In the 16 years since ‘The Sixth Sense’ broke box office records, Some might say that M Night Shyamalan has slowly spent up his audience goodwill to the point where now he is completely in the hole. I don’t believe that. In fact, he is the type of person that I would LOVE to have a beer with and pick his brain for a couple of hours. You know exactly what you will get from his films: an intriguing premise that makes you feel clever, not stupid, good performances and production values and an ending that may surprise but never disturbs.
‘The Sixth Sense’, ‘Unbreakable’ and ‘Signs’ are very good films. ‘The Village’…I liked it, but not as much as his first three.
In my opinion Bruce Willis’s performance in ‘The Sixth Sense’ is one of the greatest and most subtle performances ever given by a Hollywood star – but it can only be appreciated on second viewing: everything about it is designed to deflect attention from itself.
‘Unbreakable’ is still my favorite M Night joint. Armed with his signature dour aesthetic and surprise twist endings, the writer/director found himself creating a superhero film that would adopt a tone most comic book movies would emulate in the years that followed. Rather than revealing in high-concept mayhem, he utilized a grounded approach and a focus on the everyday reality of being Super. Basically, he domesticated the classic comic exploration of good and evil.
The emphasis is on connecting the viewer to the human qualities of a superhero, nothing more. It’s a potent reminder of just how far superheroes have come in 15 years. That’s not to say ‘Unbreakable’ has had much or any effect on current cinema, but it’s particularly telling that comic movies don’t need to ground superheroes in realism to connect with an audience anymore. We’re more than willing to invest in a franchise in which a Norse god, a gamma-irradiated scientist, a mad billionaire, a genetically-modified soldier and a couple of super spies would band together to fight a sentient android hell-bent on mass extinction.
In retrospect, you can see the framework of ‘Unbreakable’ under Christopher Nolan’s ‘Dark Knight’ trilogy (for better or worse), in the emphasis on character development, the muted colors and the cynical approach to the concept of superpowers. Shyamalan took the entire concept seriously. Unbreakable’s superhero arc is one of self-doubt and realization, a double-edged blade of understanding his superhuman status while wholeheartedly fearing it.
Willis’ David Dunn doesn’t simply accept his powers on a whim. He first has to conquer his inner demons and embrace the fact that he doesn’t belong to the world around him. It’s only Elijah Price’s (Jackson) continual insistence of the existence of superheroes that breaks Dunn down. While Shyamalan might have used this dynamic to probe the nature of self-acceptance and faith, he cleverly intertwined it with an eloquent closing statement in the case for the comic book film. Standing on the edge of comic movie desolation, ‘Unbreakable’ was his reminder that perhaps society shouldn’t give up on superheroes just yet.
‘Signs’ was great. However, it is not a science fiction film. If you are looking for sci-fi, move along – I know, aliens invading a planet covered by water. (To which I always say – how do you know the aliens knew they were allergic to water?).
The ‘twist’ in ‘Signs’ is not about water or crop circles or anything else. The twist is the possibility that life has meaning. Gibson’s character suddenly recognizes that seemingly random, meaningless and even cruel events in his life (his daughters obsession with water, his son’s asthma, his wife’s last words) could – repeat could – have meaning. And that is enough for him to embrace faith. ‘Signs’ is a fable, and a brave one. You can get hung up on it not being ‘Independence Day’ or you can embrace the film he actually made.
The biggest problem with ‘The Village’ is before it came out everyone was asking what the twist would be. People said they might be on an alien planet or that they were all microscopic people or that the surrounding trees were sentient or some crap.
In it, there’s a great scene in the movie where William Hurt talks to Joaquin Phoenix about being braver than he could ever imagine If they’re revealing all this then it’s not the mystery that you make it sound like. The main character may not know what’s going on but if he finds out things then good, keeping the audience in the dark has to be done carefully. Audiences today aren’t even that patient any more.
‘Lady In The Water’, ‘The Happening’, ‘The Last Airbender’ & ‘After Earth’ all ended up as box office duds and had many thinking his best days were behind him.
There was a time when his name was synonymous with tense, psychological thrillers that kept them guessing (and on the edges of their seats) right up until the credits rolled — returning to hallowed, familiar territory with ‘Wayward Pines’ & ‘The Visit’ might be the twist needed for his return to prominence.
‘Wayward Pines’ premieres May 14th on Fox.
-Dagobot
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