Stephen, Nigel and Ben's Foundation Portfolio: The Usual Suspects: Analysis

"A sole survivor tells of the twisty events leading up to horrific gun battle on a boat, which begin when five criminals meet at a seemingly random police line-up"

IMDb: 8.7

"Expertly shot and edited, The Usual Suspect gives the audience a simple plot and then piles on layers of deceit, twists and violence before pulling out the rug from underneath"

Rotten Tomatoes: 7.8

So at least people seem to like it. However this is not a review of the whole film where I criticize how there was too much suspense in one scene or that my feeble mind can't handle a convoluted plot. No, I'm just looking at the beginning of the film to see what makes it special and how it achieves its genre of Thriller.

To know what to look for in a Thriller, the definition of Thriller should be in mind.
"A novel, play, or film with an exciting plot, typically involving crime or espionage"

"A very exciting contest or experience"

That, according to Google is what makes a Thriller a Thriller. Action! Excitement! Mystery! The How, What and Why! This is what makes a Thriller a Thriller. Its icons. And yes this was a poorly planned lead into Iconography.

Icons are images that make a link to somewhere in your mind. I'm not talking about a picture of someone's face reminding you their name. I'm talking about seeing a picture of a trench and thinking World War One, or, more relevant to film culture, weird Frisbee UFOs and thinking of little green aliens with oversized eyeballs. These are Iconic thoughts embedded into our minds by the ye ars of living in this age of information and tin foil hats.

So what are the icons in The Usual Suspects extract? Right away, before any images are shown, eerie music plays. Then suddenly, fire! That can come to mean several things. Death, pain, fear, power, hell, daemon, light, safety, sterile. In some case it may come to mean rebirth, but I digress. Death and pain certainly fit Thriller. Exciting action scenes, resulting in the deaths of characters (Game of Thrones), or torture scenes where the protagonist must endure tremendous amounts of pain (James Bond). However Hell and Daemon do not fit into the Thriller criteria. This is due to them being largely used as supernatural in Horror films, one that comes to mind is The Omen, which has the Anti-Christ as a character. But the Extreme Close Up of an entire match box being lit has death, pain and fear written all over it. This match box is thrown by the person who lit it into a trail of something flammable. A few cuts to show the progress of the fire trail comes to reveal a dead body. Death criteria met. Then something strange happens. The fire is put out by a stream of water coming from above. A Tilt upwards reveals the water is actually urine, fresh out of a man's urethra. This man is later revealed to be the central villain.

ECU - Light shock, no suspense yet

MLS, Very Low angle - The alpha can
do as he pleases, when he pleases

But before that, a look at the Setting of the scene. Immediately, we see leaking steel drum barrels surrounded by thick rope and wooden boxes. The same props can be found everywhere in the scene. From this it can be assumed that the area is industrial in nature. Perhaps a warehouse since boxes are made for storage rather than forts (unfortunately). Ropes would also be used for moving since I do not believe there were forklifts at the time. However, a key piece of Diegetic sound at the beginning helps with the Setting. A bell, ringing six times with a low tone, typically characterised (at least by me) with boats, ferries and lighthouses. So it may be safe to assume the current setting is on a boat, or at best, a marina. After paying more attention the starting Medium Shots and Close Ups in Low Key Lighting (and skipping to the end) this theory is proven correct. Sound was rather deceiving in this as there was always water running. However, the leaking barrels were making the aforementioned noise, meaning that saying "The setting is boat because I hear splishy sploshy" wouldn't have cut it. Side-note: just because the bell was Diegetic and could be heard by the characters does not necessarily mean it is heard by the actors. It may be a Foley sound which would give the editors plenty of freedom to manipulate it in Post Production.

MS, Tilt down - A bullet hole
leaking an unknown liquid

Dinging bell - Diegetic sound can
be heard by characters

As the fire carries on it sticks out like a sore thumb in the film. The time at present within the film is pitch black. Whatever light there is, is likely coming from small lanterns or light-bulbs. Perhaps even the moon. When something as bright as fire is introduced into such Low Key Lighting, it's going to overwhelm the camera. What I find interesting however is how when the fire is spreading, there is little to no camera movements, only two tilts. The way the spread is shown is by cutting to another shot as the fire spreads Off-screen. This method, instead of continuous tilt following upwards, may have been used to reveal less. As the camera tilts up, props further and further away are revealed, not leaving much room for suspense. But by transitioning from shot to shot, the fire can be followed but the framing stays small and cropped, building suspense instead of dissipating it. Of course, the fire still reveals plenty, such as the dead body (the first one). What is interesting is that it is not in focus, instead the fire is. Not even a measly Focus Pull. This is peculiar as the body is filling the frame but being out of focus may bring even more attention to it, almost as if it is saying "Yes I'm here okay, no need to be looking this way" and the same way that when you're told not to think about something, you think about that something right away, it's hard not look. This might be done because that body is old news. Clearly, the fire is to dispose of evidence convicting of criminal activities. To talk more about the dead body, the Composition gives a key piece of information about what happened. The body is lying on his side, with arms behind his back. Already knowing he's dead, this may say he was executed. His open eyed and neutral Expression doesn't say he was shocked but maybe scared. And once the deed was done, he just keeled over, practically becoming a Prop for this scene.

MCU - Fire spreads everywhere

MS - First body before fire
overwhelms the image

Moving back to the living, let's go with the only survivor, The one guy that didn't think to go to the toilet before visiting a moored boat. Our villain of villains remains quite fittingly in the shadows. Visible, but never lit directly, only leaving to do his dirty work. For one shot, he is even hidden by the foreground props, almost giving the impression that the camera is hiding. Several aspects of his Mise en Scene is hidden during this scene. His face is never revealed, and the MS-MCU of him never goes above his shoulders. The man with the matches is his target. After 'Stopping' the fire he walks down towards him All the while, the framing is at a Low angle, imposing the villain's power. He is in control. It's through his conversation with Match guy that we learn something highly unusual. His name. Match guy responds to scary dude and pauses at the end of his sentence for a moment, than blurts out his name. Keyser. Of course, with this giant reveal, the underlying soundtrack of violins Crescendos louder and deeper. International code for 'Something bad is about to go down!' and it is quite right. The fire was started to remove evidence, but Match guy is also evidence, with a testimony against Keyser himself. He must be disposed of, and enter the Mafia certified way to kill and look cool with guns: First edition. Holding his gun like a proper gangster, Keyser fires two shots but we don't see them. We don't see the bullets make contact, we don't even see them leave the gun. There is a Cut away to the exterior of the boat. All we see is a rocking boat, but we hear the gun. This may have been done to save money. Why bother paying for the special effects of a gun firing and a bullet hole appearing in the guy's head, when we know exactly what is going to happen. We can fill in the gap with our own imagination which gets the audience involved, in a strange, placebo like way. Furthermore, the audience is toyed with by watching a conversation shrouded in mystery, teetering off the edge of their seats all the way to the reveal of the gun and then... nothing. The audience is left disappointed but still intrigued. As for the two shots, perhaps it was to bring emphasis of death or to make sure the job is done without anything to come back to bite.

MCU, Eye level - The big reveal from a
possibly dying man

MCU, Low angle - Sideways for aesthetics
or because he doesn't

As for the more subtle techniques used for the character of Keyser, aside the use of restricted narrative with Keyser's name (the characters know each other but audience is in the dark (reverse dramatic irony)) fit a few aspects of Mise en Scene. One, his Costume. Dark, fancy cloak jacket with suit pants and brown shoes. When holding out his gun, in the light we see a suit with proper Mafia style red tie. Adding onto this with his Composition and Body language, Keyser is relaxed but strong. He's composed and certainly in no rush to be anywhere. I can assume this from how much his steps rise above all other sounds and how each one almost looks to have purpose. He's to get a job done, but that doesn't mean there can't be style. His props, such as his lighter give light to the stark contrast between match and Keyser. Match guy uses matches for his cigarette. Keyser has a small lighter mechanised to fly open and light itself. Very much a rich and poor comparison here. If decor was applicable, I would say that the dark and damp surroundings make a case towards Keyser being upset or angry, but he is a blank slate, from what little he says, he remains neutral. But perhaps he is bottling up his feelings, whether that be dread from needing to kill, or frustration from needing to step in and kill himself. However, other than the hardcore criminal mastermind complex and rude introductions, Keyser is a cool cool guy.