In “Signs”, M. Night Shyamalan makes many connections between all the events that take place on screen, even the most innocuous ones. Back to several details that reinforce the emotion and the message of the film with Mel Gibson and Joaquin Phoenix.
signs : a family facing extraterrestrials
After the huge success of Sixth Sensewhich totals nearly $ 673 million in worldwide revenue, M. Night Shyamalan suffers the more mixed reception ofUnbreakable in 2000, which made “only” $248 million worldwide. Convinced that audiences weren’t yet fully ready for superhero movies, let alone a superhero movie handled in such dark and dramatic fashion, the filmmaker called Disney and pitched to the producers, as he explain to the site The Ringer in 2020:
I just want to make a joyful film that doesn’t have this notion of burden.
He adds :
There can be a lot of conflict in it but the tone has to be almost childlike.
Even if it doesn’t necessarily look like it at first glance, this “joyful” feature film is none other than signs, which was released in 2002 and established itself as a new box office, with more than 408 million dollars in worldwide receipts. The film begins when Graham Hess (Mel Gibson), his brother Merrill (Joaquin Phoenix), his son Morgan (Rory Culkin) and his daughter Bo (Abigail Breslin) discover crop circles in their cornfield. Very quickly, they also feel that a presence is lurking around their property. First thinking of a set up by some of their neighbors, they end up convincing themselves that it could be extraterrestrials, while similar phenomena are happening all over the world.
If the threat coming from another world obviously serves the suspense, it above all allows a bereaved family to reconnect, and a former pastor to regain the faith he had renounced. The luminosity evoked by M. Night Shyamalan passes through their evolution, through their unfailing support and through the touches of humor due to their sometimes curious reactions and attitudes, but always justified in the scenario.
Nothing is left to chance
Each new vision of the feature film also makes it possible to identify certain elements cleverly concealed on the screen and to appreciate all the connections between the different events, even the most innocuous. Among the most touching details is the fact that the Hess absolutely have to touch each other for the baby monitor to work well and can thus pick up communications between the aliens. Moreover, the mark of the unhooked crucifix is visible on one of the walls of the house, signifying Graham’s state of mind vis-à-vis religion before his long conversation with Merrill, one of the most strongest in the film.
As spotted by a user of Redditlittle Bo is watching an episode of the cartoon Dexter’s Laboratory in the first few minutes. One of the characters hits a monster in the head with a stick, before Dexter is plunged with his head in water. Adventures that are reminiscent of the outcome of signswhere Graham asks Merrill to “strike hard” and where all the glasses of water dropped by the girl in the house play a major role.
Finally, as the site points out Screening, Graham wants to call a doctor to treat his dogs, not wanting to call a veterinarian. Later, the mailbox of Ray Reddy (M. Night Shyamalan), involved in the accident that claimed the life of the hero’s wife, indicates that he is the veterinarian of their village.
An inability to compartmentalize
During his interview for The RingerM. Night Shyamalan returned to his gift for linking all the elements of the storywhich he explains by an inability to “compartmentalize”:
What I’ve noticed about myself is that I have almost no ability to compartmentalize. For example, you and I are having a conversation, and the conversation I had with my wife this morning directly affects how I interact with you. (…) It is a thing both marvelous and very impractical. People who are able to hyper-compartmentalize, it’s like they have a superpower. So when I write a line of dialogue from Bo that says, “Can I have a glass of water? There’s a monster in my room”, (…) in a movie based on the fact that everything has a meaning, what is that of this line? So we keep thinking about it like that and it keeps unfolding.
An “art of juxtaposition” that the filmmaker masters perfectly.
