Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense

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Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense 'With reference to two scenes from Shyamalan's 'The Sixth Sense' examine the way in which the audiences perception of the film changes having viewed its dramatic ending. Evaluate the importance of the two scenes in the film as a whole.' When the dramatic conclusion of Shyamalan's 'The Sixth Sense' has been viewed the audiences perception changes. They start to understand how different techniques have been used to create the illusion that Dr Malcolm Crowe is alive and how Shyamalan's has duped his audience. 'The Sixth Sense' is initially set up as a thriller before evolving into a surprisingly touching psychological drama with supernatural overtones. Shyamalan is able to do this as the typical cinemagoer sees it as a passive experience and they do not expect to have to think or work too hard. They would normally expect the plot to be apparent from near the outset of the film. Other usual expectations are that there would be very little distraction from the plot so that the viewer could keep track of what is happening without too much effort. The viewer sees the directors impression of what is happening and takes on board the directors views that are shown, thus the audience once again will not have to concentrate on the plot that hard. They do not realise how hard Shyamalan has actually made them work until the end of the film. Shyamalan uses this to his advantage, applying his cinematography skills to manipulate the audience. The camera work makes the audience believe they are seeing the truth of the scene and of the film, when actually the scenes when Dr Malcolm Crowe is present are not really happen... ... middle of paper ... ... film as Cole begins to understand the ghosts. Without these scenes the audience would not understand how scared Cole is of the ghosts and also Cole's line about the ghost not knowing that they are dead. Shyamalan was successful in creating a film that was emotive and atmospheric when the twist was unknown and that was emotive and atmospheric for different reasons when it was. He managed to create a film that made the audience think but without them knowing it and a film that people would remember. This film has been produced nearly flawlessly and there was just the right amount of clues given if the viewer knew what to look for. Overall Shyamalan created a film that no matter how many times it was scene there would always be something new that the viewer would learn. This helps to support the credibility of the twist.
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