I have created a list on Letterboxd of all the movies in this video. You can also suggest more here in the comments or under the list on Letterboxd: letterboxd.com/ducinema/list/when-the-food-is-more-than-just-a-meal/

You can't be a good villain if you are calcium deficient.

I think milk also indicates how the evil character is doing his horrible actions while being sober, that person didn’t use any substances to make himself more angry or violent, that is just the way they are

The "assholes eat apples" trope is S tier. Bonus points if the character throws the apple after taking a single bite out of it, wasting the fruit.

"Maybe I'm a villain" - I said while drinking milk

Also, strudel used to be prepared using pork fat, so in forcing her to eat the strudel, he's forcing her to violate kosher laws.

In Yu Yu Hakusho, the villain Toguro declines a glass of alcohol and instead asks for orange juice. A lot has been said about this scene, but personally I like to think that it's to show that he wants to be in control, mostly of himself. If he were to dull his senses with alcohol he might make rash or foolish decisions, but most importantly he might numb himself. To someone who already views most of the world as weak and boring, he wants to be acutely aware of everything around him so that when he finally does face something that challenges him, he can truly experience it with 100% clarity.

It doesn't matter whether you pour the cereal or the milk first, the bowl always comes next, followed by the table.

I see it as a way of showing they’ve always been this way. Since milk is typically drank as a child, I think it shows that they’re choosing not to mature from their evil thoughts and embracing their upbringing.

Maybe the drinking of milk by the villain represents the villain consuming the innocent (if milk represents innocence or an innocent beverage or as a food sustenance of innocents eg) babies, children)?

Definitely gives hope that the upcoming movie "The Menu" could also be the same way with food being a subtle nod to the evil that lies within the chef and his crew.

Milk is something you drink when you feel safe: at home, with your mom, or before going to sleep. It's also one of the first foods humans began to produce in an industrial way when we learned how to keep cattle. It means that you are in control of the situation (compare the milk that Alex drinks at the beginning of A Clockwork Orange with the wine and meal he is forcefully served afterwards). Hans Landa drinks milk because he controls the situation, completely. Anton Chigurh drinks milk because he's always in absolute control. The Dude, on the other hand, drinks White Russians because he'd love for once, to be in control of the situation, but the drink is laced with vodka, because his life is quite chaotic.

As a linguistic aside, the hand gesture Has Landa does when saying "bravo" to the farmer's cows and family is a perfect example of an ancient hand sign from France. It looks a bit like the "OK" sign but the pads of the fingers are pinched together and it represents running your fingers along a section of hand-spun thread to check for fineness and a lack of lumps. It means "finest kind". Hans is being more French than the actual Frenchman.

As somewhat of a psycho the milk nor the cereal go first. It's always the bowl that goes first

Landa making Shoshanna wait for the cream (dairy) to be mixed with the pastry, made probably from lard (already not kosher itself) is brilliant as a detail. He probably was testing her or already knew who she was. What I love about this detail is that no character does an exposition about that, the same way that nobody in the film seems to notice he's checking one of the farmer's daughter's pulse.

I just realised that milk symbols innocence. So Hans consuming milk is a metaphor for him exploiting the innocent for his own wants and desires, he also asks for the milk from LaPetite which could hint to Hans later making LaPetite confess. All linking to Hans's cunning and manipulative villany.

I completely agree with Tarantino creating hunger or thirst for the item on screen. There is a scene in Django where they pour beer. Immediately after the movie, we went to the bar and grabbed a beer, because of the craving that the scene created.

The Jelly Donut in Full Metal Jacket is a symbolism of what Private Pyle is gonna turn into because he can't do anything right with basic training to be a marine. When he says he's too heavy and hungry, it indicates if he'll survive under Private Joker's leadership of teaching him to be a killer in the outside world and not let the thoughts of Sgt. Hartman get in the way of turning himself into a monster.

Milk also is an unusual drink to have on its own, making the drinker stand out more

Consider this from the perspective of a bartender; a martini is stirred to maximize the chill of the drink without actively diluting it or making it full of air. Shaking a drink introduces a large amount of air into the mixture, while also crushing up ice and melting it quickly to make the drink even colder. While it’s not by a significant amount, James Bond’s “Gin/Vodka martini shaken not stirred” is him ordering a weakened version of the classic drink, which prevents him from becoming too intoxicated while on the job, without making him stand out too much by ordering a classy drink in a high-brow environment

there's also something genius about using food before introducing a violent scene. eating engages the parasympathetic nervous system, disengaging fight/flight response. watching someone eats also triggers our physiological mechanism to mirror responses related to eating, likely due to the existence of mirror neurons. (this probably also makes the villains relatable). as a result, any ensuing shock will throw off the audience & kickstart the sympathetic nervous system violently into a fight/flight reflex. smart of tarantino to utilizes this biopsychological mechanism, whether he's aware of it or not

Attack Of The Clones. Anakin feeds Padme a pear-like fruit and comments on how Obi-Wan wouldn't approve of him doing such things. Saint Augustine had a story about how he stole some pears as a teenager and threw them away to pigs. He never took the pears because he was hungry or he wanted to feed the pigs, he took them for the sake of indulging in the sin of stealing. Just as Anakin is knowingly indulging in his passions by continuing to try and romance Padme. This dinner table scene also mirrors the one in Empire Strikes Back but here we have Eve eating the forbidden fruit and in ESB we have the last supper and Judas' betrayal. The reason why Anakin and Padme end up together is because Padme ultimately ends up giving in just like how Eve is the one to give in and eat the fruit.

In death, note light ate an apple after Ryuk did who is a God of death. Hinting that his killcount is that of a God of death. Also it represents his manipulation and loss of innocence as well since apples increase intellectual function and light is an intellectually superior individual whom is seen manipulate people with more and more finesses and even sadisticly enjoys every step of the way as opposed to his initial self that only would manipulate people strictly for his plans to pan out

If somebody wrote a villain that's lactose intolerant but drinks milk just to show how powerful they are, that'd be cool as hell.

Candy isn't the dentist's biggest ememy, it's his biggest allie

This is really interesting, and I'd love to see more videos on the topic. Food can seem as a background prop but I love the added symbolism that it can hold.

It's a shame this channel only has like a half dozen videos. These are amazing.

I reckon villains drinking milk is also a simple expectation subversion. You would expect, based on stereotypes, that such hardened people doing such hardened things would be drinking badass beverages like alcohol. But instead, they drink a simple, more commonplace beverage; a simple expectation subversion that often neatly mirrors their character, simple and even likeable on the surface, sinister and calculating beneath.

Homelander is interesting because at first it seems like he just has mommy issues. But then later it becomes clear that it's not the mother figure he craves, just her milk. He’s such a weird character.

"And what's the biggest enemy of the dentist?" Me: Apples "Exactly- Candy" Me: 😐

Okey, hear me out... There's this chapter in JoJo's... Where someone has an orange but the orange it's a bomb and the one who made the bomb ended up blowing himself up with the orange... But anyways, great video, I never realized how much of a story can the food tell

The fun fact about food in the movies or TV shows that nobody speaks at all is the fact that most of the times the actor has to spit the food they were eating when the scene is over or cut because any movie scene requires several shots for each scene, if an actor eats what we see it's eating he may get feel full by the time they shot for 9th time the same restaurant scene. Normally each dish on scene was prepared several times and the actor may just bite it, end the scene, spit the bitten food and then film again with a new dish. I've been in movie sets and the amount of food that gets wasted in the projects is insane, that's why several directors avoid the eating scenes and instead they start to film when the dinner is almost over.

I drink milk with my brother all the time. Because of the calcium. We are just joking about getting stronger bones. We are nice people. I don't think milk will change that. I'll returne if one of us gets a villian arc Edit: I had my villain ark. I watched "average age for everything". I realised how much life never gave me.

One food from a comic that stands out is in Yhe Killing Joke during the Jokers flashbacks a phew different characters are eating Lobster, the mobsters at the bar have a bucket and later when Joker is home talking to his wife there are lobsters on thr table. I always wandered what it symbolized

Having read the original novel "A Clockwork Orange" which the movie of the same name is based on, the milk that is being drank in the scene is supposed to be laced with a drug. There were bars, specifically called "milk bars", for drinking the drugged milk described in the novel

second vid i seen of yours, great work, subbed.. you hit on a lot of stuff in your vids i learned about during my time working on a mod i helped develop some time back ago. during that time i got a chance to sit down with MANY people across the creative arts field and really opened my mind up to a lot of thought and concepts... i can tell you, you are on point, for me it seems there is absolutely a type of un-tethered connection across the field where many thoughts, ideas and concepts simply go unnoticed or perhaps somewhat too complex to the point that, if looked too far into begs the question of just exactly what or who we are as people, if not individuals? its something i myself have delved into for about some odd ten years now after seeing soo many interconnections that are all more then simple happenstance. from what i have gleamed from my time is that we, as individuals have a type of indirect, yet very real connection through our subconscious thought, it is not direct and is better expressed though our creations and tallents then our words or ideas alone yet is very real but for some untold, almost uncomfortable reason, we simply wish to ignore it and move on as if the underlying issue or concept is simply not there but yet, it always has a nasty way of showing up. just sharing my two cents on the subject. take it or leave it, just thought i'd share what i have come across in my time of working with the creative art's community. =)

Banana most likely is fruit for a comedy. The word it self people can find funny. It also has a connotations to it. And the phrase "going bananas.". Cartoons have people or vehicles slip on a banana peel. Or when someone climes out of a dumpster they have a banana on them. Monkeys and apes eat bananas. Charlie the Unicorn second episode was about the Banana King, and how Charlie "needs to put a banana in his ear". The banana is perhaps about the absurd. It may also remind us of our biology with its shape and the fact our other biological family members eat it. Perhaps benanas can be used to remind the audience to not take it to seriously.

I think they just do that to show that villains are also human beings as drinking something so mundane that everybody does shows that despite their horrible actions they are still down to earth (which kinda makes it even more scary knowing that these people are no different from us)

Amazing video! I clicked on your video from my homepage just because I liked the thumbnail and just 1 minute got me hooked. Even the sponsor segment was good, everything was quick, short and packed with info but very easy to comprehend and so interesting. Also the editing was on point and how you voiceover'd movies scenes was great.

There’s another key association with apples - youth and regeneration. Such as the apples of Idunn or the Hesperides.

Me who's been drinking orange juice in the morning for years 💀

Damn fine piece of video analysis. Loved it to the core!

in the movie "parasite" you can see them making "ram-don" (but actually it is a Chapa-guri in Korean) with Korean beef strips. The cheap ramen noodles 'Chapagetti' and 'Neoguri' represent two poor families, and the 'Korean beef strips' represent an upper-class family. The sight of three dishes on one plate looks like three families coexisting in one house. The 'Chapagetti' and 'Neoguri' families compete within the same class, not the 'Hanwoo' (Korean beef strips) family, which is a higher class than them.

"You are what you eat." I don't remember eating a big disappointment.

I think that in films, drinking milk can also signify the act of taking or stealing. Milk is something naturally formulated for the baby, and dairy is typically for calves. Whenever a bad character lavishes on milk without a care in the world, it sort of sets the tone for the character in regards to their disregard of taking without consequence. Basically a step short of eating veal, caviar, or eggs. It can also indicate a liking or tolerance to western culture, the main consumers for drinking plain milk from a glass.

Wow,I'm impressed! Thank you for your work,sir!

Loved it all the way througb Very high quality stuff right here You did do your research and skillfilly stitched all this even with the sponsor Loved how you put Bully Maguire in it and also played my ringtone in the end I was confused for a while as to why the call interface wasn't being shown on my phone screen then I backed the video a bit and got it Great video man It's a surprise why I didn't know about this channel up until now Subbed

The climax scene from "Ratatouille" (briefly shown at the end of the video) is by far my favorite scene involving food. I don't even like the film very much, but that scene moved me in a way that very few movies do.

Milk will be my diet from now on.

I'm surprised the dexter opening wasn't mentioned cause that's gotta be one of the best uses of food in television that I've seen

The Menu made this small fixation? To the ENTIRE PREMISE! It was just~ 🙌🙌🤧👏👏👏👏

One of the best KZfaq channels right now. This video is my 2nd favorite after the liminal spaces one

Fun fact! In the old ages ladies would keep a piece of apple in thier underarm area of their corset and would give it to their suitor as a "taste" as a sultry gift in a sense. Now thinking about how many times a women is shot in a movie biting into an apple as a foreshadowing for something naughty makes so much more sense hahah

The other underrated power-move with food: when a villain invites the protagonists to a luxurious feast to simultaneously display how much wealth they possess and how little they fear/respect their adversaries.

duuude please load up more videos i'm loving it

Will be glad to see characters drink milk two times

Superb content, my guy

A missing part on the pastry scene is that at that time many pastries were made with pig fat which isn’t kosher. He takes it another step forward adding cream because it’s not kosher to mix milk and meat. He was testing her

Nooo just minutes ago, I watched the video and it was full of amazing comments about the connotation of milk and its different meanings depending on how and when it's used :(

I love it when the food/drink items heroes and villains partake in has meaning to who they are and contrast agains eachother. I have 2 examples: Ex.1) The Hero: was hurt by his past and the others he indirectly hurt aswell, so he drinks whiskey to muddle his mind and forget the pain and punish himself. The villain: relishes the feeling of power amd control he has when hurting others. He respects no one but himself and drinks milk because it doesn't impact his health negatively amd it doesn't lead him to make choices he didn't make. It's also telling that he does it all sober, as his true self.. Ex.2) The Hero: he likes to keep a sharp mind and strong body, as to be fit enough to protect the ones he loves and the innocent. For this reason he only drink veggie smoothies if he isn't drinking water. The villain: He doesn't care about anything other than what can gratify him at that moment, smoking to feel the buzz, eating sweets, or finding his way to the bottom of a bottle. He hurts anyone who tries to help him off the path of indulgence. The hero always has an almost unselfish reason for unheathly habits or healthy ones while the villains are always motivated by what they personally want no matter what the habit is.

Impressive work brother. You are really good.

The "moloko" they drank in Clockwork Orange was supposed to be some kind of intoxicant. Pacino eating that lemon slice in Scarface, is pure genius.

For me when 'villain drink milk' is give the message of 'they doing the right thing'. If its alchohol then its an emotional driven, if its a juice/water/coffee/tea then its a just a job/proffesionalism. I hope people understand what im trying to say.

Don’t get stopped by youtube, keep up this fantastic work.

This was fantastic

that was so well done

Interesting. I usually never pay attention to the food. Though in anime and videogames villains and severely gray characters tend to like apples. Jake from Resident Evil 6 is sometimes seen snacking on an apple, as is Ryuk from Death Note, though both aren't actual villains. I did notice there was one animated villain who chose milk to toast his success with, I can't remember who he was, I just remembered it happened. I just considered it an eccentric quirk as the villain was eccentric. Personally, I do go through a lot of milk. Growing up, my mother was endlessly frustrated that I would drink nearly all of it, and she could never keep it in the house. I've also been drinking a lot of Kool Aid lately. It's a child's drink, but I can't seem to get enough of it. Innocence huh? Interesting.

Didn't see that mentioned in video, but there is another one quite powerfull food-symbol - I think often used in connection to devil/devilish characters - egg. (Egg is a symbol for soul). I like these bits. Thank you for video.

This was super cool! 👏🏻

This is a very impressive analysis . I never knew this

Milk goes a bit beyond this I think, it shows a strange infantile side of someone who commits heinous acts - almost as if their evil is an inexorable part of their being, not something taught to them. A villain drinking milk is a rash juxtaposition in our minds, a corruption of something innate to all people. Not only can in give insight into the childishness and/or child-like moral compasses of these villains, it can also assert a feeling of dread: as if innocence is being corrupted.

FINALLY someone who has seen Spirited Away. Such an underrated movie. The soundtrack and music and ambience is diamond cut perfect.

I love it when i stumble upon a youtube channel which i can binge

Good video never watched it this way an never gonna see it the same . It's An eye opener!

In Lords of Chaos, Varg Vikernes is prominently (and some might say infamously) depicted stopping in the middle of murdering Euronymous to mix up and drink a glass of chocolate milk, a part of the crime that was never even alluded to prior to the movie and, by Varg's account, never happened. The filmmakers likely added the sequence to emphasize Varg's hatred of Euronymous through mockery and show his confidence that Euronymous cannot escape, since chocolate milk takes a couple minutes to prepare and he is, after all, stealing it from Euronymous's kitchen while murdering him. Unfortunately, this sequence paired with the fact that Emory Cohen, the actor who played Varg, was overweight in the movie made it easier to just see Varg as an indulgent character. Disregarding how that (and other scenes in the movie) pissed off the real Varg Vikernes, it made the movie somewhat less enjoyable for viewers already familiar with the true story and/or Varg's infinitely entertaining personality.

I like to think of it as shorthand for something off. I love milk but I think a lot of people think of it as something you are made to drink or consumed with something like cereal or chocolate sugar powder. When you just see a mf drinking plain milk it’s just that bit unnerving through negative association. This is partly informed by the fact that you see it most in English speaking countries, I don’t really think that association works in Japanese cinema for instance. It’s a different culture and that particular association isn’t quite there imo.

Terrific video, I do have to say, I understand to truly make your point hit it works best to have direct examples but the amount of spoilers that are shown within seconds did have me skipping parts, best I could and I still saw massive spoilers. Now I’ve seen most of these movies/shows as I’m sure your audience in general has but there were a couple times I went “well damn” lol Again I’m not saying this to throw shade, I thoroughly enjoyed the vid! Keep killing it but maybe not so many direct shots of massive spoilers… just throwing that in to maybe help. Love the vid and excited to now go check out your channel!

Great video about food! Great channel!! I subscribed. Thanks ❤

So glad he included that shot of Homelander from the boys 💀 I also think the milk is showing the parallel to his unfulfilled childhood and why he is the way he is now. Evil but a childlike naivety and he always has an attachment to a parent type figure

Villain: "This is a gun." Protagonist: "Fool, I'm the main character here, you eill never hit me-" Villain: "🍊." Protagonist: "OKAY OKAY, I YIELD!"

Great video!

Awesome video! 🤓

Cats loves Milk 😱 Makes a lot of sense huh !!!

7:31 the forbidden fruit is never actually stated as an apple anywhere in biblical texts, though it was depicted as one in Milton’s Paradise Lost, resulting in that becoming the fruit most commonly associated with the sin.

adding to the “oranges of death”, is Tangerine in Bullet Train, and the orange truck at the end, too 🍊

This is really an interesting way to view the structure of movies.

"Oh, now that's aggravatin'." "Sheriff?" "It's still sweatin'." "Oh, sheriff! ...We just missed him! We got to circulate this, on radio." "Alright. But what d' we circulate, 'looking for a man who has recently drunk milk?'" From No Country For Old Men

Homelander drinking milk is a sign of him being a baby inside, a deeply hurt baby lacking warmth from a mother that comes with her milk.

Great videos!

Sometime when my brain in chaos, drinking milk help me stabilize it

I'd say they put the cereal first, blending in with society. However, they overindulge in the milk, drinking it all when the cereal seems like it all gone...: leaving behind shreds of the breakfast food behind in the bottom of the bowl

Your video is the first sponsered ad Ive watched in a long time. I loved Walter White playing Subway Surfers, well done lol.

This might be the perfect video. No padding, good insight, made me think of movies I've seen a thousand times in a different way. The premise is solid enough to be a paper on cinema. Helps me understand Frank from The Departed's comment about how you can learn a lot watching things eat Really, really well done.

Good video. I’m subbing

In the movie The Good, The Bad and the Ugly, I love how the character Angel Eyes is introduced to the audience. He casually sits on the dining table of Stevens, the man he is contracted to murder and dines with him without removing his stare !!!

This reminded me of Leon: The Professional; each time Matilda goes out to buy milk something bad happens to those around her.

The orange truck in bullet train follows this to a tea along with the character tangereen! Very interesting!

Great video. Don’t often comment on videos, but I needed to say something.

The best eating scene I've seen in movie was in Lord of the Rings: The King's Return, when Denethor, the Steward of Gondor eats a tomato. I've never been as disgusted by a person eating. Props to John Noble!

I love your voice!