The legendary demiurge of modern crime, Keyser Söze runs his shadowy empire through a rewriting of the dominant narrative convention of the criminal kingpin: far from being the antagonist of the usual alpha male crime thriller, Söze inhabits the murkier territory of a ghost-story-cum-fable. Hes a bogeyman, a spectre: criminals are warned about him the way that children are warned about talking to strangers and walking in the woods at night. Hes the Devil himself, and how do you shoot the Devil in the back? What if you miss? And thats the film, in a nutshell a noir narrative rewritten as apocalyptic mythology, a story filled with false names, half truths and embellishments told by a conman, a habitual liar who talks too much: an unreliable narrator who may in fact be the villain, assuming that Keyser Söze even exists. After everything that occurs (or doesnt occur) the police are no closer to finding him at the climax of the film, and the stated implication is that Söze has only come out of hiding to make certain that the one man who can pick him out of a line-up is dead. One thing is certain, however. Keyser Söze's reputation has only been enhanced by the events of the narrative, the mystery deepened. The story will go that he appeared on the ship, killing many men, was taken by the police and walked right out of his prison cell, never to be seen again.
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
