[Author][Professor][Subject][Date of Submission]
Deception is an art that cons knew very well in pulling it off. It can happen at work, homes, and even in intimate relationships. It is an art because it needs mastery in order to sustain the charade. Several films displayed how characters communicate to deceive others. Three of these films are Shattered Glass (2003), Erin Brockovich (2000) and Unusual Suspects (1995).
Shattered Glass reveals a true story of a fraudulent journalist, Stephen Glass who worked for The New Magazine. He was able get forty-one of his stories published. In the end, it was found out that 27 of those stories are partially or totally made up. Erin Brockovich is a story of an unskilled mother of three who did paper organizing work for a lawyer, Ed Masry. The water pollution case that was suspected to be caused by the environment irresponsibility of Pacific Gas and Electric Corporation (PG&E) got Erin’s attention. Together with Ed Masry, they were able to make the PG&E accountable for the hundreds of sick residents through a large amount of money. Lastly, The Usual Suspects is a police story trying to reveal the responsible for murder and putting ablaze one ship in San Pedro, California leaving only two survivors, a Hungarian criminal and Verbal Kint who is a crippled man. Kint told the story to the investigator in exchange for his immunity. It was only after Kint left the police station that the officer realized that all the facts Kint told them are made up. It was also the time when the face sketch of the criminal whom the Hungarian described arrived through the fax machine and it resembles the crippled man. On the streets just before Kint went into a car, he frees his body from his charade of being a cripple.
Mastery of character is how Kint of The Usual Suspects deceived the police officer. He mastered how a cripple moves, talks and think. The police officer from the very beginning of his investigation has an initial judgement that the crime was all a ploy of Keaton who is a former corrupt police officer. Kint told a story of how the five of them met until they entered into a cocaine deal. From the beginning of his story, he was consistent about the part he took until his companions died. He also told the legend of Keyser Soze that he apparently heard from other people. Keyser Soze he said is a killer with vengeance because the cause of his family’s death was criminal Hungarian. He made it appeared that it was Soze who entered the ship, killed the people and burned it down. Because of his consistency in playing cripple who is vulnerable and the weakest of the five, the police officer let him tell them his version of story in exchange for his freedom. It turned out that the Kint made up all the parts of the story he said to the police officer. Even the names like Keyser Soze and Kobayashi are displayed in his cork board and a label of one of his mugs. On the other hand, even the audience of the film who first watch the film can be deceived. The details and consistency of Kint story is believable.
Consistency of Stephen Glass in the film Shattered Glass deceived the editors of The New Magazine. Despite the levels of fact checks, 27 stories of Glass were published. He wrote in a very interesting manner that readers and even editors wouldn’t like to kill the story and overlook some of the needed rechecking of the facts. If not of the curiosity of one of the journalists in another paper who check the facts in the internet, his story entitled “Hackers Heaven” would not have been revealed as fraud. The details in his articles and in the way he presents the story during staff meetings did not give any hint to the other writers that he was faking it. They even defended him when their editor decided to suspend Glass for two years. They thought that it was just a normal thing that happens to every journalist that sometimes, sources lie to them. It was only until they found out that 27 stories were faked that they gave their support to their editor. They realized that Stephen Glass is a big fraud and that it will be a disaster to all of them to keep him.
In the case of Erin Brockovich, power and money made the PG&E hid the paper trails that will incriminate them. Since 1960s, there were complaints of water contamination causing severe illness to the residents. There were also orders directing PG&E for clean up because of substantial amount of chromium that is already harmful to health. Corporate power and money however made them escape their accountability to the residents. They can hire many expensive lawyers to defend them and make it appear that the illnesses of the residents are caused by their diet and not from the water contamination.
It was only when Erin came in the picture who was tirelessly investigating that the facts were unearthed. Power of PG&E even threatened her life. If not because of her attachment to the case especially to the victims, the case may have died because the corporation can use their power again to bribe lawyers to just close the case.
Indeed, in order to keep the charade going, the actor should master the art to keep it believable. Like Kint of The Usual Suspects, he mastered the characters of a cripple in order to hide his true identity. Stephen Glass on the other hand mastered the art of putting details in his story with the observations he has with people he is meeting daily. PG&E on the other hand hide their sins against the people and environment through the power of money.
