Sixth Sense Movie Essay, Research Paper

The Sixth Sense

The Sixth Sense, directed and written by M. Night Shyamalan, follows the troubled life of eight-year-old Cole Sear, played by Haley Joel Osment, who is haunted by his supernatural abilities to see and communicate with the dead. Being sought after by the disturbed spirits of his hometown of Philadelphia, Cole must reconcile this frightening power with his desperate desire to be normal. Growing more isolated from his helpless mother and distrustful of his peers in school, Cole soon encounters child psychologist Dr. Malcolm Crow (Bruce Willis), who is led by obsessive ambitions, although weakened by the thought of his neglected wife. Still, Malcolm represents the only hope for dissolving the horror and restoring sanity.

The main character would have to be Dr. Malcolm Crow played by Bruce Willis. Early on in the story is attacked by a former patient. The experience leaves him traumatized, and lost. Something inside him has died. Dr. Crow feels the only way to redeem himself for failing to help that former patient is to somehow find a way to help Cole. Wearing in a dull gray suit, he brings a sadness to his character s detachment that supports the entire production.

The movie The Sixth Sense is made in a very unconventional way. The end really changes the sequence of the movie. The end of the movie finally makes the whole movie understandable. There is a very strange flow in the sequence of the plot. In my opinion, the very last scene should have been at the beginning, but how would the movie have ended?

The pace of the film was very fast. One scene moved fast right to the next. There were many scenes that could not even follow because they ended to soon. This is very disturbing because it does not give the audience a chance to focus on certain important details.

In a suspense/horror movie the lighting and sound are most important. The lighting and the sound sets the mood of the film. During the film when Cole was having encounters with ghosts the lighting was very dark, being very different from the rest of the movie. Along with the lighting, the sound effects were only noticeable at the frightful times, which was perfect.

Special effects are very important, unfortunately this movie did not have the effects of that The Matrix had. Although the specific type of special effects that are used in action movies are not really needed for this particular movie. The twist in the plot certainly makes up for the lack of special effects.

The Sixth Sense is the kind of flawed movie that’s worth sticking with. It’s got an eerie flavor all its own. Also, a lot of things that appear not to add up eventually do make sense in light of the film’s surprise ending. Getting to that ending is sometimes a chore, but the grave clarity with which the story is filmed helps knit together what seem its disjointed parts. At times, “The Sixth Sense” seems unanchored, floaty, like a dream. It’s somber and heavy, but justifiably so, since it is an 8-year-old Philadelphia boy who sees ghosts. Young Cole s face looks obscure and full of pain, again understandably so, since the ghosts are of people who died unhappy.

This movie mad a lot of money. In Hollywood, is that the most important? Well it seems like 40 years ago great actors and a fine scripts were most important, but now trendy, overpaid actors with little acting talent can make a pitiful movie sell.