Many directors have become punchlines to jokes. Michael Bay, Dennis Duggan, and Greg Araki have all become known for making popular less than great movies.
Very few, though, have made a movie where everything worked so well, it landed on the top 100 list.
Yes, George Lucas has a couple entries, and he’s more or less has become known as, um, George Lucas; however, it’s clear he had a lot of other people on his team pushing him to greatness when he did Star Wars.
This writer/director came from seemingly nowhere, made this project from his own vision, and had everything work so well with a twist that landed so perfectly. Everything wound up coming together for a masterpiece.
And of course, there will be a spoiler in this article.
Of course I’m talking about 1999’s The Sixth Sense, written and directed by M Night Shyamalan.
The theme of this movie is “we have a duty to fulfill.”
Typical of ghost movies (SPOILER: Bruce Willis is a ghost), ghosts have unfinished business before they can move up to Heaven or Nirvana or wherever the hell ghosts go.
It’s interesting here because these ghosts don’t even realize they’re ghosts, but they have to be directed to finish their purpose, like making peace with the daughter (Cole’s grandma), pointing out the murderer (lil sick girl), or giving closure to his wife (Dr. Malcolm).
And Malcolm himself is driven by a different purpose through most of the movie: after things go very wrong with a client (once a client is in his underwear shooting you, I think it’s safe to say things went wrong), Malcolm is determined to never let that happen again. He has a chance with Cole, thus giving him a second chance to make things right with a kid similar to the one he had let down
And Cole too, maybe most importantly, has his own purpose that he denies through most of the movie. He’s terrified of the ghosts because–I mean who wouldn’t terrified of ghosts screaming at you–but once he realizes that he can help them, his fear disappears. He now has a duty and can embrace the fact that he sees unalive people.
In this way, Malcolm and Cole have a purpose involved with each other. They’re both able to symbiotically help the other one accomplish their individual purposes. It gives their relationship so much meaning, and their existence is a representation to both of making a new start with something that once went wrong.
I so often focus on the writing aspects of these films, but this is not Blade Runner’s main strength, nor do I think it’s even wanting to be its main strength. It wants to be a visual showcase, so it would be remiss for me to not talk about it.
Like Sunrise, this movie wants to be stared at.
And it so perfectly mirrors the genres of the film, the beautiful sci-fi future married to the dark, gritty, ugly noir elements.
From the flying vehicles behind Deckand’s gross diner to the beauty and grossness nearly of every environment, it’s obvious why this picture stays with people forever.And how can I talk about the Sixth Sense without talking about what made it so popular: the twist.
And what an ironic twist it is that the thing that made M Night Shyamalan such a star was also his downfall, a big piece of what made it work was how unexpected the twist was.
This type of twist happened sometimes in movies, most notably in the Usual Suspects a few years earlier (sorry, I guess saying there’s a twist is even a spoiler in some ways), but this movie does it so well and makes it instantly so rewatchable.
What makes the twist so perfect in The Sixth Sense is it never feels distracting nor cheap. Three things can go wrong with twists, making them bad twists:
It’s a twist that cheats. If you go back through the movie/show, it doesn’t really work with what happened in the story earlier (see the first season of 24)
It’s a twist that no one cares about. “It was me the whole time!” “Uh, who are you?”
You can see the twist coming from a country mile away (many movies that followed this)
This film avoided all of these. It never cheats, making everything make sense in additional viewings. Shyamalan instead does filmmaking tricks to make the viewer feel like everything is normal. He’ll cut right into a scene of Cole walking through the door where both Malcolm and Lynn are seated, making you think the two of them just had a conversation. Malcolm’s wife, Anna, says something distantly, making you think she’s talking to Malcolm across the table from her when really she’s talking to–herself, I guess.
It’s definitely a twist most of the audience cares about. Not only is it so related to the story and the characters, but it fits in with the theme, making it incredibly cohesive.
Perhaps if the movie was made today, people would be on their guard, as it has been replicated so many times, but Shyamalan hid it so well, did everything in his power to draw attention to it, while also avoiding trap #1, that it completely worked.
So a big twist in his career is that someone who did make such a renowned film became known later for not being as great.
Part of this is because he stagnated, trying to make the same movie again and again. This worked less because he had to be surprising in an area where the surprise was the surprise.
But maybe the second twist is that he’s starting to bounce back.
With Split and a series doing alright on Apple TV, he’s starting to build his name back.
So maybe this person who was once lumped in with Hitchcock, can bounce out of the Michael Bay punchline world.
Is his career dead? Not sure. But if it is, we can see it.
Thanks for reading!