Not Your Average Crime Film....In a Good Way!
By: Dejah Harley
After watching American Beauty I wanted to see more films with Kevin Spacey. His character in American Beauty was so amazingly portrayed that I was immediately drawn to see another movie he has played in. I decided to watch the movie The Usual Suspects, which came out in 1995. I normally don’t like movies with a lot of explosions but decided to give it a chance anyway; I’m glad I did. This movie in unlike others involving intense fighting and violence. A lot of elements such as acting, writing, and mise en scene really make this film stand out from that genre.
After watching American Beauty I wanted to see more films with Kevin Spacey. His character in American Beauty was so amazingly portrayed that I was immediately drawn to see another movie he has played in. I decided to watch the movie The Usual Suspects, which came out in 1995. I normally don’t like movies with a lot of explosions but decided to give it a chance anyway; I’m glad I did. This movie in unlike others involving intense fighting and violence. A lot of elements such as acting, writing, and mise en scene really make this film stand out from that genre.
The main reason why I watched this film in the first place was because I thought Kevin Spacey was such an amazing actor. In The Usual Suspects he also did not disappoint. His acting is spot on and super intense. There was a scene (shown above) where his character was getting questioned at a police station. He was in the middle of telling a story when another detective walked into the room. However, while opening the door it sounded like a gunshot. In that moment Kevin Spacey’s character flinched and as an audience member you couldn’t help but do that as well.The acting is so believable, it makes you feel like you’re in the moment and everything around you is real. This is true for all the other actors as well. Because this is shown throughout the entire film, there is never a dull moment. You are constantly zoned in.
Going along with acting, the writing was phenomenal. Christopher McQuarrie was the writer of the film. I was expecting the film to have really generic lines that you see in most films that involve cops and criminals. While, it had some of this, the majority of the dialogue was so original and fresh. The main detective (in scene shown above) didn’t have a ton of dialogue in the beginning of the movie, however, towards the end when he started questioning the main character a bit more, every sentence he had was amazing. All the words fit so well to the character and it didn’t seem like any of this was staged.
For me, the third thing that made this film stand out were related to mise en scene. The writing and lighting specifically were very influential to the tone of the film. The film definitely shifted between darkness and light depending on who the scene involved. The crime scenes themselves were mostly depicted in darkness. The police station always had some light but for the most part was still very dull. The film had an underlying theme of power the entire time. The camera work in every scene related to it in some way. As seen above there is the detective and Kevin Spacey's character. In this particular scene the detective has more power. Throughout the film this idea of power was always seen. You always knew who had more control in a certain situation.
I enjoyed how original this film truly was compared to others of its kind. I was really hesitant to watch it, but there were many great aspects of the film. It definitely wouldn’t fit into the category of being a generic movie about crime. Many different types of audiences would really enjoy this movie. Overall, they hit it out of the park; it was very well done.
I enjoyed how original this film truly was compared to others of its kind. I was really hesitant to watch it, but there were many great aspects of the film. It definitely wouldn’t fit into the category of being a generic movie about crime. Many different types of audiences would really enjoy this movie. Overall, they hit it out of the park; it was very well done.
Works Cited:
"IMDb: Genre: Crime." 2010. 1 Mar. 2014 <http://www.imdb.com/genre/crime>
"Kevin Spacey - IMDb." 2003. 1 Mar. 2014 <http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000228/>
"The Usual Suspects (1995) - IMDb." 2003. 1 Mar. 2014 <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114814/>
"IMDb: Genre: Crime." 2010. 1 Mar. 2014 <http://www.imdb.com/genre/crime>
"Kevin Spacey - IMDb." 2003. 1 Mar. 2014 <http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000228/>
"The Usual Suspects (1995) - IMDb." 2003. 1 Mar. 2014 <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114814/>