ipl-logo

The Usual Suspects Analysis

1387 Words6 Pages

Stylistic Analysis Essay
Film: The Usual Suspects (1995)

Name: Adam Edelberg
Student Number: EDLADA002
Tutor: Mayuyuka Kaunda

The filmmakers of The Usual Suspects (directed by Bryan Singer) succeeded in creating a film that ‘pushes the envelope’ of the generic crime-thriller motion picture. The film genre can be classified as a neo-noir crime thriller, where we see cinematography akin to film noir, namely, low-key lighting and striking use of light and shadows. While conventions of this genre are followed, few rules are broken. Kroll (2012) claims that we are in an age where “all movie genres are being subverted, postmodernized, de-constructed, film noir is a tough genre to mess around with”. The Usual Suspects manages to experiment with …show more content…

In the line-up scene, this is especially true. The police station line-up scene is, however, quite unusual for this genre of film. It does not adhere with the conventions of film noir nor with the elements of a crime or thriller film. This is fundamentally due to the contrasting composition including the mise-en-scène of this particular sequence as compared to the rest of the film.

Mise-en-scène is defined by Bordwell and Thompson (2013) as “to signify the director’s control over what appears in the film frame”, which is originally from the French term and quite appropriately, “putting into the scene”.

Lighting is very important in this scene. A powerful blinding-white light is shone on each character which allows to viewer to have a real up-close detailed view of each character. This reinforces the sense that the men have been removed from their dark underworlds of crime and are put under interrogation. The last character, Verbal, who when is on screen features a side camera angle, with a contrasting band of bright light only to the left of his face, leaving the right side of his face in partial darkness. This creates a sense of mystery about this particular character which may go unnoticed by most, but can actually be viewed as a hint vital to the story

Show More
Related

  • Frederick Douglass Use Of Foreshadowing Analysis

    102 Words  | 1 Pages

    This is a very important component that the author used to keep suspense and interest.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Chapter 4: The Statistics Behind Stealth Campaigns

    1671 Words  | 7 Pages

    Chapter 4: The Statistics Behind Stealth Campaigns The battle between Christian Right politicians and anti-Christian Right politicians has been a long one, most distinguishably beginning in the 1920s with the clash between evolutionists and anti-evolutionists (pp. 3). While this issue is still in debate, modern day attention is being drawn to “stealth campaigns” – that is, as paraphrased from page 83 of School Board Battles, Christian Right political candidates’ downplay of their connections to Christian coalitions and exaggeration of their moderate viewpoints to the public, all while organizing voters in conservative churches. The subject is controversial and one of the main topics discussed in Melissa Deckman’s book, School Board Battles.

    Read More

  • Gender Roles In 1950s And 1990s: Roman Holiday And French Kiss

    3780 Words  | 16 Pages

    The concentration is on comparing and finding the changes that history made to this movie genre, especially considering the gender roles. Results will clearly explain the psyche of society in two different periods, which confirms that people reflect the movies as movies have an impact on people. The Introduction It is often said that the element of surprise makes the movie more interesting and leads the plot. There are many masters of storytelling

    Read More

  • Cabin In The Woods: Genre Study In Hollywood

    333 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Genre Type A with just the right mix of Genre Type B, and the twists of Genre Type C.” Cabin in the Woods (2012) is just this type of genre melting pot, ranging multiple horror subtypes (teen, monster, zombie, slasher,) while even still spanning other genres (thriller, mystery, comedy.) Staiger argues that film genre cannot be “pure,” and never has been, as, the organization of genre study is excessively subjective, and that there is too much variety present in Hollywood. Moreover, what the studio sees is vastly different than what the audience sees, and that until “everyone—from the authors to the distributors and exhibitors to the audiences and critics—agrees on how to categorize films, no hope exists for genre study” (Staiger 188). Although

    Read More

  • At The Dark End Of The Street Analysis

    1468 Words  | 6 Pages

    This is the case that is made by Danielle McGuire in At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women’s, Rape, and Resistance-A New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power. In this text, the author expands the discussion of the challenges that African American women contended with prior to and during the civil rights movement during the mid-twentieth century. The author argues that the rape and sexual violence that was prevalent during this era and its impact on Black women received minimal attention. The organization and activism that was fueled by women was similarly minimized (McGuire, 2010.

    Read More

  • The Hit Man Analysis

    1080 Words  | 5 Pages

    In T. Coraghessan Boyle’s short story “The Hit Man”, underlying psychoanalytical themes are present that display an allusion to struggles in human life. The main themes present in this story are dysfunctional behavior, displacement, and an insecure sense of self. Readers see the main character, The Hit Man, go through his entire life struggling with insecurity and other dysfunctional behavior. During this timeline, his dysfunctional behavior represents common struggles and conflicts that occur in common day-to-day life. Relationships with his parents and classmates and also academic struggles seems to be the main contribution to the way this character is represented.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Alfred Hitchcock's Film Psycho

    842 Words  | 4 Pages

    Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 film Psycho redirected the entire horror genre, and in doing so dismantled the prudent 1950’s societal barriers of cinema. Although unseen for its potential by the large studios of the time, Psycho became one of the crowning achievements of film history. While based partially on a true story of murder and psychosis from Wisconsin, the widespread viewing of this tale made way for a new era of film and ushered in a new audience of movie goers. The use of violence, sexual explicitness, dramatic twists, sound, and cinematography throughout this film gave Hitchcock his reputable name and title as master of suspense.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Figurative Language In A White Heron

    445 Words  | 2 Pages

    This makes symbolism connect with the story on a deeper

    Read More

  • Heathers Film Analysis

    544 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the film Heathers, mise-en-scene, or visualization, contributes to not only the film as a whole but to describe the characters and shape the audience’s feelings. In the opening scene of the film, there is a girl putting her poofy, blonde hair up into a pony tail with a scrunchie. This initially lets the audience know that it is an older film and was probably made in the 1980’s or early 1990’s. The camera then pans out and it is three girls all with the same look in skirts and blazers playing croquet. This indicates that the girls probably come from a wealthy family.

    Read More

  • A Man With A Movie Camera Analysis

    2638 Words  | 11 Pages

    This essay will discuss how the film uses these two techniques, in reference to the film, and to what ideological and political ends are the techniques used in the films with specific references from the film to support the argument. A Man with a Movie Camera is based around one man who travels around the city to capture various moments and everyday

    Read More

  • The Most Dangerous Game Book Vs Movie Analysis

    1363 Words  | 6 Pages

    I always love to read books and watch their movies, because I get to witness the differences that take place. I prefer the books because they have more detail and really let you decide how the characters look and act. Lots of times, the stories are different than the film versions. The short story, “Most Dangerous Game”, is a very good example of this. The film and the movie have lots of things in common, but this paper is about the complete opposite.

    Read More

  • The Dressmaker Analysis

    911 Words  | 4 Pages

    From the cinematic techniques to the plot line, the film incorporates many elements of the style of film. Despite being set in an older period of time and adapting the elements of the spaghetti westerns, it appeals largely to the modern audience due to the certain things which capture their attention. Director Jocelyn Moorhouse

    Read More

  • Hidden Figures Mise-En-Scene Analysis

    1465 Words  | 6 Pages

    It is about two major components, design and composition. One design hand, not only in this scene, but also the whole movie’s tone tends to use bright lighting to emphasize on the nervous environment in 1970s. The bright color in the scene shows the aesthetic, stressing on characters’ emotion and contemporary society’s situation. The based tone of the whole movie is to stress on the position between the main characters and the white people and the main characters change their the character when they face different kind of people. When Katherine is work in the calculation room, the color usually cold color because the calculation room give audiences the stress feeling.

    Read More

  • The Godfather Film Analysis Essay

    1159 Words  | 5 Pages

    The most memorable scene in the film is the opening scene of the movie which is also my choice of scene to elaborate on mise-en-scene.

    Read More

  • Cinematography In Birdman

    2106 Words  | 9 Pages

    It also suggested the importance of what the characters were saying. With

    Read More

More about The Usual Suspects Analysis

Open Document