1999
Directed by M. Night Shyamalan
Ladies but mostly gentlemen (from what I can gather from the comments section), this is the last movie on the List from the 90s. Thankfully, we are ending on a high note. I will talk more about this milestone in my next post, which will be my Oscar (or Blogscars) picks for the 90s. For now, let's talk about the Sixth Sense.
Child psychologist Dr. Malcolm Crowe is shot in an attempted murder suicide by one of his former patients, Vincent Grey, who believes he failed him. The following fall, Malcolm is still haunted by Vincent's actions and has consequently grown more distant from his wife. He begins working with a new patient, Cole, whose mother is concerned about his increasingly odd behavior. Cole can see dead people who seek his help from beyond the grave.
If the ending of this film has not been spoiled for you, please, drop everything you are doing and watch this movie. Unfortunately, I don't believe such innocents exist anymore. Still, it is an undeniably great twist and I really do miss this M. Night Shymalan (although The Visit was actually quite enjoyable).
Not enough good things can be said about Haley Joel Osment's performance, which was truly remarkable. Osment elevates the film into an emotional experience that just happens to contain elements of horror. It is also beautifully shot and certainly the highlight of a lot of careers.
So a decent send off to the nineties.
RATING: *****
Interesting Facts:
One of only five horror movies to be nominated for Best Picture.
The role of Malcolm was written for Bruce Willis.
Excellent! Loved it and I am so glad I did not have any spoilers (Meaning people who enjoy doing that) ruin it for me. Acting was absolutely incredible! One of my favorites! Good review and synopsis by the way, Amanda.
ReplyDeleteThere was a period a few years ago where it seemed that every film had to have a big twist at the end. It didn't matter about the storyline, it didn't matter how well the characters were developed, the lazy twist was everything. To be fair though, this was the film that started it all and the twist was anything but lazy.
ReplyDeleteThanks Diana! Yeah Dessie I can think of like ten cringeworthy examples but I suppose I shouldn't reveal them here.
ReplyDeleteActually, the 21st century started on 2001... Please don't hate me! :'(
ReplyDeletealex .. Well done. There are not many of us, and a much derided minority, and mostly keep our beliefs a secret, knowing how derided we will be for saying so out loud.
ReplyDeleteThe new millennium started 01 01. 2001.
Put it this way .. (let us, for now, imagine we accept the biblical story) The Virgin Mary, the morning after the birth, was writing to her Mum to say 'it's a boy'. What date did she put at the head of the letter? Did she put 00.00.0000? No she would have put 01.01.0001.
OK, it's a bit of nerdish pedantry, and it really isn't worth getting upset about.
Well, strictly speaking, she would have put 25.12.0, as the years didn't kick off for a further week and she wouldn't have had any specific concept of how many leading zeroes to include.
DeleteBut overall I fully agree. I think it's fair to say that any group of people who meticulously tick off a list of one thousand (and one) films we found in a book can be relied upon to get this type of thing correct.
I remember trying to explain it to someone once, but they just could not understand. At one point...
ME: What was the first year called?
THEM: 1
ME: And what was the second year called?
THEM: 2
ME: the fifth?
THEM: 5
ME: The one-hundredth?
THEM: 100
ME: So what is the two-thousandth year called?
THEM: 1999
.. I was giving her a weeks maternity respite before she started her writings! No, you are right, I'm afraid I did say 'The morning after..' The above Q&A thing is a good try...
DeleteFixed!
ReplyDelete