Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Cast: Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson, Robin Wright-Penn, Spencer Treat Clark
Have I Seen it Before: Oh, man. It’s one of those key movie watching experiences of my life. It is the late fall of 2000. Florida is doing its very best to tear apart western civilization. I am sixteen and the notion that I can just go to the movies without having to concoct some kind of labyrinthine plan to physically get there* is a novel experience. Sure, the eventual twist ending (the first sign that Shyamalan would never be able to shake the need to include them) but at that moment, the film played me like a harp.
I spent the next several weeks insisting to anyone who would talk to me for longer than thirty seconds that they must go and see it. Many did; few liked it as much as I did, with the possible exception of Bill Fisher. We then spent the next two years trying to tap into the films vein in our own way.
Did I Like It: I may have tipped my hand a bitIt is, without a doubt, Shyamalan’s best film. Sure The Sixth Sense (1999) has its charms, Signs (2002) shows an unusual level of restraint, and Split (2017) is quite good (although it benefits highly from its connection to this film). But this is the purest, most direct version of what Shyamalan has to offer the movies.
It’s attempt at depicting a world where superheroes could be real dominated my imagination for a very long time. It’s story of a man coming to embrace the best parts of himself, which he had spent a lifetime trying to ignore is something that still sticks in my craw every time I watch it now. I would not be me without this movie.
I’d say something more about the film, but there’s very little chance any additional words would be equal to my feeling and esteem for it.