Dan Warburton wrote:
Bryan Singer, The Usual Suspects, 1995
Having seen it four times now - and wondering whether a fifth will ever be necessary - and figured out what's "real" from what's "made up" by Verbal (though of course it's all made up by McQuarrie and Singer, "just a film".. the closing sequence of Inception plays with the same kind of mise en abyme, yawn, plus ça change etc etc), the only fun I get out of Suspects now is enjoying Spacey's shifty performance, and the real fuckups that found their way into the final movie: the cast cracking up at the identity parade, Baldwin's surprise when the cigarette was really flicked into his face. And falling off the chair laughing at Pete Postlethwaite's ridiculous accent.
Another movie I think is ridiculously overrated by some. I have a silly story that goes with it too. Back in 1996 when I was in the Peace Corps in Guinea, we volunteers had an "open" invivtation to go over to the Marine house to watch movies any night they were watching movies. The Marine house was a huge compound right on the ocean that had a beach volleyball court, full sized pool, basketball court, game room, full-stocked bar (cold beer on tap), not to mention video games and a huge movie library. They had their own private electricity generator as well, because most of the city, including the Peace Corps house, only got electricity a few hours a day. It was basically a frat house where the only rule is you can never leave the compound (unless they were working for the embassy).
Not sure if I had ever been over there before, but on this particular night, they were very excited, they kept saying this new movie "The Usual Suspects" was one of the best movies ever, wait til the ending, they couldnt believe we hadnt seen it yet. They were all pretty drunk by the time the movie started. I remember finding the opening rather confusing. I may have been distracted by drunk Marines.
At some point during the middle of the movie (when Kobayashi meets the gang), I remember one of the Marines emerging from the back room and pointing at the five of us volunteers, saying "OK, which of you assholes pulled the sink from the wall in the bathroom?!!?!" I think we all looked at each other and thought "well this is a really unexpected and silly way to meet our demise", while proclaiming our innocence, and explaining that none of us had actually been to the bathroom, and none of us were drunk, either.
In the middle of the heated accusations, another Marine emerged from the back room, this one soaking wet from head to toe, and covered in blood. I think I said, "maybe he did it", and everyone turned around. This drunk Marine then exclaimed matter-of-factly that someone had pulled the sink from the wall in the bathroom, and that it was now flooding the bathroom, and that he didnt do it. All the Marines, satisfied, then turned back towards us, and demanded that the guilty party (one of us) come forward and admit guilt.
Its hard to remember what happened after that, I think they got pretty angry with us when we kept insisting that we didnt have anything to do with it. None of the other non-insane Marines stood up for us, and eventually we were kicked out shortly thereafter, and never invited back for movie night. Needless to say, I didnt see the end of "The Usual Suspects" that night, and never saw the full movie until many years later. Still brings back bad flashback memories obviously.
