The Usual Suspects Assessment

Here is another essay I wrote on the opening of the film 'The Usual Suspects'

Kelly AlexanderThe Usual Suspects Assessment In the opening scene of The Usual Suspects there are no titles given or shown; the movie shows action immediately. This allows the audience to understand what is going on without interruption.
There is a lot of camera movement going on. The camera is held mostly to allow the audience to understand what is going on but at several points a tilt is used. These tilts give an impression that someone is watching the actions that are happening such as the oil trail at 0.21 and this heightens the suspense as we don't know who is performing the following action. There is also another tilt which is at 1.46 where a character moves the gun he is holding into his other hand and this shot gives the impression that this unknown character is watching this action and this gives the idea we are seeing this from his point of view.
There are lots of camera angles used too. The most obvious camera angle being the low angle at 1.56 where the mysterious, unknown character is holding a gun at the other character. The low angle makes the character on the floor seem weak and insignificant and shows the power the mysterious character has over him. The level of the camera is quite low at about 1.02 to show isignificance of the character that we can see. This is very similar to the scene at 1.56.
The mise on scene is very typical for a thriller as the whole opening is very dark and there is very little light. It is very shadowy which is again typical for a thriller as it plays on a common fear of darkness, so, therefore the attention of the audience is drawn to the fire and flames which is another example of thriller movies playing on common fears, as the fiery colours are seen as dangerous and harmful. The darkness makes it very hard to establish where the characters are but the long shots start to make it clear that this is all happening on a docked ship.
The cutting rate is a bit slow which shows there is little action going on and highlights movement and dialogue of the characters. It also draws suspense as the audience will question what will happen next. This whole scene is pieced together by match cuts, this allows for the audience to understand what exactly is going on and helps keep their attention on the many events.
The beginning of the scene is very quiet with only diagetic sound such as the crackling of fire which builds up the suspense. Around 30 seconds music begins to play and gets louder showing it is building up to something great. The music later becomes even louder and changes slightly indicating that that character is powerful and mysterious. From the character dialogue we know that they are familiar with each other as they use names.