A lot can happen in 1 year 2 months 22 days which is how old this post is! Enjoy the post but be sure to check out the new stuff too!!M. Night Shyamalan is an enigma for me, I want to defend his filmmaking but with his later films (specifically his last two films) he hasn’t made it bloody easy. But even those two films look magnificent, The Happening is really well shot and the timing and sense of dread are all there but it fails to deliver on its promises and runs out of steam by the end. The Last Airbender looks amazing and the special effects are extraordinarily respectful of the animated show, unfortunately that’s about all that is respectful and it feels like a slap in the face.
I don’t deny these as bumps in the road and I freely admit to enjoying Lady in the Water a lot more than most people do (I have a theory about this but I’ll discuss it at a later date). But whenever I read about Shyamalan and people talk about how he used to be good they seem to always indicate that The Sixth Sense is a much better film than Unbreakable.
This is an opinion that I do not hold to.
Unbreakable is my favourite of all of his films and it confuses me when people dismiss it after the genius of Sixth Sense. Obviously I’m biased towards Unbreakable because of the subject matter but then I’m rather fond of a good ghost tale as well. I’m not begrudging anyone preferring Sixth Sense at all, I’m just looking to offer the alternative opinion.
I’ve seen The Sixth Sense once, maybe twice but not all the way through. For this you might already be saying well you need to check it out again because it is freaking awesome and shits all over Unbreakable, to those people I assume the decision has been made anyway and I’m not really interested in trying to change your mind, more so I’m trying to challenge the perception but that’s all.
I’ve only seen The Sixth Sense once because I can’t really see the point of watching it again apart from deconstructing the lead up to the twist at the end which is something I’m sure I’ll do one of these days. I’m not anti seeing it again, simply apathetic to it. The performances are all top notch and the film is wonderfully put together but the film also doesn’t speak to me on any other level apart from “that was really clever and well done”. I think I rather should watch it again to confirm if my feeling of lack of fulfilment is there simply because I already know what’s about to happen.
The film draws you in completely but it doesn’t let you in on the mystery that is what the film is actually about, it misdirects you and of course twists at the end in potentially one of the greatest mindbends of cinematic history. The film is a magician that is distracting you by going down one path whilst all the time the coin is actually in his other hand. And that’s great but is a really good magician worth watching again once you know how they’re doing the trick (the answer depends on how entertaining the magician actually is). Fortunately I’m sure The Sixth Sense is still the accomplished and entertaining magician.
Without the amazing reveal at the end of The Sixth Sense I think that many wouldn’t have judged it one of the best films of all time and certainly no better than Unbreakable or even Signs. It’s an emotional response, a connection you’ve made with The Sixth Sense that gives you the impression that it is the best of his films. I liken it to the cartoons of my youth, I love Transformers and He-Man but when watching the cartoons today they are very weak especially compared to today’s offerings. It’s my feelings of nostalgia which elevate the cartoons which shouldn’t be discounted but are a very personal thing. I would have a hard time admitting that these were better than what kids see today .
When Unbreakable was released the cat was already out of the bag, there was going to be a twist. Viewers go in expecting the twist, they go in knowing that the magician is going to try and redirect them and this becomes a much harder proposition for the film maker. Why do you think that magicians dress up or have beautiful assistants dressed in sparkly outfits? It’s to distract you from the trick. A man dressed in plain clothing with no distractions will shock and amaze you the very first time he pulls a coin out of your ear but the second time you will be looking for how he does it.
That can be fun in itself but the next time you watch a magic show look at the crowd and I can assure you the people who are having the best time are those that are allowing themselves to be carried along by the magician rather than those looking for the strings.
Unbreakable is a mythic masterpiece that examines the roles of heroes and villains and the conventions that can be found from classical literature through to Spider-man or Batman today. The film is shot like a true comic book and all the hints are there. Yes I think Unbreakable appeals to a specific audience but in part that’s what makes the film so good. It doesn’t dumb down the comic book tropes through the movie, it doesn’t smash you over the head with gimmicks that scream “you love comics well this is all comic bookie stuff!!” All the performances are as equally good as those in The Sixth Sense and I personally feel the look of the film is more effective.
Unbreakable is my favourite of the M. Night Shyamalan films and as I mentioned I don’t want to say that someone is wrong when they prefer The Sixth Sense over Unbreakable, that’s a personal preference that is cool. But when the general consensus is that it’s a better film I don’t agree. I think the emotional impact it had was that which has created a pavlovian response, you hear The Sixth Sense and your mouth waters with the emotions felt when the reveal occurred. Again this is not a negative thing, it’s great that a film can resonate and implant itself into one’s psyche but I still think that it’s too easy to say that it’s a superior film.
Actually all of his movies disappointed me except The Sixth Sense and that was because I had no expectations. Even that struck me as average until the Twist, which was indeed an awesome mindbend. It was pure genius.
I was expecting that sort of genius in the other films, but their twists could never be that awesome -- which left only average movies, like The Six Sense would have been without that Twist.
Probably a victim of his own success.
Hi Stephen, I think we can clearly put you in the “not really a fan” column which probably has more to do with the type of film you enjoy than Shyamalan as a film maker. Which is completely valid, I personally don’t like Baz Luhrmann as a director at all, but I suspect what he does he does well but it’ll probably never be my cup of tea. I dismiss him generally then yet there are people who absolutely love his work. Each to their own
With this in mind it makes it even informing that whilst you felt the film The Sixth Sense was average the twist was the genius part and the part that you took away from the film feeling good about.
His films from then have proven disappointing but mainly because he doesn’t have the genius twist. It’s that twist that differentiates the films from The Sixth Sense, if you were to go in knowing the twist I wonder if you would not have simply relegated The Sixth Sense to average?
I’ve not seen‘Unbreakable so I guess much of this is wasted on me. Though of the M. Night Shyamalan films I’ve seen, I think The Village is by far my favourite. It’s almost a parable on how belief informs our actions and actually creates our reality. It was profoundly suspenseful without deteriorating into a slasher gore fest, it reminded me a little in that respect of certain Hitchcock films. And ‘the twist’ even seems kind of credible in this increasingly unstable world in which we find ourselves.
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*spoilers if you haven’t seen The Village*
You picked the one Shyamalan film that I purposely stayed away from John!
I just didn’t love The Village and admittedly (almost guiltily) it was because of the twist ending. I had already forgiven Signs for its less than spectacular story device at the end of the film, feeling that the rest of it had more than made up for this one little gaping hole.
So when I watched The Village I was on my guard.
I was ready for it to be annoyingly implausible but I was hopeful for it to be outstanding. In the end whilst I agree the plot device is actually pretty reasonable in a Alfred Hitchcock Presents… manner I think I was disappointed almost because of that.
I wanted a monster in the woods in the same way that Signs gave me actual aliens.
I fell into the trap I’ve described above with bringing my baggage with me. I guess that’s possibly why I liked the Lady in the Water after being a little let down I shed all my expectations of the film and found it quite rewarding.
I will say this for M. Night though, his trailers are always extraordinarily good. I was terrified by The Village trailer and even The Happening promised dread (unfortunately the dread became more closely aligned with the film itself).
Thanks for the comment and sorry for the essay!
Oh and I actually recommend Unbreakable, a lot if that’s not obvious from the post
And, frankly, by the time I ended up watching The Sixth Sense the twist was the worst kept secret in the history of the world… So perhaps that affected my viewing of it. XD
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As I mentioned, I’ve only ever seen The Sixth Sense once properly so I can barely imagine what it’s like without the twist!!!
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Guess what? I dislike all of M. Night’s films. All of them. With Quentin, I at least thought Jackie Brown was passable, but nothing M. Night has done is worth a damn.
Who keeps giving him money!
See. I kept it short. I’m trying to be nice
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LOL Arkonbey I wouldn’t presume to try and convince you otherwise
same here! That’s why I kept it short.
By right, I should have kept it silent, but be thankful for small blessings…
You should check out arkonbey´s last post… Mediocre art weekend
I agree re: Unbreakable. I’ve watched it a number of times and really enjoy the story itself. The twist was just icing on the cake. I’ll be fascinated to hear your defence of Lady in the water though. Yeuch!
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I let you know when I post my defence of the Lady
Whilst I love the twist in Unbreakable I see it as more of a payoff than a gimmick.
I still remember the first time I heard him say “they called me Mr Glass”
Brilliant.
It’s an enjoyable film if you watch it as a film, not a MN Shyamalan picture. It’s an unusual performance from Willis, if not Jackson who plays himself as much as he ever does.
I love the way he shoots his films, even Signs which I didn’t really get on with looks lovely.
It might work better if you’re seeing it today for the first time too as there is a heck of a lot more superhero exposure in the mainstream. At that point, what was it? 1998?1999? There would have been some camp Batman and not a lot else. Nobody ever watched Darkman, after all
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Hey there Alex, it always saddens me to think how little exposure Darkman got when it first came out, I knew about it initially because the poster featured heavily in comics of the time.
Of course Mr Raimi would eventually get a bit of exposure for a little character piece called Spider-man
Regarding Shyamalan’s films I think you are right, if you can separate the man and the baggage from the films then they stand a little better of course it’s not just his name that’s hurting them of late
I like Unbreakable because of a lot of the comic book story telling in it even from the way it’s shot and I think you’re probably right about comic book exposure now but I almost like the exclusivity that people not in those circles don’t get the nuances! I was reading a story about the demise of the geek thanks to google and wikipedia which is a shame to some degree.
If he didn’t insist on having his name over the title in letters larger than the film titles (is he a John Carpenter tribute act or something?) that might help a bit.
IMHO (and it’s a very big humble), Darkman was the film that Batman didn’t have the balls to be. It took Nolan’s reboot to bring it away from the latex nipples and homoerotic stupidity that Batman had descended into, it’s a crying shame that Darkman went further well over a decade earlier.
I think I read an article on the very subject of the demise of geek (on Wired I think). I remember back in the 90′s reading Babylon 5 fansites and what not and picking up stuff that I missed that most people wouldn’t find because dial up was still the king, and people didn’t spend time trawling through stuff like that. Even gamers were more intent on calling people LPB (low ping bastards) as the gimped them in Doom or whatever.
Geek/nerd used to be an insult, not a badge of honour- back in the 80′s I had a Target paperback book called Travels Beyond the Tardis, which detailed a load of the quarries and outside locations that Dr Who was filmed in and THAT was proper hardcore because i) most of them were private property but more importantly ii) I was about 11 and a long way off being able to drive
You should check out Alex´s last post… Sunday Night Music- Try Whistling This