What’s Up With Characters Drinking Milk In Movies?

What’s Up With Characters Drinking Milk In Movies?

Video: It isn’t a glass of whiskey, and it certainly isn’t a martini that’s shaken, not stirred. But there is something surprisingly cinematic about a character drinking a glass of milk in movies.

This is partly because we can relate to drinking milk from our childhood. Adults drinking milk is also just so damn creepy. It’s a simple trick: Make an adult drink milk on the screen, and everything becomes deeply unsettling.

A lot of movies do this: A Clockwork Orange, No Country for Old Men, Hitchcock’s Suspicion and Inglorious Basterds all use the act of drinking milk as eerily as possible. Sometimes it’s to remind us that the chaos is being created by children; other times it’s done to throw us off but it’s always so damn freaky to see. The deep white just sticks out in any scene.

Now You See It shows various situations of drinking milk in movies (some that are less sinister like in Home Alone or Meet the Parents) and analyses it pretty well in the video below. Who knew drinking milk could be so interesting?


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