Defining Favourites: The Sixth Sense (1999)

M. Night Shyamalan's supernatural thriller is also a deeply affecting tragedy.

Photo: Hollywood Pictures

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Directed by M. Night Shyamalan
Screenplay by M. Night Shyamalan
Produced by Frank Marshall, Kathleen Kennedy, Barry Mendel
Starring Bruce Willis, Haley Joel Osment, Toni Collette, Olivia Williams
Premiere Date: August 2, 1999
Running Time: 106 minutes

In recent years, it’s become easy for many moviegoers to mock the most common traits of the work of M. Night Shyamalan. It’s not something that I ever really understood, as I’ve always found most of his work endearing, outside of The Last Airbender or After Earth. But when M. Night Shyamalan was at his best, perhaps his most usual gimmicks had amounted to something far more poignant. Take for instance, the work that he has arguably become most famous for: The Sixth Sense. It’s not hard to see why this supernatural psychological thriller film had put him on the map, but among the reasons as to why it is his best film comes from the fact that the genres within which he is utilizing are transcended in some way.

The Sixth Sense is a story that opens, fittingly enough, on a very tragic note. But it’s also a moment that gets us to know Dr. Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) and his profession very well. Through most of the film, Malcolm Crowe happens to be our guide through this haunting journey as his newest patient is the young Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment). Cole sees things that he doesn’t want to, but he’s also placed within a peculiar predicament all because he can. For Malcolm Crowe, seeing kids like Cole might be a regular occurrence. But this also stems forth from adults’ continuous misunderstanding of how children are capable of seeing the world around them.