Twins Movie Analysis

The No E Pluribus Unum Memphis Blues Americans like to say that they celebrate diversity. And maybe they do. After all, the national motto is “E pluribus unum,” Latin for “from the many, one.” But American history teems with examples of the tensions created when diverse people try to communicate. Even when those tensions do not erupt in violence or vitriol, they can create miscommunication and misunderstanding. Filmmaker Jim Jarmusch takes audiences to Memphis, Tennessee, to explore how gender, race, and social class differences affect communication in his short film, “Twins.”

“Twins” is divided into three segments. All of the segments take place at a table in a rundown Memphis diner with torn wallpaper, ugly pictures, and steel and Formica

When Danny enters the segment, viewers continue to see gender differences between the twins’ communication, but racial differences between Danny and the twins also are highlighted. When Danny asks if they are twins, the brother says “no” and makes no eye contact in hopes that Danny will go away. The sister says “yes” at the same time, and then clarifies, by adding, “Yes, yes we are.” She makes eye contact with Danny. Danny annoys the twins by saying that they remind him of Heckle and Jeckle, the cartoon talking black magpies, who were always bickering. Their bickering may be what reminds Danny of Heckle and Jeckle. But the twins, who roll their eyes in disgust, may think Danny is referring to their race, even though Heckle and Jeckle were not based on stereotypes of African-Americans. Danny also tries to make a joke about which of the twins is the evil one. The sister invites Danny to guess, but the brother refuses to engage. Danny also sits down with the twins and jokingly asks the brother to hide him from his boss. The brother instead leans back so as not to hide Danny. Danny jokes that the brother must be the evil twin, which makes the sister smile, but further annoys the brother. Danny then launches into his theory about Elvis Presley’s evil twin without picking up on the fact that the twins are looking away from him, and even interrupting him to talk between themselves (e.g., “This coffee tastes like mud”). While he is not combative, Danny fails to be sensitive to his customers; he seems to assume everyone, like him, is a Presley fan and open to quirky theories about the singer. The twins have a different view of Presley. After listening to Danny’s theory, the sister turns to him directly and makes eye contact. She says, “Let me tell you something about Elvis,” and tries to inform Danny about how Presley paid black musicians just