A Critical Analysis Of
The following has been written as a critical analysis of the film "The Sixth Sense". In this essay I will discuss a large variety of techniques and parts which help create the film. I will also focus on a certain extract of said film. The basic plot of the film is simple, it is focused on a young boy (Cole) who can see ghosts, however this is not the only element to it. Other focuses are on the life of the child psychiatrist (Malcolm) who helps this boy. Throughout the film his and Cole's life intermix as he tries to help him. The twist comes at the end where you find out that Malcolm is really dead. Clues to this are hidden throughout the film as you see no-one speaks to Malcolm or acknowledges his presence apart from Cole. You also see a scene at the beginning where Malcolm is shot by an old patient who he had thought he'd cured, but as the rest of the film is set the next year you automatically presume that he is still alive. My initial response to the film was that of awe. It is well scripted, acted and symbolism is used throughout. At first I just presumed that Malcolm was alive because of the cleverly situated people and places around him. Bruce Willis was the main actor in the film, playing Malcolm and he did so ver
The Sixth Sense left a large impression on me and I think many techniques that I admired from the film could be put to work in my own pieces although I would try and add a touch of my own perspective to them so they were not just facsimiles of those in the film. The third part of the extract is focused on the video from Kyra, which Mr Collins has put into the video player and is watching. You see Kyra playing with her puppets then she hears her mother's footsteps so she takes away the puppet show stage and we can see the entire room. Kyra then gets into bed to pretend she has been sleeping. The mother walks into the room and goes to the closet. You see her pouring some floor cleaner into the cap and she says "That's too much" (showing her true deceit and the fact she can't use too much as she might be caught for what she has done). She then pours some back into the bottle and stirs the rest into Kyra's soup. After this she moves over to Kyra's bed and wakes her up. Kyra speaks about feeling better and asks if she can go outside after she's eaten her lunch, to which her mother replies, "We'll see, you know how you get sick in the afternoons." (This is a use of irony, as the reason she's sick in the afternoons is her mother poisoning her.) Kyra then tastes a mouthful and crinkles up her mouth, and her mother tells her not to tell her that is tastes weird, because she doesn't like to hear that. (This is possible sign of her guilty conscience towards what she's doing to her own daughter.) After this has happened the father turns the TV off and he is trembling, but he doesn't scream and shout, the room is silent. This is a stronger representation of his anger than a lot of violence or shouting would have been as silent rage is a more extreme anger and its so bad that it is impossible to put into words, so the silence symbolises it. The next part of the extract is set downstairs, at the funeral party, where the room is full of people. They are all dressed in black, except the Kyra's mother, who is dressed fully in red. This is only one example of the use of colour throughout the film, as red is used to symbolise something bad or hitting happening soon. It is also used before Cole gets locked in a cupboard earlier on in the film, as we see a red balloon floating upwards and the staircase carpet is a deep red. These are only a few examples of this symbolism. As Kyra's mother leaves the room, Cole moves through the room to find Kyra's father (Mr Collins) who is seated on a chair near to the TV, with a sad granite face. He just stares into space. Cole speaks to Mr Collins and hands him
Some common words found in the essay are:
Kyra Collins, Cole Malcolm, Sixth Sense, Joel Osmond, Cole Malcolm's, Bruce Willis, , sixth sense, throughout film, hand grabs, example colour, extract film, moves kyra's, kyra's mother, mother poisoning, film red, words collins,
Approximate Word count = 1758
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)
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