Change the First Letter to "C"

Film: Trap
Format: DVD from Sycamore Public Library on basement television.

I wonder sometimes how many chances someone should get. I’ve given M. Night Shyamalan a bunch of chances based on the strength of a couple of his movies. The Sixth Sense was great for the time, although I have since discovered that I like Stir of Echoes much more. He’s had a few good movies, though, but has also had some legendary stinkers. I went into Trap knowing that reviews were mixed (at best), but having at least respected both Split and Knock at the Cabin. And, truthfully, any good will he earned from those movies he has lost with this one.

The set-up for Trap is an interesting one until you actually discover what the set-up is. The tag line is “30,000 fans. 300 cops. 1 serial killer. No escape.” What that sounds like to me is that there’s going to be some sort of massive concert (check) where a serial killer is operating, suddenly presented with a huge number of possible victims (not so much). That’s a movie I would find interesting to watch. Trap is not that. Instead, what this movie includes is a massive concert where a serial killer is in attendance with his daughter and somehow the cops know he’s there and are working to catch him while he tries to get out undiscovered.

Dissociative Identities

Film: Split
Format: DVD from Sycamore Public Library on basement television.

There was a period of three or four years when I collected comics. It started when I had a couple of college roommates who were active collectors and ended about six months after I got married and needed to start saving money to buy a house. Suddenly, $30-$40 per week no longer made sense. I say this because during that time, one of my favorite series was called The Badger. It featured a superhero who also had about eight distinct personalities, one of which was a world-class martial artist who went toe-to-toe with demons, aliens, and more. I say this because it’s relevant when looking at Split from a few years ago.

I don’t know if it’s unique in movies, but Split is a sort of parallel film with Unbreakable. What I mean is that the film Glass is a direct sequel to both Unbreakable and Split. This odd trilogy is an exploration by M. Night Shyamalan (who I tend to call M. Night Shame-about-your-last-film) into the idea of superheroes and the supernatural. At least that’s what I presume it’s about; I haven’t seen Glass.

Who's There?

Film: Knock at the Cabin
Format: DVD from Sycamore Public Library on rockin’ flatscreen.

Remember 1999, and how much promise M. Night Shyamalan had? When The Sixth Sense came out, it felt like there was a new, powerful voice in film, and Unbreakable was interesting as well. And then, well, his career started to drop off pretty dramatically. People still allow him to make movies despite the fact that his name is on both The Lady in the Water and The Last Airbender, which is arguably the worst television-to-movie adaptation in history. That being the case, I went into Knock at the Cabin with some worries.

The problem with Shyamalan is not that his ideas aren’t good, but that his follow-through is often lacking. He makes some bad choices, frankly. A lot of that is because, thanks to his first few movies, it seems like he finds it necessary to cobble in a twist near the ending of the film, and that often happens to the story’s detriment. Twists are great, but they’re also really risky, and Shyamalan came up snake eyes a bunch of times in a row. It’s also worth saying that because this is a Shyamalan film and he lives or dies on those twists, you should expect the rest of this to be under a spoiler tag.

Wednesday Horror: The Village

Film: The Village
Format: DVD from Sycamore Public Library on rockin’ flatscreen.

It is not without some trepidation that I enter into a film with M. Night Shyamalan’s name attached to it, especially with him as the director. His movies are hit or miss for me, and even the ones that hit (particularly Signs and The Sixth Sense) I like less than just about everyone else. Even if I liked The Sixth Sense especially more than I do, I’d have some issues with Shyamalan based solely on The Last Airbender, which is an absolute travesty of a film, especially considering just how damn good the source material is. So I can’t say that I went into The Village with an entirely open mind.

The problem with a lot (read: pretty much all) of Shyamalan’s movies is that they rely on a twist. At least that’s the knock against him. That twist ending is what worked for him in both The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, and it’s what has more often than not been the cause of much of his downfall. We expect the twist from him now, so it’s much harder for that to work. The Village does have a twist moment where everything suddenly becomes clear and perspective changes, and, true to form, it’s this twist that damages the way the movie is ultimately perceived.

Off Script: Signs

Film: Signs
Format: DVD from Sycamore Public Library on rockin’ flatscreen.

As hard as it may be to believe, there was a time when people believed in the various talents of M. Night Shyamalan. While his first couple of films were no great thing, his third film, The Sixth Sense was a significant breakthrough. His second major film, Unbreakable, didn’t get the same critical acclaim, but still gets a lot of love in the movie nerd circles for being a unique take on the super hero genre. Signs was his third major film, and it gets a lot of love from a lot of people as well. For me, though, this is where Shyamalan started to lose his edge.

Even if you haven’t seen Signs, you probably know the basic plot. Farmer Graham Hess (Mel Gibson) and his family find a crop circle in their corn field, which is located a few dozen miles outside of Philadelphia. A few strange events occur in the area—people showing up in the local town, causing problems, and then disappearing and animals acting strangely. In fact, one of Hess’s dogs seems to go crazy and has to be killed by Morgan (Rory Culkin), Graham’s asthmatic son. Graham also lives with his young daughter Bo (Abigail Breslin) and his younger brother Merrill (Joaquin Phoenix), a failed minor league baseball player. It’s important to know off the top that Graham’s wife was killed when the local vet (Shyamalan himself) fell asleep while driving and struck her. It’s also important to note that this event caused Graham Hess to give up his position in the local pulpit, not that this stops anyone from calling him “Father.”

Tyler Durden says, "Watch These Twice!"

Films: The Sixth Sense, Fight Club
Format: DVD from DeKalb Public Library on laptop (The Sixth Sense), DVD from personal collection on laptop (Fight Club).



















I am always suspicious of people whose names appear to be too perfect. M. Night Shyamalan, for instance, writes and directs movies about disturbing, dark things, and his middle name is “Night.” It’s a little too perfect. I prefer to imagine that his real middle name is something like Gary and that he changed it for effect. Maybe I’m wrong and that’s his real name. If so, I apologize to Mr. Shyamalan, but if I’m right…

Regardless, Shyamalan tends to create movies that use a shock ending or a huge twist as their stock in trade. It’s what initially made him famous with the release of The Sixth Sense, and what viewers of his movies always look for with every new one. David Fincher’s films don’t necessarily have that problem, but he doesn’t always shy away from them either, and never more effectively than in Fight Club. These two films depend in some way on the big reveal, or the big surprise to get to the end. Because of that, they’re nearly impossible to discuss without giving up that big reveal.

***HERE THERE BE SPOILERS***

The magical moment of The Sixth Sense is not when young Cole (Haley Joel Osment) says the now-famous “I see dead people” line. Instead, it’s the big reveal when we discover that Dr. Crowe (Bruce Willis) didn’t survive the attack by his former patient at the start of the movie. It’s a moment that works and works brilliantly. Some people like to claim that they saw the end coming, that they knew all along, and I don’t believe them. It’s brilliantly handled throughout the film.

Dr. Crowe appears to interact with people around him, and at times, those people appear to interact with him as well, but this is something we do ourselves in the watching of the movie. It’s on the second viewing that it becomes evident that his wife really doesn’t see him, that he never really speaks with Cole’s mother (Toni Collette), and that he really doesn’t ever interact with anyone but Cole himself.

Because of this, watching The Sixth Sense a second time is an entirely different experience than watching it the first time. Once you’re aware of what the great secret behind story is, you can see all of the foreshadowing that Shyamalan put there, which allows the film to work at a second level. It still functions as a thriller, but the scary moments are far less so once you also know what it is the spirits Cole sees are after.

The same is true of Fight Club. Here, of course, the big reveal moment is when it becomes evident that the narrator (Edward Norton) and Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) are actually the same person. Interestingly, though, this doesn’t so much change the view of the entire movie as it does the single character of Marla Singer (Helena Bonham Carter). On a first viewing, Marla is, bluntly, a crazy bitch who acts not only as Tyler’s special friend in the bedroom but also as a constant thorn in the side of the narrator. On a second viewing, knowing that the two men are sharing the same body, Marla becomes the most sympathetic character in the film. Instead of her driving the narrator insane, the narrator himself is treating her like garbage.

And here is where the two movies diverge for me completely. The Sixth Sense is brilliant in its own way, mostly because of the expert handling of that shock reveal. There are legitimately enough clues in the film to see that Dr. Crowe is one of the spirits haunting Cole, but this is handled deftly enough that it isn’t obvious until a second viewing. This is not as true in Fight Club, where the clues are much less obvious.

***THUS ENDETH THE SPOILERS***

In addition to the secret surprise ending, The Sixth Sense trades on a few tremendous scares and a couple of iconic moments. The most famous line from the film, arguably one of the greatest of the last 20 years or so, is the young boy lying in a hospital bed, saying, “I see dead people” to his psychologist. Other scenes rank highly, though. Cole sitting in his tent, seeing his breath in the air made freezing by the presence of a ghost, the clothespins holding the blankets together snapping off one by one, for instance, is still effective. Once we as the audience realize that Cole’s seeing of dead people is reality and not insanity, we begin to accept their presence regardless of how terrifying that presence might be.

But the very major twist at the end of the film that makes The Sixth Sense so iconic as a movie, and what made it work so well, is also the very thing that makes further rewatching of the movie less interesting. The first time gives us the surprise, the second gives us the chance to pick up on all of the dropped hints…and after that, there are no surprises left.

It reminds me of the Shirley Jackson story “The Lottery.” I can remember being assigned that for the first time in school and being surprised at the way the story ended. Then I was assigned the story a second time by a different teacher the next year in school. And like The Sixth Sense, it was a completely different story the second time around. And then I was assigned it again. And again. And again. Finally, the last time I was assigned that story in a class, I came back the next day and commented to the class at large that I found the story funny. The rest of the class didn’t see it, but I had read that story so many times, over and over, that it had lost its ability to surprise me or frighten me. The Sixth Sense is like that. After a couple of viewings, there is nothing more for it to give.

Often, two different movie companies in Hollywood will release very similar films at almost the exact same time. Armageddon and Deep Impact, for instance, or Volcano and Dante’s Peak. Roughly a month after The Sixth Sense came out, another film with similar themes was released. Stir of Echoes is also about a young boy who sees dead people and is compelled to help them. Sadly, Stir of Echoes was lost in the furor around The Sixth Sense despite the fact that it is in many ways a much better movie. The young boy is far more tragic, there is no reveal that prevents multiple rewatchings, and the ending is so existentially terrifying that, at least for me, it is also significantly more affecting.

Fight Club doesn’t have this problem. While the movie is different a second time, it also continues to reveal little subtleties every time it is watched. Fight Club works not because of a particular piece of cinematic sleight of hand, but because it is about far more than just the secret it carries. Fight Club is all about the irony, not the shock.

What makes Fight Club tick is the disparity between Tyler Durden’s spoken philosophy and the reality of what that philosophy becomes in practice. At one point, in an impassioned speech, Tyler says to the audience, “You're not your job. You're not how much money you have in the bank. You're not the car you drive. You're not the contents of your wallet.” It’s a good, solid philosophy, one that I find fairly life affirming. I am more than my job and my car. But over the course of the movie, when Tyler’s and the narrator’s personal path of self destruction gets truly underway and they begin Project Mayhem, the men who have decided to be more than the contents of their wallet become something far less. While they may be more than the contents of their wallets and more than their cars, at the center of Project Mayhem, they all dress the same way, all look the same, and have even surrendered their names. In trying to be something other than what society wants, they instead become less than they were, a nearly perfect irony. It’s an irony foreshadowed by the narrator’s taking a different fake name at every support group he goes to.

Beyond this, Fight Club features a narrator capable of the most staggering observations, most of which are tossed off as blithe asides, simply thrown away and yet worth remembering. It’s a movie worthy of studying simply because the observations are fascinating and the way in which they are revealed is so forthright and upfront that there is nothing else like it. How can you ignore lines like, “If I did have a tumor, I’d name it Marla. Marla. The little scratch on the roof of your mouth that would heal if only you could stop tonguing it, but you can’t.”

So ultimately, Fight Club works better because it’s a movie that can be watched over and over, while The Sixth Sense really doesn’t function well after the second viewing. It’s worth noting that after directing Fight Club, director David Fincher went on to direct Panic Room, Zodiac, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. M. Night Shyamalan hasn’t done anything but, in general, disappoint his audience since the release of The Sixth Sense.

Why to watch The Sixth Sense: A few iconic moments and the line “I see dead people.”
Why not to watch: You’ve already seen it twice or you’ve seen the superior Stir of Echoes.

Why to watch Fight Club: It’s made of equal parts awesome and rock and roll.
Why not to watch: Because you’re a lily-livered Nancy boy.