Inside Man And The Usual Suspects: Film Analysis

The films Inside Man and The Usual Suspects tell the complicated stories of criminals and cops. Inside Man follows the story of Detective Keith Frazier who is trying to take down Dalton Russell and his gang of Jewish criminals who are committing the "perfect robbery" at a New York City bank. The Usual Suspects follows Roger "Verbal" Kint as he is interrogated about a boat shooting by Detective Dave Kujan. Both of these films share similar themes such as revenge, power, deception, and corruption. Revenge is a large motivating factor in both of these films. In Inside Man, Russell and his co-conspirators are trying to get revenge on Arthur Case, the owner of the bank, who made a fortune from working for the Nazi party in World War II. Case hid the evidence of his Nazi work in a safety deposit box located in that bank. When Case is told that the bank containing his secrets is being robbed, he sends Madeleine

In Inside Man, Russell first flexes his power in the opening scene of the movie, where he tells the audience to "listen carefully" because he never repeats himself. He maintains this authority as he sets the scene for the audience explaining bits and pieces of what is going to happen in the film. There is also a large power struggle between Frazier, White, and Russell. White thinks she is in charge because this situation is "above [Frazier's] pay grade". Frazier thinks he is powerful because he believes he has the upper hand in obtaining the perpetrators. But ultimately, Russell is the dominant one; getting his team out of the bank, escaping the bank, physically bumping into Frazier, and ultimately getting away with the robbery. The Usual Suspects is another example of a power struggle. Once again, the cop thinks that he has the upper hand over the criminal. Kujan believes that he has power over Kint by belittling him during the interrogation; but we find out that Kint is really Keyser Soze, a very powerful