"The Usual Suspects": A Modern Day Odyssey

In Bryan Singer's 1995 film "The Usual Suspects," the fine art of storytelling is utilized in order to give the storyteller power. The narrator, who is appropriately named Verbal, weaves a web of words, drawing his audience into his story. This not only gives him the power over what his audience is thinking, but it also established the narrator as a friend, someone who can be trusted. In "The Usual Suspects," the narrator is a crippled, powerless man who is the only survivor of a huge criminal operation. As far as the Detective knows, he is the only man with the "real story" who can give t…