I believe that the film our group is watching is a “great” film. I believe this because the The Sixth Sense utilizes several key elements used in filmmaking throughout the duration of the film, the film is also well received by several film critics, and the film is in fact listed in the Top 100 greatest films.
When The Sixth Sense was released it had overwhelmingly positive reviews and spent several weeks at the top of the box office charts, “Leading the pack was Touchstone’s psychological thriller ‘The Sixth Sense,’ which was a left-field winner, grossing $43.8 million. The Bruce Willis starrer was a fall release that Disney pushed into the summer sweeps and effectively promoted into a must-see pic with good word-of-mouth and positive reviews. It iced an impressive $20,313 theater average,” (Leonard Klady). This quote from Leonard Klady emphasizes the early success that The Sixth Sense had and highlights how it was highly acclaimed at the time and highlights it’s tremendous box office numbers of $43.8 million which was over $2 million ahead of the next closest film, The Blair Witch Project. The financial success and positive publicity that The Sixth Sense illustrates just how great of a film it is.
The film was directed brilliantly and because of this it gave the film a creepy feel to it but also kept the audience engaged the whole time, “Perhaps it’s the deliberate pacing, the almost contemplative timbre to the whole thing. And the chilliness, the sheer coldness in the air! It uses stillness, implication and silence in ways that reminded me of ‘Seven,’”(Dessen Howe). Dessen Howe discusses that because of the way the film was laid out, it gave the film a “chilling” feeling that the director was seeking when making this film in order to not quite give it the feel of a horror film, but more of a psychological thriller. I think the way the director constructs the film to create tone makes the film great because it keeps the audience on edge the whole time and then the ending shocks the audience and keeps them engaged seeking an explanation for the ending. This work by the director helped contribute to the greatness of the film.
I don’t think it matters if a film is “great” or not in order to analyze it, films can not be great and still have plenty of content to examine that make them interesting. When films are great, however, it makes them easier to analyze because we want to watch them more and we appreciate the elements that make them great more and more as we break them down each time we watch them. But a film can not be great and still have a profound message or make use of other elements that we use when analyzing a film, but it may not do a great job of bringing them all together or it may not have a thought provoking story line.
By analyzing films critically we gain an appreciation for all the work directors, editors, and actors have to do in order to produce a film whether it is great or not. When we analyze a film for key elements we can see what was important in the filmmaking process to every party involved and we also see how each element comes together to make a finished product to be viewed. Analyzing films critically also gives us a profound understanding of what a film is really trying to accomplish with its purpose and how it does that with each contributing element.
Sources:
Giving feedback and seeing feedback that was given to others helped me write this essay because it gave me more of a sense of direction for where to start. I wasn’t sure which elements I should address and which to leave our for our group discussion on the film our group is analyzing. I think overall writing this two topic essay will be beneficial to our group and help us understand what to look for when analyzing and watching our film. Writing this essay will also give us good practice for when we all actually write our essay and help us structure the format and understand which sources are good to use, what topics to discuss, the organization of our essay, and what elements not to include.
Hi Finn:
Nice post about the analysis of The Sixth Sense. From your third paragraph, I noticed the purposeful design of stillness and silence at some important moments, such as the ghost girl who is spitting under the desk and when Kyra’s father is gazing the tape about how Kyra is killed by her mother. The stillness of these moments that make the audience psychologically thrilling.
Hi Finn:
It is so interesting to read your own point of view on how the deliberate pacing contribute to the horror genre of this film. Yes. I do observe a lot of moments when the director uses silence as a way to thrill the audience. That seems to be a key strategy used in horror films!