"The Usual Suspects": Its Use of Editing and Sound.

"The Usual Suspects" is a lasting film told in the narrative style of an apparent semi-innocent man, Verbal Kint, which is critical to setting up our interpretation of the characters and events. In the film we are told the story of how everything came to be; the false arrests of the usual suspects (Keaton, Verbal Kint, McManus, Fenster, and Hockney), the payback of the police, and the legend of Keyser Soze among other things. Everything …showed first 75 words of 1289 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1289 total…before he shot Keaton, and the full scale of Kint's deception is complete, and we see just why he was called Verbal. The Usual Suspects masterfully interweaves editing and sound to produce a well formed narrative. Going hand in hand they are essential to our sense of the narrative. Our perception is crucial, as just a slight alteration would have caused us an entirely different perspective on the film, and possibly any element of suspense.