I got it when Bruce Willis got shot dead. I only knew that there was a twist of some sort, after reading a review. It’s a film I wish I had no knowledge of before watching, because it is elegantly constructed. I’d like to have had the reveal as intended by the film makers.
I was spoiled because some nasty people couldn’t keep their mouths shut. However, if I wasn’t spoiled, I’m sure I wouldn’t have figured it out until the end. When I watch a movie, I am there for the ride…I never try to figure out the plot or the ending, and just let the movie take me where it wants me to go. I know some people are always trying to figure it out (and I don’t mind, as long as they do it quietly), but I enjoy my way best of all.
It’s been said before many times, but technically speaking Shyamalan actually seems to be a pretty skilled director. Unfortunately over time he has proved to be a shitty writer with mostly dumb ideas. Not totally of course - he seems to have largely shot his wad on his first two films ( and the second is arguably weaker than the first ). However as probably happens with more than a few talented writers coughRichard Adamscough, he only had a couple of decent stories in him. But Shyamalan was successful enough with those first two that he kept getting green-lighted to make increasingly thin dreck thereafter.
The Happening is possibly the dumbest serious major studio film in existence. And if it isn’t, its certainly in the running.
He shouldn’t have kept trying to make a TWIST. He should have tried his hand at some other stuff. Plus I think Sixth Sense ended up with an amazing combination -not just good plot, but excellent actors, including a good child actor, a great premise which many people are interested in, a nice mystery, good camera work, good script. In short I think a perfect storm.
Originally, I wasn’t going to touch on this, but I think it warrants notice. And while I don’t think ftg was trying to be dismissive or insulting, that comment and Anaamika’s note together clearly indicate two distinct approaches to movie-watching that often come up in these kinds of threads. I’m in the same camp as Anaamika (hell, I even wrote a column about it), and I admit I simply cannot fathom how some people seem to approach watching movies (or reading fiction, etc.) as some kind of challenge, as opposed to an entertainment. As I wrote in the column, sure, if something is good enough to be re-watched and deconstructed afterwards, fine, that’s when I indulge that viewpoint. But on first view/read, I commit to the story as completely as I can without trying to guess or see ahead (I guess I might have a more easily suspensible disbelief).
I really do not understand this mentality. That somehow people who pay attention and notice things in movies and TV are magically not enjoying the show. We are enjoying it. Furthermore, since we are getting more out of it, we are enjoying it to a greater degree than those who shut off their minds while viewing. We are perfectly capable of seeing something at multiple levels. We see what everyone else sees and more. Don’t you wish you would have noticed the long shot in House of Blue Leaves in Kill Bill Vol. 1 while you were watching it the first time? It is doubly delightful.
It is more entertaining this way. Not less. This attitude would be like a color blind person thinking that a non-color blind person is incable of enjoying colors as much.
Suspend disbelief? C’mon, everyone knows that’s Bruce Willis and not really Dr. Malcolm Crowe. But we just go with it and don’t let that bother us. (Unless it’s something really bad like Armageddon.) You are perfectly capable of knowing it’s Bruce Willis and suspending disbelief at the same time. Just like me.
No, he didn’t think Cole’s mother was abusing him. It was late when I typed my message and I messed things up a bit. There was a scene where some social worker was concerned that Cole’s mother was physically abusing him. Crowe was there during that scene but all he does is shake his head in disagreement and never speaks up in her defense.
Nathan Lane spoiled it for me, and a lot of other people, when he opened his big mouth about it on the Letterman show, just a few weeks into the film’s theatrical run.
I’ll raise my hand and admit to rarely paying close attention to movies or TV shows on a first viewing, at least not initially. Most of them don’t warrant it anyway. As I said, I knew the twist in The Sixth Sense before I first saw it, but if I hadn’t, I probably wouldn’t have picked up on it before the big reveal, simply because I wouldn’t have been paying attention.
I refuse to entertain the idea that I’m somehow stupid because of this. It’s OK to be surprised by a twist, kids. Close attention is for multiple viewings, whether it has to do with twists or just the quality of the movie or show in question. If something is interesting enough, I’ll go back and watch it again (sometimes to the point of obsession - I’ve watched *Primer *more times than I’d like to think about, and made the Excel sheets necessary to puzzle together the plot).
It hit me about a split second before Bruce Willis figured it it out.
Yeah, this is why I wasn’t going to get into it originally; I don’t know if I’m explaining either perspective accurately enough, and I really don’t see this as an either/or debate. I’m simply pointing out the different mindsets make it difficult for either side to see the other’s perspective.
To you, it is. Not everybody. And although I admit I said I could not fathom that viewpoint (similar to how you say you do not understand mine), and (somewhat defensively) indicated I better enjoy movies my way (like Anaamika said), I did not mean to imply that your way was universally less enjoyable.
Suspending disbelief to accept an actor in a role is not the same thing as giving yourself over to the storyteller for the duration of the story. Let me come back to that, because I want to address this point as well:
I’m not addressing the intelligence of the movie-goer (and I take great exception to the notion of “shutting off minds”), but the matter of attention is more to the point. What I’m saying is even if you are paying close attention to the story being told, that does not necessarily entail dissecting the movie as it unreels to figure out where it’s going and what the intent of each scene is. Like Martian Bigfoot says here, and I said originally, you can do that on secondary views. I don’t find it enjoyable to do so the first time.
For me, the purest form of suspension of disbelief involves the age-old tradition of storytelling – picture a group around a campfire listening to a story as told by one of them (like that scene from Stand by Me, for instance). I wouldn’t interrupt the storyteller to declare I knew where his story was going. I wouldn’t even want to figure it out in my head and not say anything – I want that experience to be the essence of listening to the story itself; I want to be immersed in the story. When done right (around a campfire or on a movie screen), the telling of the story is fascinating enough that it holds my rapt attention. If it’s good enough that it’s enjoyable to go through again (and again), that’s where the layers of retrospection, deconstruction, and analysis kick in.
That some people enjoy themselves more doing that analysis the first time through is obvious; I’m simply not one of them. But the disconnect between those two mindsets leads to conversations where one says “How did you not see that coming?” and the response is “Because I wasn’t looking for it!” Both of these people are seeing the same movie and responding to the storytelling in their preferred way; neither is necessarily smarter or more perceptive than the other.
Well said. I propose the dichotomy “empathic” versus “analytic” viewer responses to describe this (and again, one viewer can be either at different viewings).
It has Three twists. Don’t forget the dead girls home movie…
ETA, the ending caught me totally off guard. Just like the big twist in Silence of the Lambs when Buffalo Bill opens the door and there’s Clarice.
Andy Richter blurted it out during an episode of Late Night w/ Conan O’Brien. I hadn’t seen the movie yet. Dick.
He did. We got The Last Airbender. Be careful what you ask for, you just may get it.
I think the answer might vary depending on whether you had heard in advance that there was a “twist.”
If I know there’s a twist ending, I almost invariably figure out the twist beforehand. The Usual Suspects is a good example. Once you know there is a twist coming in The Usual Suspects, it’s pretty easy to figure out what the twist will be. Ruined that movie for me. (Which is why I really wish movie reviewers would just keep it to themselves if there’s a twist in the movie.)
Luckily for me, I saw The Sixth Sense before I heard about the twist, and was completely caught off-guard at the end.
Surprisingly, I had heard there was a twist to TSS, but wasn’t thinking about it when watching and was surprised. I was unaware that TUS was supposed to have a twist ending, yet I figured it out early on. In neither instance was I looking for it - my brain just did the algebra on its own one time and not the other.
I knew there was a twist, and when things looked like they were wrapping up I actually thought “Wait, what was the big twist? They’ve only got another couple of minutes left. Did it happen already?” I was so convinced of my own cleverness that I thought perhaps the big twist had been something so unsurprising (to someone as brilliant as myself) that it hadn’t even registered as a twist. Then, a moment later… :eek: :o :smack:
What I’d been expecting for much of the movie was that the former patient who killed himself in the beginning would return as a ghost and the twist would have something to do with that, but that didn’t seem likely to happen suddenly in the last couple of minutes.
You don’t have an option for “From the trailer”
I agree with Lamia - the elegance of using our fiction-ready mode of watching against us is what makes it so impressive. I saw it without knowing there was a twist and was amazed and delighted when the reveal came and I realizes I’d been tricked, but without any cheating.
I hate seeing movies where I know there’s a twist because I get preoccupied looking For it. I would much rather be completely into the story, only to be flabbergasted at the end!