The movies of M Night Shyamalan
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M Night Shyamalan
M Night Shyamalan (Manoj Nelliattu Shyamalan) was born in India in 1970 and spent just the first few weeks of his life there, before returning with his mother to America. He grew up in Pennsylvania, and many of his films are set in Philadelphia.
Shyamalan's first movie - Praying with Anger - was filmed when he was still a student at NYU. His second movie - Wide Awake - was released in 1998. The following year Shyamalan became a household name when he made the highly successful Sixth Sense.
Shyamalan is married with two children.
(Photograph of Shyamalan on the set of The Village by Frank Masi, © 2004 Touchstone Pictures, fair use illustration of a lens about M Night Shyamalan)
100 Best Movies Pick
The Sixth Sense
The original twist in the tale
The Sixth Sense is still my favourite of Shyamalan's movies, although the twists probably now seem obvious after the work outs our brains receive from other twist movies, and the rest of Shyamalan's films.
Bruce Willis plays a child psychologist (Dr Malcolm Crowe) recovering from a traumatic experience after one of his former patients committed suicide in front of him.
Crowe is sent to the home of single mom Lynn Sear and her son Cole (Haley Joel Osment). Despite Crowe's doubts about his effectiveness as a councellor, he gets Cole to open up to him. Cole tells Crowe that he believes he sees dead people.
Crowe advises Cole to try to use his gift and discover what his purpose is. Cole begins the process by assisting the ghost of a young girl (Mischa Barton) to provide her father with evidence of her murder.
Rent The Sixth Sense from Intelliflix.
Bruce Willis plays a child psychologist (Dr Malcolm Crowe) recovering from a traumatic experience after one of his former patients committed suicide in front of him.
Crowe is sent to the home of single mom Lynn Sear and her son Cole (Haley Joel Osment). Despite Crowe's doubts about his effectiveness as a councellor, he gets Cole to open up to him. Cole tells Crowe that he believes he sees dead people.
Crowe advises Cole to try to use his gift and discover what his purpose is. Cole begins the process by assisting the ghost of a young girl (Mischa Barton) to provide her father with evidence of her murder.
Rent The Sixth Sense from Intelliflix.
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The Sixth Sense on Amazon
The Village
A reversal of the theme
I loved The Village - it is my second favourite after The Sixth Sense. I think many people were disappointed in this one though, following expectations set up in movies like Signs and The Sixth Sense - but I think this is where The Village pulls through with a clever charm of its own. I would advise anyone watching this for the first time not to "expect" anything. Just watch.
A bucolic and peaceful village is run by a group of elders, among them Alice (Sigourney Weaver) and Edward (William Hurt). The village has a tenuous truce with the creatures that roam the forest surrounding it, known only as "Those we don't speak of". These creatures are attracted by the colour red - so any red flowers are destroyed the moment they appear, and no one wears red.
A love triangle forms when Edward's blind daughter, Ivy (Bryce Dallas Howard), acts on her attraction to Alice's son Lucius (Joaquin Phoenix), while rebuffing the attention of the mentally unstable Noah (Adrien Brody). A jealous Noah stabs Lucius, shattering the flimsy peace and security the elders had sought.
And so Ivy must brave the dangers of the forest to reach the towns beyond and beg for medical supplies to save Lucius's life.
Rent The Village from Intelliflix.
A bucolic and peaceful village is run by a group of elders, among them Alice (Sigourney Weaver) and Edward (William Hurt). The village has a tenuous truce with the creatures that roam the forest surrounding it, known only as "Those we don't speak of". These creatures are attracted by the colour red - so any red flowers are destroyed the moment they appear, and no one wears red.
A love triangle forms when Edward's blind daughter, Ivy (Bryce Dallas Howard), acts on her attraction to Alice's son Lucius (Joaquin Phoenix), while rebuffing the attention of the mentally unstable Noah (Adrien Brody). A jealous Noah stabs Lucius, shattering the flimsy peace and security the elders had sought.
And so Ivy must brave the dangers of the forest to reach the towns beyond and beg for medical supplies to save Lucius's life.
Rent The Village from Intelliflix.
The Village on Amazon
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Unbreakable
The mythology of comic book heroes and villians
In Bruce Willis's second role in an M Night film, he plays David Dunn, a man who survives a train crash that kills every other passenger. His story attracts the attention of Elijah Price (Samuel L Jackson) who theorises that Dunn is his exact opposite - Dunn is unbreakable, whereas Elijah was born with osteogenesis imperfecta, a rare disorder that makes his bones vulnerable to breakage from the slightest bump or fall.
As the two men get to know each other, Elijah also notices that Dunn has a "sixth sense" - he can read people's intentions when they brush past him. Elijah encourages Dunn to act on his abilities and become the superhero he is destined to be. But if Dunn is the hero, that means his opposite must be the villian - there are no middle roles.
Rent Unbreakable from Intelliflix.
As the two men get to know each other, Elijah also notices that Dunn has a "sixth sense" - he can read people's intentions when they brush past him. Elijah encourages Dunn to act on his abilities and become the superhero he is destined to be. But if Dunn is the hero, that means his opposite must be the villian - there are no middle roles.
Rent Unbreakable from Intelliflix.
Broken?... Never!
Unbreakable on Amazon
Lady in the Water
Slightly refreshing
Okay - M Night's movies are usually weird, but this one tips over into downright odd. It's based on a bedtime story he told his children; they're going to grow up to be a little warped, I think.
Cleveland Heep (Paul Giamatti) is a sweet-natured apartment building superintendent hiding a traumatic past. Along with the eclectic group of characters living in his building, Heep finds himself drawn into a bizarre mystery when he helps a young woman (Bryce Dallas Howard, in her second role) who has been living in his pool. Is destiny involved, or is everyone just a little crazy?
Cleveland Heep (Paul Giamatti) is a sweet-natured apartment building superintendent hiding a traumatic past. Along with the eclectic group of characters living in his building, Heep finds himself drawn into a bizarre mystery when he helps a young woman (Bryce Dallas Howard, in her second role) who has been living in his pool. Is destiny involved, or is everyone just a little crazy?
Lady in the Water on Amazon
Interesting...
Trivia tid bits about the movies
- In 1995 Bruce Willis played a character called "Cole" in Twelve Monkeys (another of my favourite twisty movies). He says the line: "All I see here are dead people." Twelve Monkeys is also set in Philadelphia.
- Look out for the symbolic use of the colour red. In The Sixth Sense it's the colour of death. In The Village red is the evil colour of the creatures' robes that must not appear around the settlement. In Signs Shyamalan's character drives a red truck, and in Lady in the Water his character lives in a red apartment.
- In Unbreakable the colours green and purple are used as opposites: Dunn always wears green, Price always wears purple. When Dunn senses evil intentions in people, they are shown dressed in brighter, more distinctive colours than those around them.
- Water is another theme which comes into full use in Lady in the Water. In both Signs and Unbreakable water is a danger to some of the characters.
- A version of the script for The Village was stolen and distributed on the Internet several months before it was released.
- Bruce Willis, Joaquin Phoenix, and Bryce Dallas Howard have all done two films each with Shyamalan.
Signs
Can you read them?
Signs stars Mel Gibson as former preacher Graham Hess who lost his faith following his wife's death in a car accident.
Hess's peaceful farm life is disrupted when he and his brother Merrill (Joaquin Phoenix in his first Shyamalan role) discover crop circles in their field.
Before long it becomes clear that aliens are responsible, and Hess's family and community look to him for guidance in a situation nobody has any manual, training, or equipment for. Except, perhaps, Graham Hess and his family of misfits.
Rent Signs from Intelliflix.
Hess's peaceful farm life is disrupted when he and his brother Merrill (Joaquin Phoenix in his first Shyamalan role) discover crop circles in their field.
Before long it becomes clear that aliens are responsible, and Hess's family and community look to him for guidance in a situation nobody has any manual, training, or equipment for. Except, perhaps, Graham Hess and his family of misfits.
Rent Signs from Intelliflix.
Signs on Amazon
The Happening
The latest M Night offering
The Happening stars Mark Wahlberg, Zooey Deschanel, and John Leguizamo, and centres around a couple on the run after an event that causes mass suicides.I have to say I was rather disappointed with this one.
M Night Shyamalan's cameos and roles
- The Sixth Sense: Shyamalan is the doctor who checks up on Cole in the hospital after his experience at the birthday party.
- The Village: A voice cameo at the end of the film - his reflection is seen briefly in a glass pane.
- Unbreakable: He is a drug dealer who attempts to get into the stadium.
- Signs: Shyamalan plays the longer role of Ray, who caused the death of Graham's (Mel Gibson) wife.
- Lady in the Water: Shyamalan takes a main role in this movie, playing Vic, a writer destined to change the world.
Plagued by plagiarism gripes
Influenced or copied?
Shyamalan has occasionally been accused of plagiarising the works of others.
- Shyamalan says that The Sixth Sense was influenced by an episode of the television series "Are you afraid of the dark?"
- Publishers claimed that the concept of The Village is apparently very close to the book Running Out of Time by Margaret Peterson Haddix.
- Signs has scenes reminiscent of The War of the Worlds, Night of the Living Dead, and E.T.. M Night says that he was inspired by The Birds and Invasion of the Body Snatcher.
M Night Shyamalan movies on eBay
Lens content copyright © Elsa Neal, 2006-2010. All rights reserved.
by daoine
Fiction Writing and Creativity editor for BellaOnline.com and the owner of hearwritenow.com
Elsa Neal is a writer living in Melbourne, Australia. She...
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