Apparently the writer and the director of The Usual Suspects disagreed on the truth of Verbal Kint's story - even after the movie was completed!
McQuarrie says only after finishing the film and preparing to do press interviews about it did he and Singer realize they both had completely different conceptions about the plot.
"I pulled Bryan aside the night before press began and I said, 'We need to get our stories straight because people are starting to ask what happened and what didn't,' " recalls McQuarrie. "And we got into the biggest argument we've ever had in our lives."
He continues: "One of us believed that the story was all lies, peppered with little bits of the truth. And the other one believed it was all true, peppered with tiny, little lies. ... We each thought we were making a movie that was completely different from what the other one thought."
Via Kottke. Photo credit.
No wonder I could never figure out if he is Keyser Soze or not.
ReplyDeleteI think that this was one of Spacey's greatest performances. I loved the movie. Who cares if the story was true or not. LOL
ReplyDelete@ Anonymous - I'm not sure you're approaching the question from the same angle the screenwriter and director are. It's not about whether the story of The Usual Suspects is a true story (or based on a true story) - it's whether the story Verbal Kint spins in the detective's office is true or not. That influences whether Keyser Soze is a real person or not - and whether Verbal is Keyser.
ReplyDeleteI've seen the movie maybe 3 times and will now see it again looking at it from the new viewpoint.
Darn. Now I'll have to watch it again, too.
ReplyDeleteSurely Kayser is a real person, going by the utterings of the burnt man in the hospital?
ReplyDeleteAlso the lighter thing...at the start of the movie they clearly show Soze's lighter...and at the end Verbal collects it...
SHouldnt the two above confirm that Verbal was Kaiser and Kaiser was real?
But Atticus, what evidence do you have that Keyser Soze had a lighter? The start of the movie "shows it," as you say, but as I remember they were just showing what Verbal Kint was telling. If he made up the Keyser Soze person, then adding the lighter would be just an embellishment of the story.
ReplyDeleteI'll have to think about the burned man for a while... he did give a description that matched Verbal Kint. Does that mean that Kint is Soze, or was Kint just Kint?
Verbal Kint is Keyser Soze. When Keaton asks "what time is it?" we see Keyser looking down and checking his watch - a gold watch, the very same that Verbal Kint picks up at the end of the film after he posts bail and leaves the station.
ReplyDeleteYes, he made up certain aspects of his story, but what does it matter if it's 90% true, 10% false or vice versa? The point is, "Keyser Soze is the devil," and it's the Devil's will to mislead people, to trick them. He took advantage of the cop Dave Kujan's belief that "people don't change, Keaton is still crooked" and twisted the story just enough to get the cop to conclude that Keaton is Keyser Soze, so that Kint can leave calmly and "never be heard from again."
This film is so amazing, and sure it can be interpreted any number of ways. I think this is the closest, most solid way to do so.
Anon, how do you know the interaction between Keaton and Keyser Sose ever happened? Isn't that just part of the story being told by Verbal Kint? So it could all be fictional?
ReplyDelete