The foreboding wind
Jun. 28th, 2009 02:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwaevalarinI've always been a big fan of M. Night Shyamalan's movies. So when "The Happening" came to our cinemas I was very excited even though the critics pretty much tore the movie apart. But they did that with "Lady in the Water" and, to a certain extend, with "The Village"and I love them both. Unfortunately our local cinema stopped showing "The Happening" very suddenly so I never got the chance to see it. Until yesterday when I bought the DVD.
What can I say? I loved it!
I think the problem with everything M. Night Shyamalan does is that people always expect another "Sixth Sense" with an amazing, unexpected twist at the end. And while that worked great in that movie and some of his movies have something like it in a lighter version I really don't think that's what his work is about. And either way, if you expect a twist at the end, then what is surprising about having one?
It seems like "The Happening" didn't work for a lot of people which makes me wonder if Mr. Shyamalan's style of story telling just reaches something in me that it doesn't reach in a lot of other people. What I love about his movies is the atmosphere. Most of it is very quiet, almost peaceful which sounds absurd when you think about the terrible things that happen. I think it's this image of the wind in the trees and the fields that was so threatening yet beautiful.
And at the heart of it all but always staying in the background is this sweet, subtle love story that just doesn't need any special attention. I love that scene at the end when they walk towards each other and meet in the middle of the field where Elliot holds out his hand for Alma and then they just stand there while the wind blows through the trees and the grass around them.
It isn't quite a match for my favourite scene from "The Village" but it comes pretty close.
I admit, the storyline itself isn't something that blows you away. There isn't a lot of action - though it is a little more gruesome this time - or unexpected twists, or a big, dramatic love story or even a solution.
Maybe that's it? That you don't have any more answers at the end than you had at the beginning? But isn't that the amazing thing about the movie? Isn't that what it was about from the beginning?
Just look at Elliot's lecture when he asks his students why they think the bees disappeared - and I was so waiting for the "Oh, they're aliens. They just went home" answer. Right there you have your answer. You want to know what happened? Feel free set up a theory. But whatever you come up with you'll always know that "science will come up with some reason to put in the books, but in the end it'll be just a theory. People fail to acknowledge that there are forces at work beyond our understanding."
We'll never really know what caused it. Why it was limited to this particular area. Why some people weren't affected. How exactly it evolved. Or why it suddenly stopped. If it really was the plants. If they felt threatened. If they went for ever smaller groups of people. If Elliot, Alma and Jess stopped it somehow. Or if they were just lucky and it was already over when they went outside.
I personaly like the thought that whatever force was responsible was moved by these three small humans that were willing to accept their fate if they could face it together. But that is just my, probably very naive and romantic, theorie. The one I feel most comfortable with. My way to try and find an answer for what can't be understood. Everyone else will have to find their own answers.
And your answers will probably influence how you see the movie and what message it gives you. You'd think that after watching it one might have the urge to close all windows and doors. I didn't. I had the strong urge to open them and feel the wind on my face.
What can I say? I loved it!
I think the problem with everything M. Night Shyamalan does is that people always expect another "Sixth Sense" with an amazing, unexpected twist at the end. And while that worked great in that movie and some of his movies have something like it in a lighter version I really don't think that's what his work is about. And either way, if you expect a twist at the end, then what is surprising about having one?
It seems like "The Happening" didn't work for a lot of people which makes me wonder if Mr. Shyamalan's style of story telling just reaches something in me that it doesn't reach in a lot of other people. What I love about his movies is the atmosphere. Most of it is very quiet, almost peaceful which sounds absurd when you think about the terrible things that happen. I think it's this image of the wind in the trees and the fields that was so threatening yet beautiful.
And at the heart of it all but always staying in the background is this sweet, subtle love story that just doesn't need any special attention. I love that scene at the end when they walk towards each other and meet in the middle of the field where Elliot holds out his hand for Alma and then they just stand there while the wind blows through the trees and the grass around them.
It isn't quite a match for my favourite scene from "The Village" but it comes pretty close.
I admit, the storyline itself isn't something that blows you away. There isn't a lot of action - though it is a little more gruesome this time - or unexpected twists, or a big, dramatic love story or even a solution.
Maybe that's it? That you don't have any more answers at the end than you had at the beginning? But isn't that the amazing thing about the movie? Isn't that what it was about from the beginning?
Just look at Elliot's lecture when he asks his students why they think the bees disappeared - and I was so waiting for the "Oh, they're aliens. They just went home" answer. Right there you have your answer. You want to know what happened? Feel free set up a theory. But whatever you come up with you'll always know that "science will come up with some reason to put in the books, but in the end it'll be just a theory. People fail to acknowledge that there are forces at work beyond our understanding."
We'll never really know what caused it. Why it was limited to this particular area. Why some people weren't affected. How exactly it evolved. Or why it suddenly stopped. If it really was the plants. If they felt threatened. If they went for ever smaller groups of people. If Elliot, Alma and Jess stopped it somehow. Or if they were just lucky and it was already over when they went outside.
I personaly like the thought that whatever force was responsible was moved by these three small humans that were willing to accept their fate if they could face it together. But that is just my, probably very naive and romantic, theorie. The one I feel most comfortable with. My way to try and find an answer for what can't be understood. Everyone else will have to find their own answers.
And your answers will probably influence how you see the movie and what message it gives you. You'd think that after watching it one might have the urge to close all windows and doors. I didn't. I had the strong urge to open them and feel the wind on my face.
