What makes Shyamalan so unique & compelling to you?

Erm...You mean other than my hair, my dysfunctional family, my empty wallet, my 13-year-old's obsession with the Cheetah Girls 2 CD (I'm gonna torch it, I swear to God), my Cocker Spaniel's teeny tiny bladder, and my lack of desire to mow the back lawn? ... Nah. I'm completely off topic today. Haven't thought of anything Shyamalanish in at least 12 hours.

*Rolls on the floor laughing* Sandy you never cease to make me laugh out loud.

You're not alone though. I have similar things to worry about, but it's that constant strive to handle them all, that keeps me going. It's all worth it. In other words, hang in there. I'm with ya.

"Shamalanish" thats new. I like it. I Just watch Signs or the Sixth Sense and it gets me back into the feeling of his stories once again.

Yeah, watching the Sixth Sense on DVD last week was kind of eye-opening. I loved the film when it originally came out, but I'd only seen it that one time in the theatre. (Hubby wet pants and wouldn't go back to see it a second time, the wussie!)...The first time I saw it, the mother-son relationship stuff kind of blew by me, because my daughter was just a toddler, and I hadn't really been through parent hell yet. ; I paid closer attention to Bruce Willis's storyline. But now that my daughter's older, I was more engrossed in the storyline of Cole and his mom. Criminy, it was like a knife through my heart. That poor little boy. Sheesh, Osment's performance was incredible. I hadn't fully appreciated it before. (Toni Collette's was so great, too.)

Drat. I haven't seen Signs a second time. Was going to rent it recently, but all of Blockbuster's copies were checked out, so we ended up with Sideways and Sixth Sense.

This is me babbling, not Yoda! I agree to a degree. I think M. Night may be the most important filmmaker there is right now. I think the most important message the world can hear is that we all have a purpose or at least purpose to our lives. I don't think his purpose is to show that the world is a dark and scary place, but that we can best respond to the dark-and-scariness that shows up by finding that purpose and living it as best as we can.

I am in awe of how well he has been able to apply this in his own life...making such movies, getting this message out and making money, too. I can't figure out how to make my purpose pay, so I'm stuck doing other things. I guess part of the message is that as well...keep doing it anyway. It would be nice, though, if there could be a bit of a paycheck at the end of the day. Now if everyone would just agree to make money go away entirely...

Jimi Hendrix used to talk about the "electric church". His message was that songsters have an ability to deeply effect/affect the human condition, because of the nature of music. It gets into us in a way that nothing else does. Because of this, per Hendrix, they have a responsiiblity to use this power to good ends, to better the world. I think filmsters have the same responsibility. M. Night Shyamalan lives up to this responsibility better than most.

Bliss'd and Blessed Be!

Hagridore

All I have to say to that is AMEN! You couldn't have said that better. I agree with those statements and also when you said Night was an important filmmaker and he is living up to his responsibilty better than most, I thought that says alot about him. Thank you for posting that and welcome to the forum.

tight, well crafted screenplays. fantastic unique directing. and powerful dialogue which makes a viewer listen carefully or you might just miss something.

however, although i am a huge fan, i know that m night isnt perfect.

there are a few things in all of his films which i thought were a bit silly.

didnt like the way the kid was acting in unbreakable. m night didnt explain why a kid would immediately believe a man like elijah price and want to shoot his father. hmmm......

i felt morgan was acting far too mature in signs. the explanations about crop circles and hostile aliens he was giving was something like that of a 20 something year old scientist.

other than that, m night is my hero. i had the pleasure of meeting him at the london premiere of the village in 2004.

I love the stories. They are filled with extraordinary events happening to normal people.

I love the acting: Bryce Dallas Howard gave one of the greatest perfromances I have ever seen in "The Village".

I love the passion in his films.