What was the significance of the white rabbit? Hoskins gives one to Caine, and in Caine's last scene, we see him with it. It's obviously a reference to the white rabbit in Alice in Wonderland, but how does it relate to the contents of the film?
shareI believe the White Rabbit is supposed to represent Hoskin's Character, George. How Mortwell (Michael Caine) has him as his pet, defenseless and in his debt. I don't see any connection to Alice in Wonderland, though if anyone else has any theories on this, I would like to hear them.
I'm not sure the rabbit was meant to represent anything, aside from an unusual quirk that Michael Caine's character had. He was supposed to be a nasty kingpin, yet he seemed to love rabbits. I found the scene where George tracks him down and shouts in front of everyone: 'DID YOU GET THE RABBIT?' hilarious!
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Agreed. Especially as the conversation in the drive over - "You're not gonna start all that business again, are you?" - made it pretty clear (at least to me) that the rabbit was a recurring joke George liked to play.
shareThat was pretty good. :)
shareIn Cockney slang, "rabbit" means "talk" so he was saying to Caine's character that all his talk about taking care of him after his prison stretch was just that -- talk!
"Are you going to rabbit all night?" (rabbit and pork = talk)
http://www.peevish.co.uk/slang/articles/cockney-rhyming-slang.htm
I'm familiar with the rhyming slang, but I thought perhaps it was a reference to the fact that George didn't talk, as in inform on Mortwell and hence did the time for him.
I used to want to change the world. Now I just want to leave the room with a little dignity.
They wanted Caine to look like a Bond villain. So, instead of a white cat, they gave him a white rabbit. :-)
share