrne being a great actor he conveys all his thoughts through his actions. This film is full of thriller signifiers here are just a few:

• Slatted blinds in Leo's office
• Femme fatale - Verna by Marcia Gay Harden
• Corruption - the police are run by Leo
• Betrayal - Tom sleeps with Verna who is with Leo
• Double cross - Bernie
• Flawed hero - Tom is an alcoholic, gambler
• Vanishing points - Scene in the forest with the road fading into the distance
• twists and turns in the plot everywhere
  
• Mystery - who killed the man with the wig