The Usual Suspects (BFI Modern Classics) [Paperback]

Ernest Larson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 4, 2008 | Series: BFI Modern Classics

A heist thriller with a dazzling twist in the tail, The Usual Suspects has seen its reputation grow until it is now a major cult movie. In this book, Ernest Larsen examines the film's sophistcated narrative structure and the new spin it puts on an old genre.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Ernest Larsen is a New York-based critic, novelist and film-maker. His novel Not a Through Street (1981) won an Edgar Allan Poe Award and was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year.

Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: British Film Institute (March 4, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0851708692
• ISBN-13: 978-0851708690
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.5 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,360,968 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Not Bad, but In This Case, the Movie Really Is Better, November 8, 2011

By 

Dash Manchette - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

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This review is from: The Usual Suspects (BFI Modern Classics) (Paperback)

A fan of The Usual Suspects? Then this little BFI book may add a little to your appreciation for the movie. Do not worry, it does not spoil any of the layers of detail and ambiguity. In places, it actually helps clarify them to better appreciate what is going on onscreen.

The book starts off strong. Both director Bryan Singer and screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie grew up close to the real life family murderer John List. Perhaps the shadow of a man who wipes out his family and goes on the lam for close to two decades planted a seed in the minds of the young boys, who later twisted and tweaked it a bit to come up with Keyser Soze's central and defining act. The book explores those twists and tweaks as the movie upends a number of noir genre clichés.

The book then delves into the wonderful world of the criminal mastermind pulling all the strings, a regular feature of movies and comics (and novels - think of Professor Moriarty of Sherlock Holmes' fame). But Soze, as is pointed out her is different, he is out in the open among everyone. Author Ernest Larsen explores the myth of Soze within the film as well as the ambiguity of his true identity for the viewers. Apparently, at certain points, every actor in the gang had been led to believe he was Soze, with Gabriel Byrne so misled that it was not until he saw the finished product that he found out that he was not.

Larsen loses steam halfway, though. The middle part of the book (and it is not that long!) does not seem to really have a point. There is so empty verbiage about the nature of manhood and homoerotic undertones in the movie, which seem to be a favorite of authors in the BFI series for some reason. It is not until the end, when the final act of Soze's identity is revealed, that the book picks back up a little. Even then, Larsen cannot help but provide one hell of an unintentional thigh slapper by comparing the "ultramalevolent" Soze to that other "demonic" institution - multinational capitalism, which "pitilessly rules the world's economies without opposition in the post-communist era." Oh Good Lord. Where to begin? And why even bother? One could write an entire dissertation on that convoluted mess.

Well, the bad with the good so they say. I call it like I see it.

6 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Take a Look Beyond...., July 20, 2002

By 

P. Harrigan "the turk" (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Usual Suspects (BFI Modern Classics) (Paperback)

Larsen's enjoyable and thorough criticism is a must have for any fan of the film. It does, however, read at times like a prepared speech for a film festival, complete with Power point images. Larsen dwells a bit too much on the homoeroticism of the dialogue perhaps, but it's great bathroom reading.