The Sixth Sense: Symbolism of RED

I was taken on the craziest ride this weekend. It was brilliant. There were so many twists and turns, ups and downs, and so many beautiful things to see. No I am not talking about any over the top rollercoaster from Six Flags or Disney World; Im talking about the thiller movie, The Sixth Sense.

Written and directed by M. Night Shayamalan, my utmost applause goes to him for this revolutionary masterpiece.   Never before have I been left wondering and wondering about what is going to happen next, and rarely have I been completely surprised and tricked by the ending results of a film.  Has there ever been a time where a film moved you or blew your mind so much that you couldn’t stop thinking about it? Well I found myself thinking about this film for days. What was it about this film that was different than anything else Ive seen? It took me some time to distinguish it but I found several reasons of why is so great and why M. Night Shayamalan is known as one of the best in the industry. However there is just one factor that stuck out to me that is pure genius!

The SYMBOLISM of RED

The color red has a profound effect in this movie. It alone symbolizes fear, danger, blood, energy, strength, and power. It is known to have the effect of increased heart rate and breathing, as well as heightened emotion without you entirely realizing it. So that being said, do you think it is coincidence that we always saw the color red before we saw a ghost? I doubt it, in fact for that reason I believe that it is why we never see red in any other scenes besides those particular ones.  They symbolized that a dark presence was around and that something was about to happen. It subliminally prepared us for something tragic and unexpected. It ultimately represented the spirit world and we see it in many different ways throughout the movie.

1                                  1.  Cole is wearing a red sweater to a kids party, where he was drawn to the voices he heard coming form the top of the staircase that lead him to his terrifying encounter with the entity in the attic. Also during that same sequence, as he was walking up the staircase we see a red balloon rise to the light at the top, which could symbolize that a spirit has gone toward the light to God with the spiral staircase representing the “staircase to heaven” and journey of life.

                  2.  When Cole and Malcolm attend the funeral of Kyra, a young girl who just                         passed away, we immediately notice the red jacket and lipstick that the  mother is wearing, which symbolizes death as well as evil, for we eventually find out that she was the one who killed her daughter.  Also the box that Cole carries down after his encounter with the Kyra which contained a tape that was wrapped with red ribbon which held the purpose to show that we were about to see something bad. And seeing the red cards from friends and family initially give us the foreshadowing that Cole is going to see a dead person.

             3. From the very first scene of the movie with Cole, we see him immediately leave school and retreat to a church which had two big red doors at the entrance.  This seemed very ironic to me at first because a church is known to be one of the most spiritual places to be.  However Cole liked the positivity of  the church and the comfort it provided by being in the closest place to God.  In addition to, once he goes home, Cole has a red tent in his room that he uses to  protect himself from the spirits chasing him, which is occupied with many religious figures he uses in hopes to repel them.  However, like always, the color red represents death and spirits and attracts even attracts them, yet it also represents safety, hence the Red Cross and a lifeguards.

            4. Besides coaching Cole through his disability, he is also trying to fix the mistakes he made with his wife.  He wants her to know how much he loves her.  Every time we see her, she is also wearing the color red, go figure.  Though I must be honest and say that I did not pick up on this one until     someone pointed it out. But its true. The shade of reds aren’t as bright as all the other ones were. They were either soft or very dark and not as obvious.   This reflects her mourning and depression that she is feeling from the losing her husband.

 5. As a young boy in distress, the person he always wanted to turn to was his mom but she didn’t understand what was going on with him and would get tempered and upset when he had an episode.  She was never seen wearing any red at all in the movie until the end.  Since she never accepted his reality and was never associated with Cole’s sixth sense she therefore has no connection to the spirit world at all. However, at the end of the movie when her and Cole were caught in a traffic jam due to a fatal car accident, that was the first time we saw her wear red. This is significant because that was also the same moment when Cole revealed to her his secret of seeing dead people and she finally accepted it, which is why that scene was so moving.

The color red was a major influence on this movie and M. Night Shayamalan so perfectly made it such a crucial part of our experience as well.  This is by far one of my favorite films in the sense of wonderful cinematography, writing, characters, and symbolism, and I look up to this film as I hope to be able to create something of such standards.

M. Night Shyamalan's Unbreakable

Recently, I revisited the movie Unbreakable (2000, M. Night Shyamalan). The movie is centered around David Dunn (Bruce Willis) and Elijah Price aka Mr. Glass (Samuel L. Jackson). M. Night Shyamalan is not my favorite director due to some of his poorly executed works (ex. Devil) but some of his movies, such as The Sixth Sense (1999) and Signs (2002), are my favorite films. Samuel L. Jackson hasn't exactly been in the best movies but when he is in a well directed and well written movie, he does an amazing job (ex. Pulp Fiction). Bruce Willis has been in multiple movies that include Samuel L. Jackson but he is also an actor that seems to waste his talent in nonsensical blockbusters that include corny one liners and gratuitous explosions. Unbreakable highlights Willis's and Jackson's talents and is unlike any super hero movie I've ever seen.

The movie starts by showing the unusual birth of Mr. Glass, followed by the title sequence, and then shows Bruce Willis in a train. He removes his wedding ring as an attractive woman sits  in the open seat next to him, indicating that his relationship with his wife is disintegrating. He tries to seduce her but he says all the wrong things and she moves to another seat. The train starts to make strange noises and speed up and the scene cuts abruptly indicating a crash. The first shot is a one shot sequence and is about ten minutes long. The next shot is of Willis in the hospital and the doctor explains that he was the only one to survive on the entire train and walked away with no injuries at all. Willis leaves the hospital and passes all the families in the hospital mourning their lost ones. This sequence is one of my favorite shots ever.



The movie is about David Dunn (Willis) being indestructible and having super strength and Mr. Glass (Jackson) is extremely fragile and breaks bones often. Mr. Glass works in a comic gallery and when he hears about David Dunn surviving the train wreck, he finds him and explains that he believes he is a superhero. Dunn denies it and thinks that Mr. Glass is a freak. Dunn has the ability to sense what people have done wrong in the past by touching them and is able to bench press upwards of 600 pounds. He looks into his past and discovers that he was the only one to survive a car accident, a fire, a plane explosion, and has never been sick. The only incident where Dunn almost died is when he nearly drowned in a lake as a child. Dunn ends up saving a family from a murderer but almost dies when the murderer pushes him into the pool (water is his only weakness). Jackson's character is obsessed with Willis's. At the end of the movie, the audience learns that Mr. Glass (Jackson) has been following David Dunn (Willis) for his entire life and caused all the catastrophes to prove that David Dunn is truly "unbreakable."

Many shots in the film are long one shot scenes. Shyamalan also includes many indirect reflection shots such as a long shot pointed at a TV that shows the reflection of the characters in the room. Shyamalan also idolizes Alfred Hitchcock and pays homage to him by making a short appearance on screen. In Unbreakable, he plays a man that is suspected of selling drugs and says only three lines to Willis's character.

Unbreakable is by no means a traditional superhero movie and each character is unique and well developed. Shyamalan's cinematography is exceptional and unique and it is obvious, through each shot sequence, that he idolizes Hitchcock's style. There is no ridiculous action scenes and it focuses on the personal life of an unlikely superhero. Watch Unbreakable.

-Matthew Hadley

My favorite Director

I think M. Night Shyamalan is a wonderful director. You can all take a moment to laugh at me now....Ok now stop laughing. I'm serious! I think he really puts his heart into what he does and I've always seen that through his artistic view of things. He may not be THE best director in the world but I really appreciate his point of view. When he looks at a story weather he wrote it or not, he really highlights and saturates every beautifully artistic movement and sound. I've always tried to do this in my films as well. I've always noticed his use of fallow shots, and hey I agree its a movie things should move.  We use fallow shots to see where the character is going, we go too, what the character sees, we see too. It's a beautiful thing. He's been known to put a twist on things and every one criticizes him for it. Well, if they stopped being such cranky ex-girl friends and look at why or how or just began to appreciate what's really going on, then they'd understand it. Oh yeah and critics, hey its hard to make a film, you should try it some time.

Recently He has been writing and honestly as big of a fan as I am for him as a director, I can comfortably say I enjoy his writing more. The director of Devil (John Eric Dowdle) interoperated M. Night Shyamalan's writing perfectly and it was very pleasing. I hope that they'll continue calibrating  so I can enjoy more of what they produce. It's actually a really good movie; ranked number 37 in my favorite movies list.

M. Night Shyamalan Returns to Film School???

A new article surficed the other day over M. Night Shyamalan, and the fact that he should go back to film school, the article talks about him attending NYU. I know that there are mixed feelings over M. Night and his movies, some people love them, and others (a majority) don't but do people really have to go this far to get their point/opinion across? The article is actually really well written and explains a lot, so if interested the link to the article is in the title.