I do have one thing to say about Unbreakable, and this little tidbit does give me some hope for Shyamalan’s future work. In the scene were Bruce Willis has finally come to terms with his abilities, and he goes to the house to stop the bad guy, his coat starts out as just a shin length rain slicker, and by the end of the scene, it is swirling around him in true superhero-cape fashion. Each cut makes the shawl longer and longer. I never reaqlized it until the 3rd or 4th viewing, but once it was there, it injected new life into the scene, for me, anyhow.
Anyone here who is an artist of any type can attest to what I am about to say. I draw/sketch/paint, and there is an odd thing that happens in everyone of my drawings. I never REALLY like the piece as a whole; I am my own worst critic. But I can always see one particular line, or curve, or shadow, or fade that is just absolutely perfect in every way. As an artist (of sorts), I see things like this in other peoples art as well. That scene (or subliminal part of the scene) was Shyamalan’s crowning achievement, surprise endings be damned.
This was a personal movie about one man’s struggle to regain faith in his God. Not yours or anyone else’s. The whole movie could be seen as a dream, or an interior dialog; everything in it was a metaphor.
At least, that’s the only way it makes sense to me, because y’all are right: the aliens were lame.
Re: Jacob’s Ladder. I have never seen it myself, but everyone I’ve talked to (including some non-idiots) found it totally confusing. General consensus was that it didn’t make sense. I am open to conflicting opinions, however.
That’s funny, because I, personally, didn’t know anything about the Sixth Sense before watching in; however, 5 minutes in, I knew there was going to be SOME sort of catch.
What gave it away was when it flashed from
where he got shot to the caption “6 months in the future”. Okay…no explanation for the intervening time?
however, I didnt know what exactly the catch would be, and I didnt let trying to figure it out get in the way of enjoying the movie.
Jacob’s Ladder was darker, more disorienting, and spoiled by a postscript “message” that was more idiotic than everything in Signs put together. And Ambrose Bierce still came first.
Dorkusmalorkusmafia first said:
; then said:
And the McGuffin in NxNW is the microfilm in the statue, not the secret identity.
FTR, I also think Unbreakable is MNS’s best, for many of the reasons MrMyth said. I think the pacing’s right (slow, but vital) and Willis is much better than in 6S. The implications of the “twist” revelation also resonate much more than the other two, IMHO.
He’s a good cinematographer, but that’s all I’ll give him. His plots are ridiculous, his messages pretentious in the extreme and he gets credit for “innovation” when he is really just one-offing very trite and cliched formulas in every movie. It’s a ghost story, with a twist. It’s a superhero story with a twist. It’s a knotted intestine with a twist.
His work bores me to tears, and not because there aren’t shootouts and rapid splices. He plods through his plots. I know some of his choir of worshippers have called this his incredible appreciation of character development, but I have to disagree. The characters don’t particularly develop, they simply endure, which I what I feel like I’m doing when I sit through one of his movies. I won’t be doing that again, however.
Basically, the man is a flavor of the month and I don’t think his work will stand the test of time once the hype is gone.
ArchiveGuy, I still think the Sixth Sense was a good movie even though I found it to be predictable. I found Jacob’s Ladder (I must have been a young teenager, I haven’t seen it since) to be a better movie because at the time of my viewing, I hadn’t ever seen anything like it and the hole protagonist is really dead thing sure seemed like it was taken directly from there. However, that is neither here nor there, the point remains that I still don’t think Shyamalan is really very versitile overall even though his directing style is enjoyable despite the subject matter.
Gangster Octopus and The Gaspode are, in my opinion, correct. All of you who are complaining about various aspects of Shyamalan’s movies are complaining mostly about the writing. Virtually nothing has been said about his direction.
For this reason, I consider Shyamalan simultaneously overrated and underrated. He’s overrated for the stories he tells; Signs in particular, as has been said here by many, is utterly ridiculous on the level of plot, not to mention the utter predictability of the crisis of faith that supposedly makes up the primary theme of the film. The reason for this, I think, is that the more successful Shyamalan gets, the more insulated he is from criticism by studio types who try to point out flaws and make changes. Usually they’re wrong, but sometimes they’re right. Either way, Shyamalan doesn’t have to listen to them any more; he’ll succeed or fail on his own merits. That makes him a true auteur, but it also makes his movies more difficult to watch.
But he’s vastly underrated as a director. Look at how he constructs and edits his material. He is absolutely masterful at doing a lot with very little. There’s a moment toward the end of Signs where the aliens are apparently approaching the house for the final attack; Shyamalan communicates this with a subtle camera movement, a creak of the decking outside, and a jingle of wind chimes. That’s all. Compare that restraint to the overwhelming sound and fury on display in, say, Jan de Bont’s The Haunting, and you’ll see what I mean. The filmmaking skills on display in his movies, from the perspective of pure craft, are quite prodigious.
What Shyamalan needs, in my opinion, is either to work from somebody else’s script for a movie or two, or a more hard-nosed producer who will tell him when his own writing is substandard.
You keep using that word, but I do not think it means what you think it means.
Two things:
(1) I was absolutely shocked by the ending of The Sixth Sense. It completely and totally blindsided me. And, judging by the reaction of the crowd in the theatre, and the friends with whom I discussed it, so were many many other people. So ixnay on the ondescensioncay there, ftg.
(2) I enjoyed signs quite a bit, and I interpreted the utter absurdity of the aliens, their water allergy, their wandering around in cornfields, etc., as a deliberate choice. What would happen if you took aliens who actually behaved like the stupidest, most cliched aliens from bad science fiction movies and tv shows of the past, and made a really well-made movie about them invading? Well, you’d get a darn controversial movie. But I’m certain that if you went up to M. Night and said “hey, bucko, did it ever occur to you how little sense it makes that the aliens would be allergic to water?” he would agree. But I don’t think that’s the point.
Jesus, a guy makes a film you don’t like, and hate is immediately bestowed upon him? There are worse directors and worse films out there. I assume they are hated too.
A McGuffin isn’t necessarily something that is shown early in the movie and never mentioned again. It could be in every frame of the film. What makes it a McGuffin is that the nature of the object, what it is, what it represents, what it does, makes no difference. The roll of microfilm in* North by Northwest* could be bomb plans. It could be the location of hidden Nazi gold. It could be the recipe to a really good egg salad. Similarly, in Signs, the aliens didn’t have to be aliens. Them being aliens was not important to the plot, because the plot isn’t about the invasion, it’s about the family. Obviously, it’s not as easy a change as a roll of microfilm: for Signs to not have aliens in the movie would require substantial, but ultimatly superficial, changes in the action of the movie, but the core story would be basically untouched. If he has set this movie in France during WWII and made all the aliens into German soldiers, he’d probably have got an Oscar for this movie. Although he’d probably have to change the ending, unless he wanted to argue that Nazis melted when wet.
I think MNS is a great director. I found 6th Sense and Signs to be two entertaining and thought-provoking films not unworthy of applause. Unbreakable had it’s okay moments, but it’s the weakest of the three, IMO. As others have mentioned, he doesn’t really do well with storytelling.
One thing about that movie that bugged the hell out of me was the scene where Bruce Willis asked his wife what her favorite song is and she said “Soft and Wet” by Prince. I don’t understand why MNS singled out that song from the rest of Prince’s kickass repetoire to make as someone’s favorite. It’s really a nonremarkable song, and pales in comparision to classics such as Purple Rain, Kiss, Pink Cashmire, etc. Both me and my sister found that particular selection very unrealistic, truly. In fact, that challenged my suspension of disbelief more than the plot did.
However, in spite of all his weakness and shortcomings, I think M. Night makes a far better writer than he does actor. Although it’s cool to see an Indian face on the silver screen and all, someone should tell him to quit pulling a Spike Lee and just stay behind the camera.
[spoiler]I think that choosing that song had two purposes and its individual quality wasn’t an issue.
The first was humor, because here’s this serious, somewhat dour woman, whose favorite song sounds a lot like a euphemism for a lady’s delicate area (and most likely is. I haven’t heard the song but I’m familiar with Prince).
The second purpose was that it illustrated how far the couple had grown apart to the point where they didn’t even know each other anymore, a pretty valid and important plot point.[/spoiler]
Those are valid hypothesises, Asylum. While being aware that this is quite a petty hang-up, I still think he could have chosen a better song. If there was humor to be conveyed by making her like “Soft and Wet”, it wasn’t transmitted well. But I guess that’s because I’m familiar with the song and know it to be nothing to write home about. Feh.
Don’t hate him, but have been disappointed by him.
Though The Sixth Sense was a good film and enjoyed Unbreakable, though I could use another viewing of it to decide which film I prefer. Signs, on the other hand, was utter tripe. There were scenes where I loved the film’s cinematography and enjoyed its pacing…but, overall, I couldn’t bear the plot holes and found the ending to be melodramatic and shot with incredibly poor pacing.
I’m among those who didn’t see the twist in The Sixth Sense coming. However, in Signs I felt that MNS was hitting us over the head with the significance of the baseball bat from the very first mention. As such, the pacing of the scene with the final alien confrontation seemed incredibly slow to me, as if MNS was waiting for his audience to catch up to him.
