Saturday, April 17, 2010

An Overview Of The Usual Suspects

By Alfred Weber

The Usual Suspects is a 1995 film by director Bryan Singer and Christopher McQuarrie wrote the screenplay with Kevin Spacey in mind. A classic high crime mystery film, it is considered by some to be one of the ultimate heist movies of all time. With great twists complete with mass murder and suspense, this film is not only memorable but a good watch.

Directed by Bryan Singer, it boasts a great cast including Kevin Spacey, Stephen Baldwin, Benicio Del Toro, Gabriel Byrne, Chazz Palminteri, Kevin Pollak and Pete Postlethwaite.

The film is set on a ship deck in a harbor on the coast of San Pedro, California; this setting also serves as both the opening scene and the scene of the mysterious mass murder crime. The camera pans a dead body and rests over a figure trying to light both himself and the ship on fire when a mysterious man approaches and shoots him. The unknown shooter then lights the ship on fire himself.

The narrative is prescribed through a series of interrogation scenes and flashbacks that try to recreate the events that brought the opening scene's extensive crime to be. The director leaves us only one man to help us make sense of it all: the only unharmed witness of the whole debacle, the disabled Roger "Verbal" Kint.

With the inside knowledge that came with part of the ensemble involved in the mass murder, Spacey's character Verbal finds himself being heavily interrogated by Special Agent Dave Kujan, played by Chazz Palminteri.

Roger Kint's retelling of the implicating previous events in addition to the testimony of an injured Hungarian criminal hospitalized after the ship incident, allow Kujan to piece together the truth of the whole ordeal. Through this he discovers the existence of the infamous yet anonymous Kesyer Soze.

But the so called Soze seems untraceable. How will Kujan find him? Does he even exist? The answer lies with the disabled Roger Kint.

Provocative, utterly suspenseful and intellectually thrilling, The Usual Suspects is a classic heist movie that will test your logic and have you aching to keep up. Kevin Spacey's performance is captivating and compelling, such that Rolling Stone magazine went as far as promoting it as Oscar worthy soon after the film's release.

Although Roger Ebert gave the film a terrible review, the film debuted to moderate reviews, two Academy Award nominations and praise from various film festivals. The Usual Suspects took home two Academy Awards in the categories of Best Supporting Actor for Kevin Spacey's performance and Best Original Screenplay for Christopher McQuarrie's work.

The Independent Spirit Film Award was won in the category of Best Supporting Actor by Benicio Del Toro, while screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie took home the same award for the category of Best Screenplay and the film even won in the category of Best Cinematography for Newton Thomas Sigel's work with a wide range of dolly movements and creeping zoom shots. These notable techniques were responsible for the films successful suspenseful ambiance and close tight shots of the dialogue between Kint and Kujan.

Today, The Usual Suspects is still highly recognized. In June of 2008, it made the American Film Institute(or AFI)'s Ten Top Ten list, ranking the work as the tenth best mystery movie in the history of American film. Keyser Soze, the film's mysterious antagonist is also ranked by AFI as one of the century's best villains.

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