Shyamalan

[coalescent]

It has been brought to my attention that some of my friends are wrongheads on the matter of M. Night Shyamalan's films. Hence:

[Poll #1205761]

EDIT: Martin has the summary poll.

Comments

[secritcrush.livejournal.com]

And let's not forget that the plot of the village was ripped off from a YA book.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I think the YA book was ripped off from some earlier short stories. I don't think the premise has been an original idea since at least 1930.

[penmage.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's generally similar to short stories, but the plot of The Village is disturbingly similar to Margaret Peterson Haddix's excellent Running Out of Time. Definitly worth reading--make your own decision about how similar it is.

[ajr.livejournal.com]

Also: entirely predictable to anyone in the entire world after five seconds. Honestly.

[veggiesu.livejournal.com]

Except for DH, who didn't see the ending coming at all.

[bibliolicious.livejournal.com]

Yes, I spotted it immediately too. Indeed, The Village never really struck me as being a film with a twist - it seemed obvious from the outset that it was a world created on fear, and that was the point.

[ajr.livejournal.com]

Indeed, The Village never really struck me as being a film with a twist

You may well have a point there. Unfortunately for Shyamalan, it was promoted as being a film with a twist, though.

[ktempest.livejournal.com]

actually, it was not. Or rather, what you were supposed to understand is that the twist is an M Night cannon twist -- that there's nothing supernatural going on.

Everyone assumed there would be a twist because he always has twists, but just because it was assumed doesn't mean the marketing specifically said that. (unless you count the "We're actually in the present!) which does count as a twist for people who didn't see it coming.

[ktempest.livejournal.com]

technically, except for the "we're in the present" thing, it didn't have a twist.

[ajr.livejournal.com]

So, what you're saying is, apart from the twist, it didn't have a twist?

[abigail-n.livejournal.com]

I've maintained for a while that The Village would have been an excellent film if only Shyamalan had avoided structuring it as a twist film. If only he'd been up front about the village's true nature, the more successful aspects of the film would have had a chance to shine through.

[veggiesu.livejournal.com]

Signs and The Village were both first half GOOD, second half BAD (using usual GOOD/BAD voting criteria).

[iainjclark.livejournal.com]

I'm ambivalent about the "twist" in The Village (which, yes, I did see coming) but I do love all the playing with fairy tale motifs that the story does, and in particular the fact that the blind woman sets off on a heroic quest to save the handsome young bloke, and not the other way around. Also all the stuff about how we create our own monsters.

[veggiesu.livejournal.com]

I agree with all of this; but I thought the "surprise" ending (which I saw coming but DH did not) was a bit "ta-daa!", you know? It felt like a deliberate reveal, which fell apart the moment you gave it too much thought.

Wait, does this mean you're back? Or still away but not internetally challenged?

[iainjclark.livejournal.com]

Wait, does this mean you're back?

Could be!

/Hong Kong Phooey

[anghara.livejournal.com]

"Signs" was appalling from the get-go. Village had a few things going for it in the beginning - but once I figured it out (and I did, early) the rest was merely tedious.

"Sixth Sense" is good on a superficial level but I *got it*, dammit, within the first five minutes - and once you get it the rest is just a cute story with a good-looking kid who could kind of carry off the acting part of things pretty well. But once you realise that (Sorry, this is a spoiler for anyone on this earth who DOESN'T know what the conceit of Sixth sense is yet) the good doctor NEVER has any contact with anyone other than the kid - when he is in scenes with other adults present he is utterly ignored, and you know, that might happen in the heat of the moment once or maybe twice but not over and over again...) - you realise that he is, kind of, yanno, *not really there*. And that, following a point-blank shooting where he bled out the way he was shown to bleed oout in the first few minutes of the movie - well, it's elementary, Dr Watson, as it were.

I think Shyamalan has somehow managed to build a reputation for twisty scary film-making... and I am damned if I know why.

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[(Anonymous)]

Shimon Z, I want to thank you for taking the time to write and post this very thtgohuful and informative comment. You share some excellent insight.In the interest of full disclosure, what I have discussed in my conversations with Courtenay Bluebird regarding the topic at hand has been based primarily on my personal conversations in the early 1980s with Willard Van Dyke, Beaumont Newhall and others that knew the members of Group f/64. I met Virginia Adams, Ansel's wife, in 1980 and regret that I did not have the opportunity to meet Ansel himself before his untimely death in 1984.My impression from these conversations is that Adams and Weston didn't consider themselves as colleagues of Stieglitz, at least in terms of being his equal. They, without a doubt, greatly valued his support and early encouragement of their careers. They looked up to him and respected him as the demanding grand master.In the video that is referred to briefly above in the essay, Adams tells the story of his first meeting with Stieglitz and how he felt tremendous excitement while also being intimidated by Stieglitz' well established reputation.Overall, though, this is admittedly only one thread in the complex tapestry of the history of photography. I look forward to any future comments you have on Courtenay Bluebird's essays.

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

I protest!

There should be a third option for Signs - bleeding awful.

Though I have said 'Good' to Sixth Sense both inamac and I knew within fifteen minutes that Bruce Willis was... you know. We've seen too much good TV not to recognise that particular plot.

[oracne.livejournal.com]

How about, I still haven't seen any of those. But I did trip over filming for 3 of them.

[keilexandra]

Well, I've only seen THE VILLAGE, but I liked it.

[majuran.livejournal.com]

I didn't realise Signs was so hated... I actually rather liked it....

Great NPR review

[applez.livejournal.com]

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91436761

;-)

Re: Great NPR review

[buymeaclue.livejournal.com]

but he manages to make some of the quasi-scientific nonsense Shyamalan has given him in lieu of dialogue sound like actual speech.

I can only conclude that this reviewer is deaf.

Re: Great NPR review

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

Indeed -- it's so obviously stylised B-movie dialogue.

Re: Great NPR review

[ninebelow.livejournal.com]

Give it up.

Re: Great NPR review

[applez.livejournal.com]

Ha! At least the reviewer is perceptive.

Shyamalan, whose career has been offering ever-diminishing returns to audiences and to the studios who back him, has lately been on a mission to repair his rep. He does not, he told both The New York Times and Los Angeles Times, want to be known as the "guy who makes the scary movie with the twist" — a plaint that would seem more heartfelt if he'd write or direct something other than a scary movie with a twist. (Yeah, yeah, I know: Stuart Little. But that was nearly a decade ago).

Actually, as The Happening is neither terribly scary, nor all that twisty, he needn't have distressed himself. The bigger danger, after The Village and The Lady in the Water, is that he'll become known as the guy who makes the inane movie with the risible premise.

Re: Great NPR review

[buymeaclue.livejournal.com]

Nodnod. Definitely. And it bums me out, because I really do think he's trying to do some interesting stuff. I just wish he'd do it in less opaque ways.

[kelyantar.livejournal.com]

Where's the "I enjoyed it when I was 21" option?

Sometimes "good" and "enjoyable" are two different things.

[wychwood]

Signs was good! And Unbreakable was surprisingly worthwhile, I felt. I'd have liked the Sixth Sense better if one of my housemates hadn't wandered through the room and correctly identified the twist about five minutes before the reveal (she'd never seen it either, so it wasn't malicious, but I was Not Happy *g*) but it was still worth watching.

[bohemiancoast.livejournal.com]

I liked Sixth Sense a great deal, although I caught the twist about an hour into the film (and count myself very very lucky that I didn't catch it ten minutes in; I did actually think, fleetingly, 'what a stupid movie plot, everyone knows you don't recover from that sort of abdominal shooting' but luckily I disengaged my brain at that point). I would have preferred not to catch on for the whole movie, on the whole.

I liked Unbreakable quite a lot; imperfect in places but really very clever on the whole.

I haven't seen any of the others due to consistently bad reports. Is that a mistake? I don't think I know what the twists are other than the one in The Village. (Isn't it on a t-shirt)?