Night Falls – An elegy for my hero
About 2/3rds into the execrable LADY IN THE WATER, there’s a scene where two characters speak outside the building in a medium shot, exit the scene, followed by a pan of the camera to the building door. The framing now is almost a wide shot. The reason why I am describing shot sizes is to put in perspective some basic rules of horror grammar (itself a modification of thriller grammar).
The way it works is, you build the tension in a close up, with jarring and edgy music, offer relief by cutting to a wide/long shot (where you ease up the music cue), since bad things rarely happen when you can see so clearly, then cut to a medium shot, almost like saying, sorry folks – fake scare – let’s move on with the story, and bring the monster out in this medium shot with minimal sound effect.
Shyamalan is a master director. He knows how to use it without flaunting. Of all the contemporary directors, none can match his ability to create mood/ambience visually and more specifically with stellar sound design. Watch his movies on mute, and you will be robbed of 3/4th the experience. The maths don’t add up, but it makes sense.
Back to Lady, a movie I love hating on. The above mentioned scene of the entrance to the building in wide shot (sorry I can’t find the clip). Those that don’t know the movie – there are some monsters from some water world on the prowl in the apartment complex surroundings.
The door against the wall, starts closing ever so slowly. The angle is such that you see a little behind the door as it closes, and I craned my neck to see what was behind that fucking door. I was waiting for the jolt, for the dead resident mauled by the monster, for the monster to run out the closing door. What does Manoj do?
The monster comes from behind the camera, across the frame in plain view and slips into the building just as the door is about to shut. It lasts 2 secs, and not only does he create tension/suspense, but he relieves it with a great unassuming horror reveal.
This scene for me, finally unlocked the mystery behind Shyamalan’s writing, beautiful and deliberate misdirection, and stellar success when it succeeds as in 6th and UBreakable.
****SPOILER ALERT****
In Sixth, it goes like this –
Look at this kid, he’s so weird.
Look at this kid, he’s really weird.
Bruce thinks, yeah he’s really fucking weird all right.
Look at Bruce, he’s dead!
In plain sight.
In Unbreakable, it goes like this –
Look at Bruce, he may be superman.
Wow, Bruce may actually be superman.
Samuel thinks, I was right he is superhero-man.
Look at Jackson, he’s supervillain. They call him Mr.Glass.
In plain motherfucking sight. I have heard a lot of people that said they saw the twist coming in Unbreakable, I call bullshit. You did not know!
Anyway, I did not watch Lady at the cinema. After Signs, I was so disappointed in Night, that I could start smelling the suck in his movies from the preview. So I didn’t watch The Village, but someone gifted me a DVD (the downfall or upside of being an Indian filmmaker in America, is every non-indian person you meet thinks you want to be Shyamalan, and I always correct them and say Pre-Signs Manoj). I caught Lady on a plane. I took away two stellar scenes from Lady.
The other one is when Giamatti and Bryce are standing atop a stairwell waiting for the monster to come. It’s a scene that he did in Village, where they are in a tree house looking down the hatch waiting for the “monster” to come. Both brilliantly executed scenes. The rest of both movies is abysmal with nary a saving grace.
Let’s get into Subrat’s time machine and travel to 1999. Sixth Sense had just been released and I refused to watch the movie for some reason or the other. I had just moved to the US and didn’t have my current filmerotic desires. Fortunately, those around me didn’t spoil the movie for me, and didn’t reveal the tyuist. They are better peeps than I. I remember when Gupt came out in 1996/7, I went around all over town telling people Kajol is the killer. Yeah, I’m like that.
I watched Sixth and thought, wow. That’s great. I can write something like that.
But before that I was convinced that he had cheated. So I watched the movie over and over again, to catch him fooling us by having a character speak to or look at the dead Bruce. He didn’t. He created the impression. So strong was his understanding of cinema grammar, and storytelling that he fooled us without cheating.
SS started as a serial killer movie that Night was writing. The Willis character was a crime scene photographer, and the serial killer was leaving a particular drawing as his signature. Bruce goes to his troubled son’s school and while he’s waiting outside his class, he notices kids’ drawings on the bulletin board, and one drawing catches his eye. It is identical to the killer’s. He leans in closer (in typical Shyamalan style – I can just imagine how this scene would have played), and sees the artist is his Son! He was seeing the dead victims.
Legend has it that it wasn’t till the 5th (or 7th or 12th – pick ur version) draft that he realized Bruce was dead. And it took him, 5 more drafts to move away from serial killer to what it turned out, set it all right and execute properly.
Sixth Sense was one of the top 10 grossing films of all time, put Night on the map, made his grandmother in Chennai world famous in akkha India, and had agents in Hollywood torturing all screenwriters with the Q, “Where’s the tyuist?”
It was not until I started writing this post that I realized how much my short story Frigid owed the Sixth Sense. Please bare with the segue as I toot my horn for a bit. I rarely cast a kind eye upon anything I have done, but I am also not a fake modesty guy. If I do something good, I’ll be the first to proclaim it. My writing in Frigid could have been better but I’ll be damned if someone denies the energy of my ideas and the clarity of expression.
I had imbibed subconsciously the essence of The Sixth Sense after all those repeated viewings.
If you take a moment to understand what you fear, and listen to it, you will realize that there is nothing to fear but fear itself.
Frigid started as a story about a 10-year-old boy afraid of his refrigerator. With each draft, it changed. It became a girl, all the sexual elements fell into place, and it became a coming of age story of the girl and the country, and the associated fears. And then I had my Night moment. Machines are trying to talk to us in Morse Code. We fear what we don’t understand.
When Night hawked Sixth to studios, everyone loved it immediately and were willing to greenlight it without any changes to the script. That alone is a rarity and an achievement in Hollywood. But Night held out. He would sell it only if he could direct it. Perhaps he took his cue from screenwriter Stallone when he refused to sell Rocky unless he starred in it, or screenwriters Damon-Affleck refusing to sell Good Will Hunting unless they starred in it. It takes balls and great self-confidence, and Shyamalan was rewarded much like those that inspired him. He became a star.
Of course it could not have happened without Bruce consenting. Bruce watched Manoj’s only other released film (his first film Praying With Anger did not get a release and I am yet to lay my hands on it) Wide Awake, and said, “The kid knows his stuff.”
Unbreakable came a year later in 2000. He started writing it when he was in post on Sixth. Around that time, Cast Away came out, and Night had a moment of fear. Shit! They are making my idea. Guy survives crash. Then he saw how lame the movie was and thought, no one is going to write my angle. It was by design meant to be a 1-2 punch, hence the similarities between his two films.
Unbreakable changed my life. It made me believe the myth of Hollywood that if you have a killer script, you too will make it. It does’nt matter what race you are or where ur from or that ur not Jewish (all untrue for the most part, but it’s too late now for me to stop dreaming). This was also the film where I learned about character arc, plot points, turning points etc., due to its similarity with 6th. I noticed the pattern, and thought in my immense naivette, I can do that! I had not read a single screenwriting book till that point.
A lot of people have dissed Unbreakable, but no one has yet presented a coherent argument against it. You have one? Bring it. I’ll take you on. But be forewarned, I’ll knock you out before the third round. And I’m wearing knuckle dusters.
The only problem I have with Unbreakable is the timing of the ending, and the moment of exit. A movie climax is much like sex. If you are experienced (and have been working out your PC muscle), you can separate the orgasm from the ejaculation, which can help you achieve multiples, and hang in there while your partner comes. But the most important part — The Cuddle. To savor the experience, let her heart rate come down, and wait for the fluttering to stop. And then you gotta make away like a bandit before the light goes on and you see her face.
Here is the last scene from Unbreakable from an earlier draft.
***********************************
EXT. STREET – DAY
Downtown Philadelphia.
People move up and down the sidewalks in front of the
storefronts. David Dunne is among them.
He crosses the street in front of The Limited Edition.
The front doors of the store are open.
A banner over the door reads, “Annual Sale.”
CUT TO:
INT. LIMITED EDITION – DAY
The compact store is crowded with customers.
David spots Elijah with a group of people before a framed
painting of a comic hero.
David moves to a less crowded area of the store and waits.
He turns and looks at a framed sketch.
Beat. An older woman walks over from a near by picture and
joins David.
WOMAN
…See the villain’s eyes. They’re
larger than the other characters’.
They insinuate a slightly skewed
perspective of how they see the world.
Just off normal.
David stares at the drawing.
DAVID
He doesn’t look very threatening.
WOMAN
That’s what I said to my son. He
said, there’s always two kinds. The
soldier villain who fights the hero
with his hands, and then there’s the
real threat. The brilliant and evil
arch enemy who fights the hero with
his mind.
David turns and looks at the striking and beautiful African
American woman in her sixties who stands next to him.
DAVID
Are you Elijah’s mother?
The woman turns and looks at David for the first time.
ELIJAH’S MOTHER
I am. I’m helping him with the sale.
DAVID
It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m
David Dunne.
ELIJAH’S MOTHER
He’s spoken of you. He says you’re
becoming friends.
DAVID
We are.
David looks across the store at Elijah talking with the
customers.
DAVID
He’s doing well today.
ELIJAH’S MOTHER
I’m very proud of him.
(beat)
He’s been through a lot in his life.
A lot of ups and downs, a lot of bad
spells. A couple I’d thought had
broken him… I mean emotionally.
(beat)
They were bad… But he made it. Yes
he did.
DAVID
He’s kind of a miracle.
ELIJAH’S MOTHER
Yes he is.
They both watch Elijah from across the room.
ELIJAH’S MOTHER
I’ll tell him you’re here.
David watches as Elijah’s mother walks across the store and
waits for Elijah to finish talking.
David turns back to the framed sketch. He looks at it with
his hands in his pockets. Beat.
David’s stare turns into a gaze. His gaze turns into
stillness.
THE SKETCH is of a withered man with large tense eyes. He
sits in the shadows.
He’s seated in some type of machine. There are lots of buttons
and levers on the machine. The machine has wheels.
David turns from the sketch. He looks across the room to
Elijah seated in his wheelchair. Elijah’s large eyes stay
focused on the customer’s as he finishes negotiating.
David turns back to the sketch. He looks at it with growing
confusion. The more you look at drawing, the more the machine
the man is seated in looks like a wheelchair.
David looks back across the store. Elijah and his mother are
talking. Elijah has spotted David.
Beat. Elijah starts across the crowded store towards David.
He wheels up to him.
ELIJAH
Did you see this?
Elijah has a newspaper on his lap. He holds it up.
There’s a drawing on the front page. It’s a hooded figure
shielding two huddled children behind him.
ELIJAH
It has begun.
David stares quietly at the sketch of himself.
ELIJAH
When I saw it this morning. I felt a
part of the world again.
Elijah looks down at the newspaper.
David hesitates and then reaches forward.
He reaches past the paper… And TOUCHES ELIJAH’S ARM.
FLASHCUT: AN AIRPORT GATE. ELIJAH IS STANDING AT THE WINDOW
LOOKING OUT ONTO THE AIRFIELD. HE’S CRYING.
SIRENS START SOUNDING THROUGHOUT THE AIRPORT.
WAITING PASSENGERS START GETTING UP AND MOVING TO THE WINDOWS.
MAN
What’s going on?
Elijah speaks to no one in particular as he stares out the
window with tortured eyes.
ELIJAH
A plane just crashed.
CUT TO:
FLASH CUT: ELIJAH AND AN ELDERLY MAN IN A UNIFORM ARE SEATED
IN A HOTEL BAR.
ELDERLY MAN
I’ve worked here twenty-five years.
I know all its secrets.
ELIJAH
Secrets?
ELDERLY MAN
(whispers)
Like if there was ever a fire on
floors one, two, or three… Everyone
in this hotel would be burned alive.
ELIJAH LOOKS UP FROM HIS DRINK.
CUT TO:
FLASHCUT: ELIJAH LEAVES THE ENGINEERING ROOM OF AN AMTRAK
TRAIN. HE PASSES THE ENGINEER WHO HAS JUST ARRIVED WITH
COFFEE.
ENGINEER
Passengers aren’t allowed in there.
Elijah doesn’t answer and doesn’t turn around as he exits
train 177.
SLAM CUT BACK TO PRESENT:
David takes two unsteady steps back. Elijah has tears in his
eyes as he gazes down at the newspaper. He looks up to David.
ELIJAH
(low voice)
I almost gave up hope. There were so
many times I questioned myself. I’ve
made so many sacrifices but it’s all
been worth it.
(beat)
There are millions and millions or
mediocre people in the world David.
Isn’t it great that we aren’t one of
them?
David looks like he stopped breathing as he backs up in the
store.
Customers step between him and Elijah. Elijah becomes obscured
and then blocked from view.
CUT TO:
EXT. STREET – DAY
David emerges from the store slowly. He braces himself against
a parked car and then keeps on walking in a nightmarish daze.
WE PULL BACK as David Dunne blends in with dozens and dozens
of ordinary people, walking on an ordinary street, in an
ordinary city.
FADE TO BLACK:
THE END
******************************************************
The movie plays slightly differently and has the great line “They called me Mr.Glass” which drives the whole movie home and brings Bruce Willis and the audience to complete realization. This was not a superhero movie. This was a supervillain movie. Manoj had executed his classic misdirection again.
How I wish he had hung in there a few moments longer for us to savor it. Maybe the conversation he had with Jackson’s mother could have been split and started before the great reveal and completed as he walks away and blends into the crowd of ordinary people in an ordinary city. They should also not have put the epilogue explaining what happened to Jackson after that, but I’m guessing focus groups and studio testing were a cause of that.
Signs made more money than Unbreakable, but was a poorer film. It had many logical loopholes. Why would aliens that can die from water invade a planet that is 75% water? How does Manoj’s character find out that water harms the aliens, which he passes on to Mel Gibson as penance for running over his wife? But for the most part, people were expecting another classic misdirection from Night, and it just was not that kind of movie. That gets compounded with him trying to drive the point of the movie home with a oneliner like he did in Unbreakable. Unfortunately, here it was “Swing away, Merrill,” which is laughable.
I wonder what our reaction would have been if Signs had been made before Sixth and Unbreakable. And I also have the feeling that J.J.Abrams was watching Signs, and when he saw the scariest scene from Signs, of the alien at a birthday party as caught on home video footage, he thought, “Wow. That’s a great concept. I’ll make a whole movie like that.”
Before I egress, here is another scene from Unbreakable. The moment of realization scene. I strongly recommend to all that you read the screenplay for Unbreakable. Let’s discuss in the comments.
***********************************************************
EXT. ENTRANCE GATE 17C – AFTERNOON
David finds Elijah waiting to the side as the crowds funnel
through the gate. Elijah offers his hand as he walks up.
David doesn’t take it.
ELIJAH
They said I couldn’t get in with my
ticket.
Elijah offers him the ticket. David inspects it.
DAVID
It’s for last week’s game.
ELIJAH
I’ve come to understand that…
(beat)
An ill advised purchase in the parking
lot.
David hands Elijah back the ticket.
DAVID
What do you want?
ELIJAH
Not money.
(beat)
But I appreciate your healthy cynicism
in the manner. It will be wise for
both of us to proceed with greatest
caution.
DAVID
We’re not proceeding anywhere
together.
ELIJAH
We’ve already begun.
David looks around.
DAVID
One more time. What is it you want?
Beat.
ELIJAH
Why is it, do you think, that of all
the professions in the world… you
chose protection?
DAVID
Are you for real?
ELIJAH
You could have poured coffee in
Starbucks, you could have learned to
install track lighting in office
buildings, you could have told people
their horoscopes on the internet…
You could have been one of ten
thousand things… but in the end,
you chose to protect people. You
made that decision… and I find
that very, very interesting.
(beat)
Now all I need is your credit card
number.
Beat. Elijah smiles.
ELIJAH
That last part was a joke.
David fights it. But he smiles anyway. Beat.
DAVID
I got this job because my college
coach called the guy who manages the
stadium. There’s no hidden meaning
to it.
David’s walkie makes NOISE on his hip.
DAVID
They need me at the gate.
David stares at Elijah leaning on his walking stick.
DAVID
Did you really want to see the game?
I can get you in.
CUT TO:
EXT. ENTRANCE GATE 27B – AFTERNOON
The line of fans outside the gate has tripled in size and
intensity.
David and Elijah move along the line towards the turnstiles.
DAVID
It gets heaviest ten minutes before
kickoff.
David bumps a guy in line wearing an army jacket. David looks
backs at him and continues walking.
David moves to a security guard near the turnstiles.
DAVID
Why don’t we pat down?
David walks to his post near the gate and faces the crowd.
Elijah moves next to him.
DAVID
Just give me a minute.
ELIJAH
Is there a problem?
DAVID
That guy in green. Sometimes people
carry weapons in here. Then they
drink too much. They’re team isn’t
doing so well, bad things happen…
We do random pat downs of the crowd
to discourage people from carrying.
(beat)
If he’s carrying, he’ll step out of
line.
Elijah observes as a security team pats down random males as
they move through the turnstiles.
The GREEN ARMY JACKETED MAN moves forward in the line.
His face is blank as he watches the pat down ahead of him.
He’s twenty people from the turnstile.
David eyes him. Fifteen people away… Ten…
The man coughs and steps out of the line. Elijah watches the
green army jacket melt into the thick part of the crowd and
disappear as it moves away from the stadium.
CUT TO:
INT. STADIUM TUNNEL – AFTERNOON
AN UNLIT arched concrete passageway. The SUNLIGHT from the
stadium streams in causing long shadows.
Elijah stands waiting in the ground tunnel by himself.
THE THUNDEROUS CHEERS OF THE SIXTY THOUSAND FANS IN THE
STADIUM ECHOES FROM THE FIELD INTO THE TUNNEL.
David enters the tunnel and joins Elijah. He hands him a
ticket.
DAVID
I got you a seat in the seven hundred
level.
(points straight up)
It’s nose-bleed territory, but at
least you won’t get spit on.
ELIJAH
How did you know that man you bumped
was carrying a weapon?
DAVID
Probably the army jacket. Those guys
carry hunting knives and stuff for
show.
ELIJAH
You thought he was carrying a knife?
Beat.
DAVID
I thought he was carrying something.
ELIJAH
But not a knife?
DAVID
I got this picture of a silver handled
gun tucked in his pants.
(beat)
Like on t.v.
Elijah stares at David. THE STADIUM CHEERS BOUNCE OFF THE
GRAY WALLS.
ELIJAH
You have good instincts when it comes
to things like that?
DAVID
Like what?
ELIJAH
Telling when people have done
something wrong?
Beat.
DAVID
Yes.
ELIJAH
Have you ever tried to develop it?
DAVID
I don’t know what you’re asking?
ELIJAH
You’re skill.
Beat.
DAVID
Listen. I got to be on the sidelines
during the game… You can get to
your seat by taking the stairwell at–
ELIJAH
Characters in comic books are often
attributed special powers. X-ray
vision, things of that sort.
David exhales slowly as he stares at Elijah.
DAVID
Okay, I don’t want to play this game
anymore.
ELIJAH
It’s an exaggeration of the truth.
Maybe it’s based on something as
simple as instinct. Like being able
to touch someone and tell whether
they’ve done something wrong… Or
the level of what they’ve done wrong.
DAVID
The guy might not have been carrying
anything.
ELIJAH
Or he might have been carrying a
silver handled gun tucked in his
pants.
David’s WALKIE ERUPTS WITH NOISE.
DAVID
I have to go now.
ELIJAH
One last question.
Beat.
DAVID
Quick.
ELIJAH
The car accident you were in… Was
there anyone else involved?
The two men stand very still in the tunnel.
DAVID
Yes. My wife Megan. She was in the
car with me.
David turns and starts down the hall. David talks back over
his shoulder.
DAVID
Have a good life Elijah and try to
buy your tickets at an authorized
sales location.
Elijah watches as the silhouetted figure of David Dunne jogs
down the darkness of the tunnel.
CUT TO:
INT. CAR – LATE AFTERNOON
We are inside a customized car. The dashboard is covered in
some sort of thin foam padding. The steering wheel and gear
shift have the same padding. Every corner and hard surface
has been safe guarded. Elijah sits behind the wheel of his
car in the parking lot of the stadium. He sits as thoughts
crash at his head. Beat.
He finally reaches for the keys and starts up the car. He
looks into the rearview mirror and sees the man in the GREEN
ARMY JACKET pass behind his car.
Elijah quickly turns and sees the man moving through the
parked cars heading out of the parking lot.
Elijah takes a deep breath and turns off the engine.
CUT TO:
EXT. PARKING LOT – LATE AFTERNOON
Elijah’s walking stick makes RHYTHMIC CLICKS on the concrete
parking lot.
The figure in the army jacket seems to move farther away
with every step.
Elijah starts breathing harder. He pushes himself to move
faster. He avoids the hard chrome bumpers and tailpipes that
jut out from the cars as he quickens his pace through the
lot.
He gains on the army jacket.
ELIJAH
(calls out)
Hold up for a second!
The man in the army jacket turns as he reaches a subway
entrance that marks the end of the parking lot. He looks
back at Elijah for a beat. Doesn’t like what he sees. He
disappears into the subway entrance.
Elijah quickens into a jog now. He hasn’t done this in a
while and it’s painful.
He makes it with great strain to the subway.
He looks into the entrance…
A steep flight of stairs leads to the subway floor. The tail
of the army jacket is glimpsed before it disappears.
Elijah breathes hard as he takes hold of the railing.
ELIJAH
I just want to ask you something!
Elijah’s VOICE ECHOES down the stairs. No response.
Elijah starts his descent.
THE SOUND OF A SUBWAY PULLING IN ROARS UP THE STAIRS.
Elijah has to move fast. He takes the steps with less and
less hesitation. He’s moving with great agility… and then
his foot catches on a step.
His hand slips away from the railing…
He falls down the remaining part of the stairs. The FIRST
SICKENING CRACK is heard when his hand reaches out to stop
his fall.
The SECOND CRACK IS MORE LIKE A CRUNCH AS HIS LEG LANDS
AWKWARDLY ON THE METAL STAIRS.
He comes to a stop in a pile on the dirty gum stained floor
of the subway landing. His jaw is locked in a
HORRIFIC SCREAM THAT GETS EATEN BY THE ROAR OF THE SUBWAY
TRAIN PULLING IN.
His contorted anguished face sees the turnstiles of the subway
upside down. The green army jacketed man looks back at Elijah
with a blank expression pushing through the turnstile.
The last thing Elijah sees before he blacks out, is the tail
of the man’s coat riding up as he move through the turnstile.
The SILVER HANDLE OF A GUN peeks out from the belt of his
pants.
************************************************************
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Dabba: interesting stuff and thanks for the excerpts!! I watched Unbreakable only once and I swear I saw the climax coming. Why do you debunk anyone who says that? Could there have been an alternate theory esp when you know it’s a Shyamalan movie.
I agree with you on The Sixth Sense. I watched it a few times to check if he cheated us even once. Nope, never did. And thanks again for that piece of information on the origins of the The Sixth Sense.
ah, dabba , here you are again…I see u frequent this forum quite a bit…
Yes, Shyamalan has an interesting sensibility, however tends to live in an ‘isolated ego’ system which doesn’t allow him to process feedback from the world outside, which at the end of the day is plain annoying.
Let’s see how his latest venture with Ronnie Screwalla turns out…I’m really hoping for a thunderous comeback.
BTW, going by your stated proclivity to dark sci-fi, I highly recommend you read ‘The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch’ and ‘Snow Crash’.Both have not been adapted yet, for obvious reasons (to me).
I read one of the drafts of the film. Its called “The Happening”. Environmental thriller…if one could call it that. Not Sixth Sense stuff, but much better than LITW…
A director like Brett Ratner would probably mess it up, but Night should be able to pull it off…lets hope he does.
cheers
Deep and rewarding one, Dabba.
My friends were laughing at me when Sixth Sense didn’t get me all shocked.
Signs came to me during my initial reviewing days and I had my guilty pleasures, which only got doubled when they spoofed it.
The Village is brilliant music and visuals, I could never bypass it to see the story.
Unbreakable is the one for me. It let me breathe. I want to read the whole screenplay or better a different version. I have a problem reading dialogues. I can’t connect to the story. I trip on convoluted expressions. Trying to change.
I never saw Lady.
@ subrat –
If while watching the movie you said, holy shit, Jackson is the villain and he is more sinister than he seems and willis is the hero. That is great. Now if you thought, Jackson is responsible for Bruce’s train crash, you are truly…truly.
If you can claim the above and tell me what scene you thought so and why…I will bow down in cheerful servitude.
@ qwerty –
where have u been love? missed u here.
I practically live here. But, only till I get comfortable.
As for reading the novels you mentioned, I would love to.
Some day when I get over my dislike of reading fiction, reading scifi in particular, and when I am confident in my ability to create something original, I will read these first. Priority. I am not being flippant.
@ shiv –
what i have seen of the synopsis on the web looks good. mildly promising but with a huge possibility to suck. i will wait. if you have read the screenplay, please do share. his scripts are pretty close to how his moviues turn out.
it was good of him to walk away from life of pi to which he was attached, because people would expect a certain type of film cos of his name and it would betray the novel.
and i think avatar got taken away. I hope he thunders back as qwerty said, with The Happening.
@ tushar –
try reading sixth sense or unbreakable. very well written. i hope happening is good and we can dismiss Lady and Village as an anomaly of a filmmaker too full of himself.
same here superdABBA…
saw it coming about 20 mins to the end…
forgot which scene gave the cue…
will tell when it comes back to me.
people laugh away when i say ‘unbreakable’ has been shyamalans best work to date… even now…
Superdabba: Am assuming here that you are ol’ Dabba with a Sunday morning desire for greatness.
There were a few of us who had gone to watch Unbreakable with the single point agenda of cracking the ‘funda’. Reg your query, I would say I got that Jackson is a villain part not the full import of it. Now which exact scene is tough to remember since I watched it just once about 7 years back. It was not really a particular scene but more about the movie being named Unbreakable, the need for an anti-hero once you got Willis is Unbreakable etc which led to that realization.
Into the 3rd round now where you seem intent on a KO.
@ Subrat –
ok. Jackson as a villain is good, but that the whole movie is set in motion by him? There are 3 instances when all the earlier accidents are mentioned. did u at even one of them go, OMG, it was him all along?
KO was for people dissing the movie. Not those that said they saw the ending coming. People have said Unbreakable is lame and a bad movie. I ask them why. They say…because.
I have heard people’s claims about the ending for 8 years now, but no one has, with any amount of credibility, that they knew exactly what or why. Case in point, in both Mystic River and Gone baby Gone, I knew exactly who the perpetrator was and why….abvout 30 minutes into the movie.
Hi Dabba, I remember pointing out in a comment on your short ‘frigid’ that it reminded me of the type of scripts that shyamalan writes.
Will chat more on this guy-he’s one my favourites- tomorrow.
@ arun –
Yes i remember. i sort of dismissed it at the time but it was when i started writing this post that i realized, the extent to which it was true. do stop by tomorrow for a chat.
Dabba
i feel that its ‘denial’ that keeps it going for most of the viewers… what i mean is .. even if they were to guess …man it could be jackson who was behind all that …all along !!! they go … it cant be … he is so weak … how could he do that … may be he has just been researchin .. to find a man with the opposite traits !!!
Even in Village (i know many hate it here) still … he reveals the truth well before the climax but keeps a possibility of it happenin . when the father says that .. “i have heard such stories as a kid”…
Nolan almost uses the same trick in “the prestige” … he reveals to the viewers only to the extent of which “Hugh jackman” knws in the movie.. but the truth is revealed almost 70 % into the movie …but its the doubt in such a happenin that keeps it going !!!
tats what i feel …
I liked Village. (I thought Castaway was pretty well made too though)…Sixth Sense is my favorite of his till now…Haven’t watch Lady yet. I think Shyamalan needs to break away a little bit and give himself and his ’style’ of movies less importance and try and reinvent himself again. Giving himself less onscreen time could be a way to start…
And man, speaking of supervillain stories…you can’t beat Oldboy at it…
You’ve changed the way i’ll see every Shyamalan film i’ll see from now on.. but after reading the alternate ending i prefer the ending he chose to use.. and precisely when Jackson says something like,”I think it’s time we shook hands”. It’s an intriguing moment and by then, one has already forgotten or stopped waiting for the twist.. suddenly, with that there is the proverbial turn of the screw and then as the flashbacks flow, because of the CCTV like footage and the lack of clarity and the fact that you’ve stopped waiting for twist.. puts your mind in a right scrabble and then by the time your realization is complete.. the music swells. willis staggers and jackson goes for choke.. though the crowd shot in the end could have been worked into..
UNBREAKABLE also happens to be my fav Shyamalam experience. Mainly because people like you spoilt the SS experience for me.