'The Sixth Sense' is an American supernatural horror-thriller film written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan. I remember that it was my parents who first introduced me to this film when I was younger. During then, it really seemed like a horror film to me and I used to be so scared (I know, why would my parents show a kid a horror film in the first place). But as I continued watching this film from time to time as I grow up (because it is such a good film), I understand that it was not so much of a horror film anymore, but more like a psychological thriller. Every time when I show it to my other friends or my younger siblings or cousins, I could not help but to be a spoiler, just like how my parents used to spoil it for me.
I would say: "It's so sad when Dr. Malcolm finds out later that he's actually dead!" - there you go, I did it again!
This film is actually the closest to heart among all the other films that I have watched in this class. Other than the reason because my parents and I watch this together all the time, another reason would be because of the meaning and the ending of the film. I personally really love the ending of 'The Sixth Sense'. So today, for this particular film, I may not want to analyze so much about the psychological reasonings or any theories behind this film. Instead, I really want to reflect and to share how I feel about this film and which part of the film touches me the most.
Cole is a character in this film whom I really sympathize with. I realized how much struggles this little boy actually went through all by himself and it touched me. Due to the fact that he knew no one would actually believed him, Cole kept the secret (that he can see and talk to ghosts) to himself for such a long time no matter how afraid or terrified he was. Even though I think that Cole was really brave to have endured all these experiences alone, I feel very sad and sorry for this character at the same time. In the scene where Cole was having breakfast while his mother, Lynn went to fetch him a new tie from the laundry and then suddenly all the kitchen cabinets were opened, it was obvious that the ghosts did it. But because Cole knew that his mother would not believe him if he had told her so, he took the blame himself and said that he was looking for something. When he left the table, the handprints and sweats on the table showed how much this little boy was terrified. Another scene where Cole was shivering and crying in his tent because he had just saw a ghost also showed how much this poor boy was scared. But still, no matter how scared Cole was, he could never tell anyone because if he did, people would send him away, teachers would have meetings with his mother and classmates would look at him in the way he never want them to. So the only things that he could do was to take refuge in the church and to steal figurines from the church to build his very own refugee tent in his room. It touched me most to have to imagine the amount of fear and stress a child like Cole would be experiencing to have to endure all these by himself and still cared a lot about what other people think of him. For example, Cole would constantly ask his mother about what she thought of him throughout the film. He cared a lot about what his mother thought of him. Fortunately, even though Cole may seemed like a troubled child, Lynn would also constantly reassure Cole about what she thought of him and that she loved him very very much. As a mother, she was always there to protect and to care for him - the random 'trolley scene' in the film seemed to want to show how much Lynn wanted to try to make Cole happy.
Initially Cole did not want to open up and to let Dr. Malcolm help him because he thought that Dr. Malcolm would not believe him either. But surprisingly, when Dr. Malcolm began to share his personal issue in which his wife would not talk to him, he began to bond and to build a certain degree of trust with Cole and that was when Cole decided to tell him his secret. This showed how sometimes it is possible and wise for therapists to cross certain boundaries with the client if it would bring benefits such as building rapport and trust with the client. However, even after Cole had revealed his secret, Dr. Malcolm did not fully trust him. In fact, he even diagnosed Cole as having delusions (which is rational because it is quite hard to believe that it was all supernatural).
This brings back to the matter which we can all reflect as therapists - how much do we actually believe in our clients and will the amount of trust we have on our clients influence our judgement and affect how much we can help them?
In this film, the answer is YES. In Cole's case, the only way to help him was to get rid of the ghosts and there was no possible way for Dr. Malcolm to help him if he did not believe him in the first place. Just as what Cole would say; "How can you help me when you don't believe me?"
Anyhow, I am glad that Cole was given a happy ending in the film. From being terrified by the ghosts, Cole became really brave to have faced his fear and to confront the ghosts. By confronting, Cole was able to help the ghosts with their unfinished business and most importantly, he was no longer terrified by them anymore. We can actually learn from Cole's experience in the film and apply it to our lives. In our lives, there are certainly many things that scare us or terrify us to move on. But only if we allow ourselves to have courage and to confront the matter, anything and everything can be solved.
Besides Cole, the story between Malcolm and his wife, Anna also touched me a lot. I do agree that the plot twist would be much more effective for first-time viewer however, no matter how many times I watch this film, I still feel the pain. Other than the beginning and the ending of the film, this entire film was showing how the relationship and the marriage between Malcolm and Anna was breaking apart. She would not talk to him, she ignored him all the time and there was a chance that she was going out with another man. Malcolm thought that it was because of his job. Cole suggested to him that maybe he should try to talk to her while she was asleep. He did, and that was when he discovered the reason why she had been ignoring him all the while. While she was asleep, she asked Malcolm why did he leave her and she dropped his wedding ring. The moment when he finally realized that the reason Anna would ignore him all the time was not because she was angry at him but because he was dead, there were certainly some mixed feelings that he was going through at the moment. Thanks to Cole, Malcolm was able to complete his unfinished business - to rectify his failure to help his ex-client, Vincent. Similarly, thanks to Cole's suggestion to talk to Anna while she was asleep, he also had a chance to tell his wife that she was never second and that he had loved her very very much. After all the happenings in the film, it turns out that Malcolm was also another ghost in need of Cole's help to complete his unfinished business.
Lastly, towards the end of the film, Cole had decided that he finally would like to communicate with his mother. Even though she was happy that Cole was finally opening up to her, she was not very glad to hear about his 'gift'. However, when Cole started telling her about her mother (his deceased grandmother), again, I could not hold back my tears. In our day-to-day lives, sometimes, being a grown-up child to our parents, we would say things that hurt our parents' feelings or there are things that we keep to ourselves and which we do not tell our parents often - things like how much we love them. Come to think of it, we should definitely tell our parents how much we love them before it is too late. Just like in the film, Lynn's mother never had a chance to tell her that she was so proud of her. Thanks to Cole, Lynn finally had a chance to know her mother's unsaid words.
There are certainly many great things that I loved about 'The Sixth Sense'. Besides the wonderful storyline and the plot twist, I admired Cole's character for his courage and I sympathized with Cole's experience. Most importantly, I learn one very important thing from this film , that is, never have regrets in life. We should say things that we want to say to our loved ones and do things that we want to do when we still have the chance. No one knows exactly how long we get to live so we should appreciate the things and people around us while we can.
