Narrative InspirationThe Usual Suspects

By Jodie-Leigh Barnham

Narrative Inspiration

We know that our narrative has the possibility to be quite confusing. So, looking at narratives that are around the same genre and are similar to our plot would be particularly helpful.

Taking inspiration from other similar plots can be advantageous on our behalf because at least we can look at elements that may make our plot that bit less confusing for an audience.

‘The Usual Suspects’The Usual Suspects is a psychological crime thriller made in 1995. It won 2 Oscars for ‘Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen’ and Kevin Spacey who played the antagonist Söze, won ‘Best Actor in a Supporting Role’.

The film centres around 5 men, all convicted criminals who are lined up after a cargo ship explodes and kills many. As none of the men were actually guilty, just conceived to be, they decide to seek revenge on the police department. The film follows them as they seek revenge. Whilst the ploy is going successfully, all men realise that the presence of a omnipotent and anonymous criminal mastermind, Keyser Söze. All the men realize that in some

way they are all linked to Keyser Söze and all owe him. The story then develops in the men searching for who Söze is. At the end of the film, we realize that Keyser Söze is in fact the least expected character.

Reviews of ‘The Usual Suspects’There have been extremely positive reviews from amateurs and professional critics alike. Having reviews from both critics and average viewers is effective as you can receive both aspects of opinion and consider any good points of criticisms that could improve our film.

These critic reviews focus particularly on the narrative. They express positively about it being almost a ‘riddle’ about ‘corruption’, claiming it’s a ‘thrill’.

Reviews of The Usual SuspectsOther reviews by the general public also comment on Keyzer Söze looking perfectly ordinary. This is something that we should take note of as it is something that we want to include when we create the costume for the Employer. We want to create the effect of someone that you just don’t expect because of how perfectly ordinary they look. This can certainly be effective in regards to our genre as this involves the element of a jigsaw narrative. This is the audience themselves having to piece together the plot and guessing at who is who and who is connected.

Another member of the general public said that the things that are the best are the subtle things that you don’t realise until the end of the film. Again, this is something that we could include. This could come in the form of flashbacks as we have already written this into our plot so in knowing that an audience may find this attribution effective then we could attempt to make the flashbacks important parts of the film. The fact that they also enjoy going back and re-watching the film is something that we could achieve. This could mean that the audience would enjoy the film so much they watch it again. In doing so, they could also discover some of the subtleties that they didn’t see in the first viewing.

Overall Idea of ‘The Usual Suspects’

A quote from the very end of the film from Keyser Söze himself is:

‘The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled, was convincing the world he didn’t exist’

This is the idea that the film is based around and I feel that this is something we could twist and use in our film. In ‘The Usual Suspect’, Söze, who is posing as a man named Verbal, actually does convince the police department that Söze isn’t real. Because of this he goes on undetected and unsuspected.

We could use this concept in our film with the idea of making the Employer looking like a perfectly ordinary business man. By doing so, it doesn’t show to the audience, or anyone else that he could be suspicious in any way.This is something that could effective in

regards to the genre as you can play on the trust of your audience in making them consider the people around them, questioning who they actually are and who they know. Most of all, whether that is the actual truth. This is something we are wanting the audience to do, question their comfort zones and people they usually trust and consider their moral filters.

Considering ‘The Usual Suspects’This is a concept in regards to narrative and character development that I believe we should consider when developing our film. The very fact that Söze was, apart from his criminal past, an ordinary man is something that we are wanting to include in regards to the character of the Employer. Of course, unlike The Usual Suspects, we are wanting to keep our criminal mastermind physically help anonymous through the film but the concept still stands.

In knowing that there are many reviews by various people that claim that the narrative is possibly the best part of the entire film is something positive for us to hear as we now know that our plot is particularly effective and could stand our as to something that an audience may have not seen before.

Conclusively, I believe that ‘The Usual Suspects has a narrative that we could easily take inspiration from for our film.