What’s Happened To M. Night Shyamalan?
Jul 7, 2010 by Sandy SchaeferWe look back over the last 11 years of writer, director and occasional actor M. Night Shyamalan’s career, hoping to figure out how it has steered so far off course.
The curious case of M. Night Shyamalan is a tragic tale, a story so epic in scope that it spans the first decade of the 21st century. It is a tale that begins in the sunlight, with the birth of a filmmaker whose first hit feature earned him major accolades and a bankable name at the multiplex. Within the depths of that artist’s soul lay a far more sinister figure, a diabolical Hyde to his kindly Dr. Jekyll, capable of crafting such deplorable cinematic schlock that it would leave the world trembling in its wake.
Seriously though, how did M. Night Shyamalan go from being so beloved to utterly reviled in the eyes of film critics and a growing portion of the moviegoing public?
Every artist out there has his or her high and low periods, and no one is without their supporters and detractors. The erosion of Shyamalan’s reputation is something else, something that really boggles the mind when you examine it as a whole.
So why the turn around? Is it because of Shyamalan’s self-proclaimed arrogance as a filmmaker? Is he a one-trick pony who’s been struggling and failing to come up with a new, crowd-pleasing act for the last 11 years? Or is he an artist truly ahead of his time, one whose output has yet to be fully appreciated by the moviegoing public?
Well, what better place to start examining Shyamalan’s career trajectory than with the film that he’s most associated with even today – the 1999 ghost drama The Sixth Sense.
The Sixth Sense is all but the definition of a sleeper hit. It featured Bruce Willis in a non-action role alongside then-unknown child actor Haley Joel Osment and indie actresses Toni Collette and Olivia Williams. Shyamalan had previously written/directed two little-seen films – Praying With Anger and Wide Awake – and had yet to prove that he could deliver a hit at the box office.
How then did The Sixth Sense manage to gross $26.7 million in its first weekend of release? Well, you just have to look at the film’s original trailer – tell me that it doesn’t make the flick look like a dark, engaging thriller that is heavy on atmosphere and legitimate scares:
Besides being well-received critically, The Sixth Sense became a pop sensation that claimed the U.S. box office crown for five consecutive weeks, grossed almost $673 million worldwide, and earned Shyamalan Oscar nominations for both his writing and directing. As I remember it, there were two particular things in the movie that moviegoers just could not stop talking about: Osment’s great (and eventually Oscar-nominated) performance and – of course – that infamous plot twist at the very end.
I found The Sixth Sense to be a decent if unremarkable drama that was slowly paced and a bit heavy-handed at times. There’s no way for me to fairly say whether or not the concluding twist was really that effective as it was spoiled for me in advance of my first time seeing it. If you’ve never seen the film and have miraculously avoided learning about how it ends, be warned – the final twist is all the more predictable if you know that one is coming.
Shyamalan really began to establish his reputation as a secretive filmmaker with his followup to The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable. The teaser for the film (which you can watch below) was moody and mysterious, with only a few bits of expository dialogue that hinted what the flick was about – naturally, moviegoers were intrigued.
Although Unbreakable was not nearly the critical/financial hit that The Sixth Sense was, it secured Shyamalan’s place as a serious artist interested in crafting thoughtful, character-based dramas instead of mindless, blockbuster drivel. It’s not only my personal favorite of the director’s films but it’s a definite must-see for comic book fans or anyone who likes the idea of a superhero movie that explores what life really would be like for an inhumanly-powered being in the real world.
There were certain problems that popped up in Unbreakable that began to hint at Shyamalan’s limitations as a filmmaker. While the movie was again kind of frustratingly slow at times, it also featured an anti-climactic twist ending that really isn’t a surprise if you know anything about the classic hero/villain dichotomy. It was really just a mistake on Shyamalan’s part to try and pull the rug out from under moviegoer’s feet again and expect the same kind of success.
Continue to the first “Signs” of trouble…
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I actually really liked Signs a lot, and seriously appreciated Lady in the Water, although it won’t make my top 10. I didn’t know the Last Airbender was made off of a TV series (never saw the cartoon) and I thought it was predictable, poorly acted, and the story poorly developed. I was appalled at the martial arts, though, because it seemed contrived and amateurish when there’s so much cool stuff out there. Choreography was lame in the water bending sequences and movement wasn’t fluid or smooth, which made it look like real bad, home made Tai Chi. I really wanted to like the movie because the story had such potential. If only…
This is my second attempt at commenting, hope it posts this time. I guess I really want to add my two bits!! Anyway, I like all MNS films I’ve seen so far, even though I agree with the comments about Lady in the Water and The Last Air Bender. They weren’t the best made movies, but I liked them anyway. I actually really loved Signs even though it seemed stupid for aliens who were damaged by water to come to a planet covered in it!!! Haven’t seen Unbreakable and The Happening yet. Despite the poor reviews, I plan to have a look-see.
I guess one could like a movie even if it was poorly done, right? I guess I liked the potential of Air Bender, not really the actual movie. The concept seemed great, though poorly executed. My problem with The Last Air Bender was mainly the martial arts choreography. Jerky movements and cheesy moves made it look like really bad, home made Tai Chi. Moves that should have been cool ended up looking comical. That, coupled with dialogue that seemed to haphazardly fall out the Avatar’s mouth made the movie just barely watchable. Like the scene at the first Earth Bender village where the Avatar revealed himself and roused the Earth Benders to fight. I stared at the screen with my mouth open!! I couldn’t believe that such carelessness could reach the big screen.
The story had such potential. It just felt like something was missing…like good acting and choreography and dialogue and…
Oh well. Just for the sake of completing the story I would like to see the next two air-bender movies but with some more effort put into them.
shellbell i totally agree.. im just here to give my two cents about the last air bender.. the previews looked cool.. a 3 d movie with soem cool action would make for a nice view.. totally disapointing.. hardly any cool 3d effects but the acting was so cheesy and empty! like i could have done a better job.. sokka’s character is sooo bad. But i wanna see the other two movies go on and the characters grow up and hopefully some more mature acting takes hold and completes the movie and gives it some sustanance alongside its action
Sandy that first paragraph was hilarious. He really messed up avatar and now i think he should retire and never direct and act again. Just quit and get a regular 9-5 job. If they still make unbreakable 2 get another director. Wes Craven or somebody. If they dont reboot avatar they should definitely get another director or 2 more like they did in the harry potter and twilight movies.If there is another airbender movie, hopefully shajfjfgjgjofgjklan dont come no where near it.
I say mystery science theater should commentate some of his movies like the last airbender, the village, lady in the water, and oh yeah the happening.
Umm you mean Mike Nelson’s “Riff Tracks?!” I think I might be persuaded to get his movies with “Riff Tracks” sold with them.
You’re easy to please, Sandy. He lost me at ‘The Village’. I walked out of there feeling angry and betrayed. I wanted a monster (hopefully a Werewolf) like they alluded to and got nothing.
If I hadn’t gotten ‘Signs’ as a gift I would have rented it like I did all the rest of his movies since.
“Within the depths of that artist’s soul lay a far more sinister figure, a diabolical Hyde to his kindly Dr. Jekyll, capable of crafting such deplorable cinematic schlock that it would leave the world trembling in its wake.”
-LOL! Are you going for the Pulitzer? NICE!
The 6th sense was not an original idea. A show on Nickelodeon had that same idea and plot on “Are you Afraid of the Dark”
As did the movie “Jacobs Ladder”.
I’ll be honest here in my opinion. I honestly felt that although you had some points about his style and character as a filmmaker, being driven by his own ego; I think you were a bit hard on the guy. When Shyamalan first started off, I thought this guy was different for one. I also thought his style was kind of interesting with his slow, dark, erie moods. I thought it actually made film more interesting to watch. Lets admit, hollywood has really gone down the drain in the last 15 years. I mean, really gone down the drain. It’s down right horrible in every way. So this guy comes along and gives us The Sixth Sense and I was like, “wow…could this be the next Spielberg? Hope hope…” But I thought things took a turn for the worse with, “The Village.” I think this is where he really lost it. By it, I mean his flare for imagination and mood. I hope he finds his way back to overnight success for the longterm. Because I honestly thought his 1st 2-3 films were very entertaining, and I thought his imagination was great! I enjoy the mysterious sci-fi adventures. Because little to almost no one in hollywood these days can do it anymore! With hollywood in shambles, and no material left to write about, I thought your review was a bit too harsh. The reason I say that is, aren’t we all hoping for more entertaining films? Whats the point if we just knock him to the floor and say, onto the next guy I guess. Right? Because I’m always on the lookout for the next Spielberg. Who isn’t. I think we should all hope that he comes out with a blockbuster such as the next Close Encounters. I honestly thought he was going to end up doing another Close Encounters. But it looks like JJ Abrams will be pulling that off with “Super 8.” And I certainly can’t wait for that!!! That looks awsome. If you haven’t seen the trailer yet, I highly recommend it…!
I can tell you guys that after having just watched “Inception” the phrase:
“Written, Directed and Produced by”
now firmly belongs to Christopher Nolan.
Bummer about M. Night – maybe a victim of high expectations… and a massive ego.
Vic
Vic,
PLease say you’ve got an INCEPTION review coming today. I’m dying to hear about the film.
BTW – If anyone else (besides me) wasn’t aware of this, apparently INCEPTION in iMax will NOT be on most iMax screens, at least not in the Dallas area, thanks to that the latest in that stupid Vampire love story crap. I wasn’t anti-Twilight till I found out it was holding out iMax screens from INCEPTION. I now have to drive an extra 30 miles if I want to see it in iMax at an AMC, the only theatre chain that serves real food and not just popcorn or hotdogs. I usually will take a long lucnh and grab a pizza while seeing a new realese so something like the CENMARK iMax in the Dallas area is not an option.
BlueCollarCritic,
My Inception review will be out on Friday.
It was excellent.
Vic
I have watched movies in IMAX and have found the resolution on DLP screens to be better. Also, Cinemark Legacy in Plano has their own “XD” technology that they developed after working with IMAX. There is currently a lawsuit between IMAX and Cinemark over allegedly stolen tech. While XD is not as crisp as DLP, it is equivalent to IMAX in my opinion.
I hope that theater is closer than 30 miles!
About the lawsuit:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601082&sid=aGqFQA_jyj9w
I would just like to say that I love his movies. The Happening was a little disappointing, but the rest I enjoyed and I loved Signs and Unbreakable – They definitely make my top 10. I can’t wait for Unbreakable 2 – AWESOME!!!
The Last Airbender was actually a really really good movie.
Based on what?
The dialogue was terrible, the acting was terrible, the plot (as he presented it) was incomprehensible.
The only point at which I disagree with the author here is in his saying that “The Last Airbender” wasn’t quite as bad as “The Happening”. It was much worse.
And you’re talking to a long-time fan of the series.
This director is like the bad guy in a slasher film. No matter how many times you hit him, he just doesn’t die! He goes down and you think it’s over but, somehow inexplicably and defying all logic, he rises to hunt you down-AGAIN. The only choice is to go over to the bastard and shoot him mercilessly and repeatedly until there is no way humanly possible that he could survive. Let’s hope Airbender will be the movie that does this for his career. RIP and good riddance career of Shamealame.
MY thoughts
I think M.Night Shyamalan did this whole moive the wrong way, what he should have done was separate book 1 into 2 parts,actually he should have separated each boook into 2 parts…so in all u would have a total od 6 action pack scenes…and then u won’t have a fast pace movie like what he did and each scence would be better than the next…the actors performance and the graphics are something by themselves and can be fixed…
atleast this is what is would have done if i was in his shoe’s
they are many angry ppl around the world concerning this film and if i was M.Night i won’t be walking the streets any time soon
Umm… Does anyone else think Stewart Little was his best work?
I’ve actually enjoyed most of his movies. I wasn’t impressed with “The Happening” or “The Village”, but I liked the others (especially “Unbreakable” and “Lady In The Water”). I like the slow moving air to them. It gives me more time to think and take in what I’m seeing. I also really like the story plots he comes up with. They aren’t entirely original, but they are definitely different and sort of weird (which is what I like about them).
I don’t really think he’ll just fade away. As far as overall popularity goes, he seems like a hit and miss kind of person to me. I suspect he’ll make more great movies…but I also imagine he’ll be making movies that just don’t cut it for a lot of people.
Winter – I agree with you. On the whole, I enjoy his movies. Overall, they are well-crafted stories with nice artistic direction. I even liked “The Happening” and “Lady in the Water,” even if they weren’t his best efforts. However, “The Last Airbender” was a substandard movie. The effects and cinematography were good. The acting was terrible, except for Patel and the fire nation characters. Aang wasn’t bad, just not good. The direction was horrible in the beginning scenes, like the scene in the earthbending tribe. I wonder if he altered the movie to force 3D effects into it? He could borrow ideas from the way the characters in the show.
Hopefully the next two movies will be better.
As We see the career of M. Night evolve thru the years. I thought about him to be quite different from other hollywood directors. If you see the youtube videos about the news conference in mexico. A reporter ask him about his filmmaking career in a rude way as some others thought. He defended himself by stating that all of his movies are famous in europe. the village is famous in france while lady in the water in spain. He even say that he never turn down projects that he did’nt believe in making. Also he gave up most of his salary to buy his rights of his movies so hollywood would not exploit them. He is a true independent director not many men would follow his path.
That’s not true, we don’t like Lady in the Water in Spain. Shyamalan makes up this stuff and I don’t know where he gets it from.
In Spain, we like stuff like A-team and Chuck Norris, we like action movies with ewxplosions and car chases! You just would’ve to see what airs on TV here and what films stay longer in theatres…
Shyamalan was cruel to that young Mexican reporter, she wasn’t rude, she was just asking a question and he told her to kill herself! WTF?
Oh my goodness! You do realize you got that all wrong, right? He wasn’t suggesting that the reporter kill herself. He was saying that IF he thought the same way she thought about making movies he would take his own life. The reporter has no idea what it is to be an artist in any sense. She seems to think that the only motivation is money or popularity. He is expressing his distaste for such a viewpoint. Creative people detest those that practice in the same medium whose motivations are solely ego or money driven. Their work has no authenticity and they often pander to the least common denominator and never challenge the viewing public instead, seeking to sensationalize in the lowest form. I see M. Night Shyamalan as someone who is true to his artistic vision first. People won’t always get that and it won’t always spell “box office hit”. I agree with him, I would detest myself for having such a viewpoint. Though, if I had it I probably wouldn’t have the sense to care.
But Airbender DID look like a movie by Uwe Boll!
I think the Shyamalan hate is overdone as is the idea that his career is over, or even that he has gone off course. Let’s look at the numbers :
Sixth Sense – budget 40MM, Gross revenue 673MM
Unbreakable – budget 75MM, Gross revenue 250 MM
Signs – budget 72MM, Gross revenue 408MM
The Village – budget 60MM, Gross revenue 257MM
The Happening – budget 48MM, gross revenue 163MM
The lady in the water – Ok, I’ll give you that one, but actually it still basically broke even.
TLA is now up to 260M USD and still going strong. None of the numbers above include DVD sales or merchandising so even these are understated.
Given this, it seems that rumours of Shyamalan’s career being over are greatly exaggerated! It seems that critical appreciation of a move doesn;t really have a lot to do with what the audience wants, since they keep going out and watching his movies.
I think the people who talk about hate and butchery and all these sorts of things really have issues and need to calm down. It is only a movie at the end of the day – and you don’t have to watch it if you don;t want to.
The Shyamalan hate is misguided and wrong – he is doing well and has a good solid record. The haters really need to grow up.
I was extremely upset at The Last Airbender. Mainly because, in my excitement for the movie, I bought the “Art of Avatar: The Last Airbender” (Cartoon series art mind you. And M. Night wrote the flippin introduction! And he claimed that he “loves the series”, and “plans of working closely with the writers of the cartoon”…
He said things that made me excited to see a potentially darker twist on my favorite cartoon. And then he just decided to smash my hope into a million pieces, and then piss on those pieces. All while yelling “look I’m a water bender!”
The article is well thought-out and well written…
I’ll be blunt – I’ve seen half of Shyamalan’s movies, and the only one I experienced the slightest enjoyment with was Unbreakable – and at that time I had high hopes that MNS would learn from the mistakes he made there and really come back with a ringer…
Instead I saw the advert for Signs, and wrote him off. The gf wanted to try Lady, so I did choke down the whole movie, but most of the time my eyes were actually on screen, I was fantasizing about strangling MNS for creating such a sack of drivel.
I’d really like to see him use some of that potential he seems to have, and make something impressive. I’m of the opinion that it is not a matter of he cannot do it, but that he *will* not. After all, by the gross (read: disgusting) sales figures apparently the masses want to continue to be spoonfed his s**tty excuses for motion pictures.
So, a call to action for the moviegoing public: Simply don’t go see the next Shyamalan release in theatres! If the studio doesn’t cash in big, they won’t encourage MNS to keep producing garbage, and he’ll have to actually adapt.
I think there are two types of movie fans. The critics who over analyze the movie, and dissect every last bit of the movie until there nothing left but garbage. And people like me, who enjoy M. Night because he’s different, not the same old hollywood mumbo jumbo thats just so predictable. I like to watch all different types of movies – for example, the Last Air Bender will never win an oscar, but its still an entertaining movie.
A movie should be judged on its entertainment value. All the other stuff is just for the critics, who make a living pretending to be “experts.”
Gee, bobthebuilder, then I guess there are a LOT more “critics” than I thought there were based on the hundreds of comments on the Last Airbender review.
Vic
Well said bothebuilder.
M night. Ruined one of my favorite animated series, I can’t believe the creators of a nickelodeon cartoon took more time and dedication to make sur the martial arts were ral and looked good, if you haven’t seen the show check it out it’s called avatar: the last airbender, the creators had a real martial artist working for them, it actually looks really good and one of the reasons I like the show so much. I can’t even begin with why I was disappointed with m nights movie version, he doesn’t respect the source matrial at all, and it doesn’t seem he is really the fan of the show as he says, or maybe he changed the characters so they’d look more like his own family so they can have their little fantasys