The Usual Suspects By Bryan Singer

The Usual Suspects, directed by Bryan Singer, is a 1995 crime thriller film that follows the events that led up to the massacre on a ship. Verbal, the main character in the film, is interrogated at the police station as he was one of the two survivors on the ship. At the end of the film, it is displayed that Verbal had made the entire story up using objects in the room surrounding him, demonstrating the vulnerability of the police and the true power of Verbal. Verbal initially pretended to be innocent and crippled, yet he was at fault and brilliantly covered up his own crime. This film acquired an 88% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 96% audience score. This emphasizes the film's impact on the viewer due to its overarching theme, storyline, and film

This scene is a part of Verbal’s story that he provides to the interrogators. In this scene, five men are lined up and asked by the police to say a line to determine who committed a specific crime. Within this scene, there is no music. The only thing the viewer is able to hear is the interrogator’s voice in a loud and clear tone. When the suspects are told to repeat the line, the different tones within the responses and very evident. A few of the suspects respond in a more serious tone, such as Verbal, while others cannot take the task seriously. The lack of music and background noise gives the scene a noise-canceling effect to put the viewer in the shoes of the suspects while also allowing the viewer to understand the characterization of the suspects. This allows the audience to focus only on the lines of the actors without the addition of background

Additionally, the panoramic shots and lack of music highlight how realistic the scene appears to be. The shots and camera angles contribute to the overall characterization of these characters, who do not exist. The viewer will find themself getting adjusted to these characters and their body language to understand their personalities and place in the film when they have no place in the actual storyline. In this scene, the viewer was manipulated by Verbal by growing attachment to made-up characters, allowing deception to work on the