Review of The Sixth Sense

1. M. Night Shyamalan (1970-present) is an Indian screenwriter, film director and producer. He is known for making movies with contempary supernatural plots that climax with a twist ending. 

One of the special characteristic of his movies is he filming his movies and staging his plots around Philadelphia, Pemmsylvania, the palce where he was raised. 

The movies that bring M.Night Shtamalan to the top of the world including Oscar-nominated smash The Sixth Sense(1999), the Bruce Willis superhero origin story Unbreakable(2000), the alien thriller Signs(2002), American psychological thriller film The Village (2004) and American supernatural thriller film The Happening (2008).  

Shyamalan gained international recognition when he wrote and directed The Sixth Sense, which was a commercial success and nominated for six Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay.

2. The movie start with a child psychologist Malcom Crowe visited by an ex-patient named Vincent, who is angry and despressed. Vincent shoot Crowe and kills himself. 

After this encounter, Crowe takes on the task of curing a 9-year old young boy named Cole with the same ills as the ex-patient. 

The young by claimed that he sees dead people who do not know they are dead. He became so depressed and he is called a freak in school. Cole doesn’t understand his power, and he terrified by what he sees.

 Therefore, Crowe spending a lot of time with Cole and help Cole to control his power by helping the people who had died. However, as the doctor digs deeper into Cole's strange powers, it leads to strange and unexpected consequences for both of them.

3. The Sixth Sense is a not assume as horror genre because the film depends mostly on in- depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. 

However, the horror genre is intended to frighten the audience or startle audience by inducing feeling of horror and terror.  M. Night Shyamalan takes advantage of this and uses the horror genre to subvert our expectations. When I watched the film, I thought I will be scare and screaming, but at last I were touched by the sad incident that occurs to the main characters in The Sixth Sense.

The Sixth Sense is blend of psychological drama and horrific imagery. 

There are moments when audience touched by the emotional connection and relationship between the little boy Cole and his mother. The central issue of the movie is not the Cole can see ghosts. The crucial to the film’s success is his relationship with his mother. When Cole decided not to hide things from his mother, the films reached to the climax and touched audience so much. The powerful mother-son relationships become the core of the film. 

Besides that, I also touched by the scene when the main character Crowe’s wife confessed her love to Crowe at the last part.  Although there are moments when audience frighten by the disturbing images were shown but the whole film deal with the human emotions more. Therefore, the genre of the film is in drama rather than horror.

Anna talks in her sleep. ANNA I miss you. MALCOLM I miss you. ANNA Why, Malcolm? MALCOLM What, Anna? What did I do? What’s made you so sad? ANNA Why did you leave me? MALCOLM (with moist eyes) I didn’t leave you.

4.  M Night Shyamalan developed his character very well. 

The exposition of the plot is The Sixth Sense start with Dr. Malcolm Crowe received an award for outstanding work in the field of psychology for children. Unfortunately, he failed one of his patients which is called Vincent Gray. He has grown up but he still plagued with his problems. After he blames Crowe, he use gun wound Crowe and then kill himself. After a few months, he had found another child suffering from the same symptoms -- Cole Sear. Cole is a withdrawn child who doesn't have friends and gets teased at school. His mother is worried about him and seeks help but nobody can seem to help him--except Crowe.

The plot reached rising action when Crowe talks with Cole and tries to get him to open up. When he finally does, he admits a terrible secret. "I see dead people." Four words, and with them, the course of the film changes. The Sixth Sense is no longer about the emotional trouble this kid is having. Instead, it's about Malcolm's fight to beat the kid's problems. He was helping Cole to get over the trauma of seeing dead people by guides Cole to help these ghost resting of their souls.

I see dead people

The film reached the climax when Cole confesses his secret to his mother. Although his mother at first does not believe him, Cole soon tells Lynn that her own mother once went to see her perform in a dance recital one night when she was a child, and that Lynn was not aware of this because her mother stayed in the back of the audience where she could not be seen. He also tells her the answer to a question she asked when alone at her mother's grave. Lynn tearfully accepts this as the truth. Cole also counsels Crowe on his marriage, suggesting he try talking to his wife while she is asleep.

 Crowe returns to his home, where he finds his wife asleep on the couch with the couple's wedding video on in the background, not for the first time is the falling action of the plot. As she sleeps, Anna's hand releases Malcolm's wedding ring revealing the twist ending of the film: Crowe himself was actually killed by Vincent and was unknowingly dead the entire time he was working with Cole.

Lastly, the denouement of the plot is Crowe's realized unfinished business rectifying his failure to understand Vincent is finally complete. Recalling Cole's advice, Crowe speaks to his sleeping wife and fulfills the second reason he returned, saying she was "never second," and that he loves her. Releasing her to move on with her own life, he is free to leave behind the world of the living.

  

5. A plot twist is a radical change in the expected direction or outcome of the plot of film. 

It is a important and common practice in narration to keep the interest of an audience. If the narration can be predicted by audience, the film will bored them. 

Besides that, when plot twist happens near the end of a story, it will change one’s view about the prediction event in the film. It is also known as surprise ending. The best plot twist is an unexpected one. This means something happens that the audience could in no way infer was going to happen, or perhaps a change in the story that might not have been completely unexpected, but occurred at a completely unexpected time in the story. 

In the film of The Sixth Sense, the audience were shocked by the ending of the film. This is because the main character Crowe has been death all along but he didn’t realized until he recalled his memory when he visited his wife.

Reference

1. Spoiler Warnings (2010). Crtical Approaches to the Films of M. Night Shyamalan. Palgrave Macmillan. pg 71-74. Retrieved from http://books.google.com.my/booksid=lZrGAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA71&lpg=PA71&dq=Critical+Approaches+to+the+Films+of+M.+Night+Shyamalan&source=bl&ots=63fPHvmQ5k&sig=Pm4BeI1uIrw1lNR8y4G8UYGJ_ks&hl=en&sa=X&ei=7x0lUbMBoiHrgervYDoDw&ved=0CEMQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=Critical%20Approaches%20to%20the%20Films%20of%20M.%20Night%20Shyamalan&f=false. 

2. Kyle Buchanan (2013). Vulture. Is This the Moment Where It Started Going Wrong for M. Night Shyamalan? Retrived from http://www.vulture.com/2013/05/the-buried-secret-of-m-night shyamalan.html. 

3.Rotten Tomato(1999).  The Sixth Sense. Retrieved from http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/sixth_sense/. 

4. IMDb(1999). Plot Summary. The Sixth Sense. Retrieved from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0167404/plotsummary. 

5. Ralph Stuart Singleton, James A. Conrad and Janna Wong Healy (2000). Filmmaker's dictionary. Lone Eagle Pub. Co. p. 229. ISBN 978-1-58065-022-9. 

6. Judith Kay and Rosemary Gelshenen ( 2001). Discovering Fiction Student's Book 2: A Reader of American Short Stories. Cambridge University Press. p. 65. ISBN 978-0-521-00351-3. 

7. Boyd Petrie( 2000). The Sixth Sense. Retrieved from http://rhinoxsis.homestead.com/zMsixth.html.

8. IMDb(1999). Synopsis for The Sixth Sense. Retrived from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0167404/synopsis.