The Sixth Sense Critique

Introduction

The Sixth Sense is a film nominated for six Academy Awards including best picture, this critically acclaimed film remains the #1 thriller of all time. Bruce Willis, in an outstanding and restrained performance, is Dr. Malcolm Crowe, a distinguished child psychologist haunted by his failure to help a former patient. When he meets Cole Sear, played by Haley Joel Osment, a frightened, confused 8-year-old haunted by a profound secret, they begin a suspense-filled journey of discovery. With a riveting intensity you'll find thoroughly chilling and utterly unforgettable, the revelation of Cole's incredible sixth sense leads them both to mysterious and unforeseeable consequences in this powerful supernatural thriller.

I enjoy this type of film. It's the type of film that you need to see from the beginning because if you start watching it in the middle than you lose a lot of the plot. It is a movie you need to use your brain with all the little nuances mixed in. In this movie the film makers want to explore the realm of the supernatural as well as help a young boy who is fighting to conquer his fear while helping the lost souls of the dead.

Storytelling

Throughout the movie there is symbolism. There are many red items that the director put into the movie, such as a red balloon right before Cole was put into the dungeon at a friend's house and red door handle in Malcolm's house going to his basement. The director used the color red to indicate in the real world that would be tainted by the spiritual world. The woman who killed her child was wearing a red dress, and so on. Some other clues would be the white stripe in the hair of Cole that sometimes when people have very traumatic experiences that they lose pigment in their hair. If anybody would lose pigment in their hair it would be these kids who have the sixth sense because of all the tragedy they have seen. Whenever Cole is about to see an angry ghost then they show the temperature go down in the house and you see Cole's breath. But when he is there talking to Malcolm there isn't that cold breath because Malcolm is not angry, he is trying to help Cole. In the scene where Cole is talking to Malcolm in the hospital, Cole is telling everything about Malcolm to the audience. "I see dead people, I see them all the time, and they don't know their dead." These shots they are focusing on Malcolm and you see that they are talking about him. The producer was worried that they gave too much away. When Malcolm is sitting in Cole's living room with his mom, you think they were talking to each other but they aren't. They were sitting there and not even looking at each other.

Acting

Bruce Willis played Dr. Malcolm Crowe. He is a method actor and able to play all different types of roles. He is best known for being