The Usual Suspects Critical Study
A-Question-Yet-To-Be-Set but for now: Film noir is both a screen style and a perspective on human existence and society.
Film noir’s darker themes and stylistic features enable it to address and explore the crux of the existential angst that humanity endures. Thus, the fifties are revived in Bryan Singer’s film, ‘The Usual Suspects’ by its translation of The Classic Questions into a modern context. In certain scenes of this film- ‘Redfoot-LA’, ‘Meeting Kobayashi’ and the ‘The greatest trick the devil ever pulled...’ most notably- the work’s central preoccupation is expressed with remarkable vividness. Through the investigation of how the downward spiral which permeates the criminal world isolates those within it, how the futile attempt to escape one’s past can lead to entrapment and how the exploration of truth highlights the ambiguous nature between reality and illusion in these scenes, Singer concludes with a refreshing perspective on human existence and society.
Certainly, Singer’s neo-noir classic, by following the character of Keaton in the Redfoot-LA scene imparts to the audience a memorable vision of the feelings of isolation which arise from the everywhere permeating gravity of the criminal world. In this scene, the suspects become more entangled in the underworld as they associate with darker characters. A sense of isolation is created here by the juxtaposition of the setting’s elements where the Japanese-styled garden carrying with it connotations of peace and tranquillity is situated in the middle of LA-a bustling, crime-ridden city. With the western twang of banjo music in the background and the corruption of crime occurring within it, the setting is distinguished as culturally incongruous with the everyday world and hence creates a sense of separation and isolation. This notion is also seen during the suspects’ first encounter with Redfoot by the use of extreme long shots which emphasise the emptiness surrounding them whilst the medium shots of
Film noir’s darker themes and stylistic features enable it to address and explore the crux of the existential angst that humanity endures. Thus, the fifties are revived in Bryan Singer’s film, ‘The Usual Suspects’ by its translation of The Classic Questions into a modern context. In certain scenes of this film- ‘Redfoot-LA’, ‘Meeting Kobayashi’ and the ‘The greatest trick the devil ever pulled...’ most notably- the work’s central preoccupation is expressed with remarkable vividness. Through the investigation of how the downward spiral which permeates the criminal world isolates those within it, how the futile attempt to escape one’s past can lead to entrapment and how the exploration of truth highlights the ambiguous nature between reality and illusion in these scenes, Singer concludes with a refreshing perspective on human existence and society.
Certainly, Singer’s neo-noir classic, by following the character of Keaton in the Redfoot-LA scene imparts to the audience a memorable vision of the feelings of isolation which arise from the everywhere permeating gravity of the criminal world. In this scene, the suspects become more entangled in the underworld as they associate with darker characters. A sense of isolation is created here by the juxtaposition of the setting’s elements where the Japanese-styled garden carrying with it connotations of peace and tranquillity is situated in the middle of LA-a bustling, crime-ridden city. With the western twang of banjo music in the background and the corruption of crime occurring within it, the setting is distinguished as culturally incongruous with the everyday world and hence creates a sense of separation and isolation. This notion is also seen during the suspects’ first encounter with Redfoot by the use of extreme long shots which emphasise the emptiness surrounding them whilst the medium shots of