Post by Timid Wily Lava Child on Jul 30, 2005 15:20:14 GMT -5
THE SIXTH SENSE
Written & directed by: M. Night Syamalan
Starring: Haley Joel Osment, Bruce Willis, Toni Collette and Olivia Williams
Cinematography by Tak Fujimoto
Original Music by James Newton Howard
** spoilers like crazy follow **
(Please don't read this if you haven't seen it yet.)
This is one of two scary movies (the other is Poltergeist) whose subtexts are warm, genuinely emotional, and about human connection. Only Poltergeist's extra 20 minutes of scares at the end prevent the subtext from rising to the surface to become what the film is actually about. SIXTH SENSE pulls it off.
First and foremost, THE SIXTH SENSE is not primarily a puzzle. It is unfortunate that the film has such a reputation, as it isn't a movie about twists, or even about its scares. It never claims to be about Dr. Malcolm's (Bruce Willis) existential condition. When word got out that the film had twists, some people tried to outthink it rather than watching it be what it is, a relationship story couched in a ghost story. Naysayers who saw the film late, and "guessed the ending" 10 minutes in, saw it as a failed puzzle. Some brought challenges to the structural integrity of the story, suggesting it to be full of holes. I will now plug those. The screenplay is flawless, and I'll honor that claim by doing my best to defend it.
The Sixth Sense relies upon how people read between the lines while watching movies. Cases in point: Early in the film, when Dr. Malcolm and Cole's mother sit silently as he unlocks the door to enter, it appears that they've just halted a conversation and are now waiting for him to step in. When Malcolm "meets his wife" for dinner and she is silent with him, it appears that she is angry and being cold. Mr. Shyamalan knew that these assumptions would be in place. He also knows that people expect ghosts to be manifested as ghosts in some obvious visual way. But that's not a cinematic rule. He presents his ghosts without any such trappings, in any of the myriad forms by which ghosts have classically been presented, yet breaks none of his own rules for how they should act. Without lying to do so, the film communicates nothing about Dr. Malcolm's having died after the gunshot in the opening scene. When it dissolves forward nine months, we simply see a normal looking Dr. Malcolm at work on a bench. He is presented just as he would perceive himself.
"It is just not possible that Malcolm lives for over a year together with his wife and doesn't realize he is dead!"
The film makes no indication that he did live with his wife for a year, or even the 9 months. It does indicate that Malcolm does not pass through time continuously. When he sits down at dinner with his wife, the first comment he makes is that he's losing track of time. He also has no idea that it is his anniversary. Throughout the movie he pulls on his red basement doorknob only to find it locked. He reaches into his pocket for a key, but in reality just moves on downstairs because that's where he was going. He does not open the door, ever. This is evidenced after the grand revelation, when he flashes back to the door and finally sees the blockage in front of it, a blockage he never moved. Malcolm is skipping through time. He "lives" life much like we remember it, passing from relevant event to relevant event. The film gives us no reason to believe that he has had any experience (after his shooting) that we don't seen on screen. The film does tell us that most of the ghosts are confused, and do not realize that they're dead. There is the ghost in Cole's kitchen, who has clearly been there a while, and yet does not know.
"In the attic, who hurts the boy ? And moreover why, if the ghosts just want help?"
Cole seems to have had two kinds of experiences with ghosts. Either they seek help and intrude upon him, talking to him like he's someone they know (which would be naturally disconcerting for him), or they don't (or can't). He intrudes upon them and seems to be met with almost animal like defensiveness (the scary lady in the kitchen). This is why he runs the instant he sees Malcolm across the street at the beginning of the film. It's why he finds Dr.Malcolm's unusual behavior towards him in the church, respectfully non-aggressive, so disarming. Malcolm would be the first dead person whose "ghostly confusion" would be mitigated by having been a child psychologist in life, with all of its practices in approaching troubled children. A confused ghost, who never left that part of the house, hurts Cole when he invades its space. Needy people often lash out.
"The ghost don't know they are dead, so why do they go to the boy?"
Because they do know that they need help, and they do know that they need his help. How this is so is not detailed, but *that* it is so is.
"Why can some ghosts affect the reality and others can't?"
They are only able to have a physical effect when feeling an extreme emotion, like anger or fear. This is evidenced primarily in the visible breath, visible only when a ghost seems to be angry (like the kitchen lady) or scared (Kyra). Note that Cole's breath is not seen when the cranium boy, who's quite mellow, wants to show him the gun. Malcolm's wife also doesn't have cold breath at the anniversary dinner, but does when Malcolm is sad around her. Malcolm busts her work window in anger as well.
The movie sets up all that we need to know about the dead, and follows its rules to the letter.
I said that the scares lead to warm moments. This is seen in Cole's relationship with his mother. Two scenes. First - they're having dinner together, and she brings up the issue of her mother's jewelry being moved. They alone live there, so he must be doing it, but he isn't. He shakily refuses to say what she wants to hear, because it isn't true, and she angrily sends him away from dinner, thinking the opposite - that he is lying. He then has a frightening encounter on his way to his room. We see her doing laundry with tears on her face. He approaches and gently asks her, "Mom, if you're not very angry with me, may I sleep in your room tonight?" She says, "Of course I'm not very angry with you." and he jumps into her arms, shaking. Anger vaporized, now she is only concerned, and holds him tightly.
Second - He is finally going to open up her, something she has longed for. He does so by telling her something he learned from a ghost, something only she could know about her and her mother. This is standard movie technique for a person proving their genuine knowledge of a thing (spies & psychics do it a lot), but in this case, what he tells her undoes years of pain she has carried about how much her mother was, or wasn't, proud of her. It's not an "a-ha!" moment, or a spooky moment, it's a moving moment.
THE REAL STORY
This is a well plotted, human story. It directly presents no mystery other than the issue of what's beleaguering young Cole (Haley Joel Osment). It's about a couple of troubled and lonely people who meet, slowly learn to trust each other, and help each other through their problems. It's more Terms Of Endearment than Halloween. In fact, there isn't a single scare in the film where the shock itself is the punchline to the scene. All of them lead to emotional moments, to warm, character moments. The ghost story supports the human stories - it's not the other way around.
Cole is a boy who has seen dead people for as long as he can remember. The first time he sees Dr. Malcolm, sitting across the street from his house waiting for him, he knows that this man is dead. He runs away so that he can pass Malcolm's side of the street before Malcolm gets there, and he rushes into a church. He's afraid of the doctor. When Malcolm comes in, he talks to Cole with more care and respect than Cole has had before from any ghost. It doesn't confront Cole, but instead sits in the pew behind him, and begins talking about how churches used to be sanctuaries for pursued people - a historical subject. He sees Cole playing with historical dolls, and thinks this might interest him. it does. First Cole drops enough guard to not run. Then he listens. Finally, curiosity aroused, he pops his head up to look at Malcolm and ask a question about Malcolm's topic. Cole gives him some attention, but is very tentative because interesting or not, this *is* one of those dead people. The two converse, but before leaving he asks Malcolm "I'm gonna SEE you again, aren't I?" Malcolm says, "If that's okay with you," but Cole knows the real answer: it isn't, but he'll see the ghost again anyway.
Next, when he returns home from school to find Malcolm already in his house, having apparently just stopped speaking with Cole's mother, Malcolm briefly arouses hope in the boy that he may have the means to help him, but by the end of their talk, Cole decides that Malcolm cannot help him. Yet... we see them talking again later, on the way to school. Cole has sort of taken Malcolm on as a safe, interesting friend, or perhaps even a client. He knows what Malcolm's problem is, and that Malcolm is clueless about his - seeing dead people.
After a confrontation with his teacher (the "Stuttering Stanley" incident), he is tense, and has no patience for Malcolm, yet he tolerates the ghost's little Magic Trick, the way we put up with friends when we really want to be alone. We care about them, so we put their needs ahead of ours, even when ours seem more intense. These are two very lonely and isolated people. Such a connection would only be natural.
Cole has plenty of opportunities to tell Malcolm what state he's in (dead). One is when he finally reveals his own secret. The most emotional is when Malcolm tells him that he can't be Cole's doctor anymore. It would be in Cole's best interests to tell him, as he might then stay around and help, but he doesn't, only because he cares about Malcolm more than he cares about his issue, and he knows how the news would affect him.
Like a great friend, when Dr. Malcolm later re-approaches him with the apparent solution, Cole isn't resentful, and requires no apology for the abandonment. He just lets him in immediately. Malcolm has him at hello. In friendship, many things are pre-forgiven.
By the end of the film Cole is better not by eliminating the source of his terrors, but by confronting it, understanding it, and, finding it benign, accepting his difference as a calling. His relationships with his peers, his teacher (Stanley), his mother, and the ghosts are all improved. Dr. Malcolm is better because he solves Cole's problem, a problem he was unable to solve for another boy, but also because in the end he learns that his relationship with his wife has not been cold and angry, but very warm. She does not resent him, she misses him. Few things say better that you are loved and accepted as being missed. This is his wife - the person whose opinion of him means the most to him, and she thinks well, not ill, of their relationship. This gives him enough peace to leave his depressive haunts behind, say goodbye to her, and move on.
See it again. It's a better movie the second time, after you really do know the secrets, and (hopefully) aren't so focused upon them. See if how I see things bears out, and watch these characters, knowing how they see each other throughout the film. It's always easier to let a movie be what it actually is, outside of expectations, when you see it again. Take advantage. You have the opportunity to really enjoy something which at first glance might not have even meet your initial expectations.
Written & directed by: M. Night Syamalan
Starring: Haley Joel Osment, Bruce Willis, Toni Collette and Olivia Williams
Cinematography by Tak Fujimoto
Original Music by James Newton Howard
** spoilers like crazy follow **
(Please don't read this if you haven't seen it yet.)
This is one of two scary movies (the other is Poltergeist) whose subtexts are warm, genuinely emotional, and about human connection. Only Poltergeist's extra 20 minutes of scares at the end prevent the subtext from rising to the surface to become what the film is actually about. SIXTH SENSE pulls it off.
First and foremost, THE SIXTH SENSE is not primarily a puzzle. It is unfortunate that the film has such a reputation, as it isn't a movie about twists, or even about its scares. It never claims to be about Dr. Malcolm's (Bruce Willis) existential condition. When word got out that the film had twists, some people tried to outthink it rather than watching it be what it is, a relationship story couched in a ghost story. Naysayers who saw the film late, and "guessed the ending" 10 minutes in, saw it as a failed puzzle. Some brought challenges to the structural integrity of the story, suggesting it to be full of holes. I will now plug those. The screenplay is flawless, and I'll honor that claim by doing my best to defend it.
The Sixth Sense relies upon how people read between the lines while watching movies. Cases in point: Early in the film, when Dr. Malcolm and Cole's mother sit silently as he unlocks the door to enter, it appears that they've just halted a conversation and are now waiting for him to step in. When Malcolm "meets his wife" for dinner and she is silent with him, it appears that she is angry and being cold. Mr. Shyamalan knew that these assumptions would be in place. He also knows that people expect ghosts to be manifested as ghosts in some obvious visual way. But that's not a cinematic rule. He presents his ghosts without any such trappings, in any of the myriad forms by which ghosts have classically been presented, yet breaks none of his own rules for how they should act. Without lying to do so, the film communicates nothing about Dr. Malcolm's having died after the gunshot in the opening scene. When it dissolves forward nine months, we simply see a normal looking Dr. Malcolm at work on a bench. He is presented just as he would perceive himself.
"It is just not possible that Malcolm lives for over a year together with his wife and doesn't realize he is dead!"
The film makes no indication that he did live with his wife for a year, or even the 9 months. It does indicate that Malcolm does not pass through time continuously. When he sits down at dinner with his wife, the first comment he makes is that he's losing track of time. He also has no idea that it is his anniversary. Throughout the movie he pulls on his red basement doorknob only to find it locked. He reaches into his pocket for a key, but in reality just moves on downstairs because that's where he was going. He does not open the door, ever. This is evidenced after the grand revelation, when he flashes back to the door and finally sees the blockage in front of it, a blockage he never moved. Malcolm is skipping through time. He "lives" life much like we remember it, passing from relevant event to relevant event. The film gives us no reason to believe that he has had any experience (after his shooting) that we don't seen on screen. The film does tell us that most of the ghosts are confused, and do not realize that they're dead. There is the ghost in Cole's kitchen, who has clearly been there a while, and yet does not know.
"In the attic, who hurts the boy ? And moreover why, if the ghosts just want help?"
Cole seems to have had two kinds of experiences with ghosts. Either they seek help and intrude upon him, talking to him like he's someone they know (which would be naturally disconcerting for him), or they don't (or can't). He intrudes upon them and seems to be met with almost animal like defensiveness (the scary lady in the kitchen). This is why he runs the instant he sees Malcolm across the street at the beginning of the film. It's why he finds Dr.Malcolm's unusual behavior towards him in the church, respectfully non-aggressive, so disarming. Malcolm would be the first dead person whose "ghostly confusion" would be mitigated by having been a child psychologist in life, with all of its practices in approaching troubled children. A confused ghost, who never left that part of the house, hurts Cole when he invades its space. Needy people often lash out.
"The ghost don't know they are dead, so why do they go to the boy?"
Because they do know that they need help, and they do know that they need his help. How this is so is not detailed, but *that* it is so is.
"Why can some ghosts affect the reality and others can't?"
They are only able to have a physical effect when feeling an extreme emotion, like anger or fear. This is evidenced primarily in the visible breath, visible only when a ghost seems to be angry (like the kitchen lady) or scared (Kyra). Note that Cole's breath is not seen when the cranium boy, who's quite mellow, wants to show him the gun. Malcolm's wife also doesn't have cold breath at the anniversary dinner, but does when Malcolm is sad around her. Malcolm busts her work window in anger as well.
The movie sets up all that we need to know about the dead, and follows its rules to the letter.
I said that the scares lead to warm moments. This is seen in Cole's relationship with his mother. Two scenes. First - they're having dinner together, and she brings up the issue of her mother's jewelry being moved. They alone live there, so he must be doing it, but he isn't. He shakily refuses to say what she wants to hear, because it isn't true, and she angrily sends him away from dinner, thinking the opposite - that he is lying. He then has a frightening encounter on his way to his room. We see her doing laundry with tears on her face. He approaches and gently asks her, "Mom, if you're not very angry with me, may I sleep in your room tonight?" She says, "Of course I'm not very angry with you." and he jumps into her arms, shaking. Anger vaporized, now she is only concerned, and holds him tightly.
Second - He is finally going to open up her, something she has longed for. He does so by telling her something he learned from a ghost, something only she could know about her and her mother. This is standard movie technique for a person proving their genuine knowledge of a thing (spies & psychics do it a lot), but in this case, what he tells her undoes years of pain she has carried about how much her mother was, or wasn't, proud of her. It's not an "a-ha!" moment, or a spooky moment, it's a moving moment.
THE REAL STORY
This is a well plotted, human story. It directly presents no mystery other than the issue of what's beleaguering young Cole (Haley Joel Osment). It's about a couple of troubled and lonely people who meet, slowly learn to trust each other, and help each other through their problems. It's more Terms Of Endearment than Halloween. In fact, there isn't a single scare in the film where the shock itself is the punchline to the scene. All of them lead to emotional moments, to warm, character moments. The ghost story supports the human stories - it's not the other way around.
Cole is a boy who has seen dead people for as long as he can remember. The first time he sees Dr. Malcolm, sitting across the street from his house waiting for him, he knows that this man is dead. He runs away so that he can pass Malcolm's side of the street before Malcolm gets there, and he rushes into a church. He's afraid of the doctor. When Malcolm comes in, he talks to Cole with more care and respect than Cole has had before from any ghost. It doesn't confront Cole, but instead sits in the pew behind him, and begins talking about how churches used to be sanctuaries for pursued people - a historical subject. He sees Cole playing with historical dolls, and thinks this might interest him. it does. First Cole drops enough guard to not run. Then he listens. Finally, curiosity aroused, he pops his head up to look at Malcolm and ask a question about Malcolm's topic. Cole gives him some attention, but is very tentative because interesting or not, this *is* one of those dead people. The two converse, but before leaving he asks Malcolm "I'm gonna SEE you again, aren't I?" Malcolm says, "If that's okay with you," but Cole knows the real answer: it isn't, but he'll see the ghost again anyway.
Next, when he returns home from school to find Malcolm already in his house, having apparently just stopped speaking with Cole's mother, Malcolm briefly arouses hope in the boy that he may have the means to help him, but by the end of their talk, Cole decides that Malcolm cannot help him. Yet... we see them talking again later, on the way to school. Cole has sort of taken Malcolm on as a safe, interesting friend, or perhaps even a client. He knows what Malcolm's problem is, and that Malcolm is clueless about his - seeing dead people.
After a confrontation with his teacher (the "Stuttering Stanley" incident), he is tense, and has no patience for Malcolm, yet he tolerates the ghost's little Magic Trick, the way we put up with friends when we really want to be alone. We care about them, so we put their needs ahead of ours, even when ours seem more intense. These are two very lonely and isolated people. Such a connection would only be natural.
Cole has plenty of opportunities to tell Malcolm what state he's in (dead). One is when he finally reveals his own secret. The most emotional is when Malcolm tells him that he can't be Cole's doctor anymore. It would be in Cole's best interests to tell him, as he might then stay around and help, but he doesn't, only because he cares about Malcolm more than he cares about his issue, and he knows how the news would affect him.
Like a great friend, when Dr. Malcolm later re-approaches him with the apparent solution, Cole isn't resentful, and requires no apology for the abandonment. He just lets him in immediately. Malcolm has him at hello. In friendship, many things are pre-forgiven.
By the end of the film Cole is better not by eliminating the source of his terrors, but by confronting it, understanding it, and, finding it benign, accepting his difference as a calling. His relationships with his peers, his teacher (Stanley), his mother, and the ghosts are all improved. Dr. Malcolm is better because he solves Cole's problem, a problem he was unable to solve for another boy, but also because in the end he learns that his relationship with his wife has not been cold and angry, but very warm. She does not resent him, she misses him. Few things say better that you are loved and accepted as being missed. This is his wife - the person whose opinion of him means the most to him, and she thinks well, not ill, of their relationship. This gives him enough peace to leave his depressive haunts behind, say goodbye to her, and move on.
See it again. It's a better movie the second time, after you really do know the secrets, and (hopefully) aren't so focused upon them. See if how I see things bears out, and watch these characters, knowing how they see each other throughout the film. It's always easier to let a movie be what it actually is, outside of expectations, when you see it again. Take advantage. You have the opportunity to really enjoy something which at first glance might not have even meet your initial expectations.
