Hindsight is 20/20. And wtf about the lighter?

is that Keyser and Verbal are both left-handed. As far as I know, the other guys were all right-handed.

It made sense at the time to me as being an act done out of fear.
The whole thing obviously was taking ages and wasn't going very smoothly overall, so out of fear for getting busted it would make kind of sense that he would suddenly on an impuls shoot him just to be able to finally get out of there.

I took this scene to be just like the final boat scene when "Keyser" used them to get to the guy who could i.d. him. Saul was another who could possibly identify him as Keyser so he needed those guys to get him close to Saul so he could kill him. That's why Dean looks at him in surprise- there was no need to kill Saul in Keaton's eyes. But Verbal/Keyser knew all along that he was gonna kill Saul. That is why they were fed false info about what was in the briefcase- it wasn't diamonds it was heroin. It was a set-up to get him close to the target. Just like the final scene on the boat was a set-up- they were told it was a coke deal but really it was just a way to get him to the target. Saul was no different- they were being used to get him close to the target only they were told it was diamonds rather than coke.

Or you could mention the fact that we know right from his first appearance that Verbal is a con artist, a professional liar in other words, so that is a hint that you shouldn't believe everything (or anything) he tells you.

But Verbal shooting him is told in a flashback by a very manipulative, unreliable narratorwhy,since this is what he tells Kujan,would he confess to a murder? In the grand scheme of things,the scene is just an excuse for some action,doesnt play a pivotal part in his testimony. This sequence make little sense and only succeds in confusing and establishing Keaton as someone who just bragged about murder,clearly has lost his nerve.

he is also the only one who emphasises the word 'ME' .. perhaps a subtle hint telling the audience, hey its me, im Kaiser
not that i would have had the slightest chance of gathering tht on the first viewing

Yeah, I'd think his somewhat sinister facial expression during the line-up scene would be more revealing than anything.

There is two huge hints that many overlook or don't notice.
In the scene where they all have to say "give me the keys", Verbal is very sinister and serious in his delivery after all the laughing has stopped.
In the final act, Kujan is saying "You've known this whole time!" and Verbal says, "I did kill Keaton."
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"Kill one man, you're a murderer, kill a million, a king. Kill them all, a God."

No, I don't think you look into it too deeply. It's certainly possible and the fun thing about this movie is that everyone can make up their own mind about what happened or not.
Good god, discussions aboout politics are either boring or hateful. Movies are a much better subject!:)

Yeah I guess in actuality it is really hard to know what was real and what wasn't but I guess for the purpose of a good story I like to think that what Verbal told Kujan was indeed true for the most part. It just makes it better I think than believing none of it ever happened. I think he certainly fabricated a lot of it but SOMETHING had to happen. There wasn't just a line-up in NY and then an explosion in LA with nothing in between. I like to think that the little subtle things that are shown in the movie are shown to us the audience without being relayed to Kujan to make it interesting. It gives us something to ponder. That is why I probably look too deeply but it's just something fun to talk about. But I see that scene as a big indicator that Verbal was not who he said he was bc of the look of shock/ surprise? Keaton gives him when he just shoots Saul. It made me think of the whole ploy to get to the rat guy on the boat. Similar situation just smaller scale I guess? Anyway, thanks for commenting. It's more fun to discuss movies than politics!

I think that's very much a possibility. It's difficult to tell since this scene is told from Verbal's perspective to Kujan and may very well be a complete fabrication. We're not sure if these guys had anything to do with Saul's death, we don't know if Soze was behind it either, we can't even be sure if Saul existed!

What do you think of the post above and my response below (above?) to it about Saul's getting whacked being staged like the boat/coke deal???

I think there were a couple of things that seemed "off" about him the first time around, like he knew more than he was letting on. Even Kujan noticed it.

It struck me as weird the first time I watched the movie. Something seemed off about his character doing that. But I didn't put two and two together.

I don't think it's something "everyone" overlooks, it has been mentioned before.
Personally, I don't think it's the biggest hint since it's also possible that Verbal wants to prove, especially to Keaton, that he's man enough for the job. It's certainly very telling looking back, but not that revealing while watching the movie for the first time.