I’d like to start by inviting you to join me on a trip. A journey that will take us back in time to a world that seemed far more innocent and carefree than the one we currently inhabit. A world that has yet to see an iPhone. A world that is blissfully unaware of the Reality TV juggernaut that is currently hurtling towards it and dear reader, a world that has yet to see the destruction of the Star Wars franchise.
The voyage that we are about to embark on will require no passports, malaria jabs or packing suitcases on your part. No hitchhiking on a passing TARDIS and will not be cancelled due to any volcanic ash cloud, regardless of whatever size it happens to be. Just sit back, relax and think of master criminals…
The year is 1995 and this is the story of The Usual Suspects.
In 1993 three friends John Ottman, Christopher McQuarrie and Bryan Singer made a film called Public Access together. John covered the Score and Editing, Christopher was the Screenwriter and Bryan the Director. Although this film didn’t get much in the way of good reviews or break any box office records it did put them on the map and get them noticed. So much so that when Kevin Spacey met Bryan Singer after the films release he told him he wanted to be in his next movie.
Christopher McQuarrie then went away and started to work on some ideas he’d been having which had been inspired by a magazine article he had read called “The Usual Suspects”. After several drafts Christopher took his screen play back to Bryan and the rest as they say is history.
In a year that brought us such celluloid classics as Mel Gibson’s “Braveheart”, Mike Figgis “Leaving Las Vegas” and the tragically overlooked at the Oscars, Paul Verhoeven “Showgirls”. I will always remember 1995 as the year I went to the cinema five times in eight days to see one film. A film that had such a profound effect on me the first time I saw it I that an usher had to tell me the credits had finished and asked me politely to leave so they could clean the cinema for the next viewing.
To say this first viewing caught me off guard would be an understatement and I’ll explain why. For those of you who have yet to see this film, there is a twist at the end. And when I say twist I do mean twist. You can keep your Sixth Sense and Crying Game third act revelations. As far as I’m concerned this films blows them out of the water by some considerable distance for pulling rabbits out of hats. There will be those people that claim they saw the ending coming a mile away and that’s fine. That doesn’t matter. What matters is The Usual Suspects is unique in being a film that will give you a completely different viewing experience the second time you watch it.
The plot of the film centres around five criminals played by Kevin Pollack, Stephen Baldwin, Benicio Del Tero, Kevin Spacey and Gabriel Byrne’s “good cop gone bad”. These felons are arrested following a truck hijacking in New York. A crime for which they all deny responsibility for. After the Police line up all five of them put together a plan to get revenge on the cops and salvage a little self-respect. The operation is carried out without a hitch however they soon start to feel the influence of the legendary, almost mythical criminal mastermind Keyser Soze. It then becomes clear that all five of them have wronged Soze at some point in their past and that they only way they can clear this debt of wrong doing is to do a job for him. This payback job leaves ninety one million dollar’s worth of drug money, a boat explosion and twenty seven dead bodies scattered around the dock at San Pedro. Customs are called in to try and make sense of it all and pressure the only remaining survivor from the original five crooks, the cripple Verbal Kint played by Kevin Spacey who is now back in police custody, to reveal all and the whereabouts of Soze.
The Usual Suspects isn’t a blockbuster or event film in the traditional sense of the word. It has no computer generated images. No corny one-liners, no “If you only see one film this year” bobbins draped across its advertising campaign and wasn’t adapted from a timeless literary classic from years gone by. The film, in my opinion, can lay claim to the title “Masterpiece” for two simple reasons. Firstly the quality of acting talent on display which I think can only be matched by films like Heat or Glengarry Glen Ross, which also stars Kevin Spacey and secondly its script for which Christopher McQuarrie won the Oscar for best original Screenplay.
The story never lets up and holds your attention and just when you think you’re getting a handle on what’s going on it takes a left turn at the lights and leads you in a completely different direction.
Then of course comes the “twist” at the end. When I went to see this film the reviews I had read all made reference to this astonishing finish and climax and I must admit that when I went into the cinema I had a fairly sceptical attitude of “I bet I see it coming”. Well not only did I not see it coming, by the time I was about fifteen minutes into the film I was hooked and had totally forgotten that there even was a twist. My advice to anyone who has yet to see this film or to somebody that sees a copy of the dvd or Blu ray on sale in a shop, would be please adhere to the following instructions.
1) Once you’ve bought your copy of the film buy a second (the first one could be faulty!)
2) Set aside 110 minutes on two consecutive evenings where you know you’re not likely to be disturbed.
3) Sell children if necessary to make sure the 2nd instruction can be observed.
4) Unplug the landline and turn off your mobiles.
5) Watch The Usual Suspects.
6) Pick jaw up from floor.
7) Watch it again on the 2nd night and marvel at everything you didn’t pick up on and how it leads towards that stunning ending.
8) Speak to social services about the “Selling of Children”. Offer to cut them in on the money if the conversation looks like it isn’t going well.
The Usual Suspect has been my favourite film for over seventeen years now and in that time I’ve seen a lot of movies. However I’ve still never managed to find another film that I can happily watch again and again and again. Even knowing the ending doesn’t diminish its appeal or impact for me. My worry has always been that some silly sod will convince some silly Hollywood executive type that there’s money to be made in a sequel or even a prequel and if that day does ever come to fruition, dear reader, I may end up doing ten to fifteen years with good behaviour.
And like that, he’s gone………..
Twitter Review:
The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he doesn't exist. Soze may well have just found his mobile number.
#Epic
Useful Links:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114814/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MjV4EwR7Mg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4u5MejfFzA
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