The Smokestack Twins & The Clarksdale Bank Robbery.
I re-read the Clarksdale Herald article about the twins robbing the bank. I've been wondering about which twin did what.
“Two masked men, both Black, stormed the bank—one took charge with smooth, calculated commands, while the other used violent force to control the room.”
When I read this after I first saw the movie, the words “smooth”, “calculated”, and “commanding” stood out. At first, I assumed it was Smoke, because of his serious, practical, and no-nonsense disposition, and thought Stack was the latter, because he seemed more impulsive, and just likes to wing it, but I couldn’t really picture it.
Upon several views, I think that it may have been Stack who smoothly commanded the room. Throughout the film Smoke inflicted most of the violence. He committed patricide, killed the snake, shot the thieves, threatened to shoot Pearline, pulled a gun on Sammie, and whacked him in the face, etc.
Stack was a charmer, personable and charismatic. He persuaded Delta Slim and Cornbread out of their reluctance to take a job at Club Juke. It’s not that Stack is incapable of violence (he’s a WWI veteran and a gangster), it just doesn’t seem like his first resort. The most aggressive behavior we’ve seen Stack display was when he was locked in the room, under the influence of Remmick’s hivemind, and may have taken on some of his characteristics.
Basically, during the armed robberies, I just picture Stack smoothly demanding tellers to give him the money, with the implication of violence, while Smoke is watching his back, looming with the certainty of violence.
I love the little idiosyncrasies between the twins; Michael B. Jordan is fantastic.