Back in the 1950s, the
heyday of the alien invasion flick, it really meant something when those
saucers hovered over great cities, zapping buildings and disintegrating people
with their death rays, and uniting the world in opposition to defeat the
otherwise superior beings from outer space, who of course filled in for the Red
Menace.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย At some point, perhaps through the influence of the
earnest UFOlogists of Roswell, New Mexico, and those simple country folk
recounting their experiences of abduction and probing in loving detail, the
hideous monsters of fond memory turned into our old friends, the little green
men, something of a disappointment after those years of frightening space ships
and interstellar warfare.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย In its contemporary decadent phase, such Hollywood
theologians as George Lucas and Steven Spielberg (think Star Wars, Close Encounters
of the Third Kind, and E.T. The
Extraterrestrial, not AI: Artificial
Intelligence) converted the form into an excuse for soppy and academic
religious inquiry, which made both them and some reviewers feel very smart and
thoughtful, you bet.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Although M. Night Shyamalan’s new movie Signs takes the form’s religious
potential in a new direction, it actually depends heavily on a couple of
otherwise dissimilar films of the past, the 1950s classic War of the Worlds, which a character specifically mentions, and the
influential, low-budget horror flick, Night
of the Living Dead, an odd combination indeed. The director employs those
crop circles that provide fodder for ominous television documentaries narrated
by people like Leonard Nimoy, as the signs of his title. These are mysterious
geometric patterns apparently created overnight in corn fields, in this case by
creatures from another planet.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Because the picture concentrates on the experience of one
family under attack from the invaders, and focuses almost entirely on suspense,
shock, and scares rather than on the origin of the aliens, the technology that
brought them to Earth, or even their peculiar qualities, it really belongs in
the category of horror rather than science fiction.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย As in most reports of alien encounters, the central visit
occurs in a rural area, far from a population center, a military base, a
government installation, or even any particular tourist attraction. Graham Hess
(Mel Gibson) lives with his two young children and his younger brother Merrill
(Joaquin Phoenix) on a farm in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, where some crop
circles first appear.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย After the usual puzzlement, skepticism, consultation with
the local constabulary, and a number of frights, the Hess family realizes that
they are under siege from space invaders. They board up the house as well as
they can and take refuge in the cellar while the aliens tramp around upstairs
and trash the place preparatory to a climactic confrontation.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย The final defeat of the aliens — and I don’t think I am
giving anything away — again comes right out of H. G. Wells’s, Orson
Welles’s, and George Pal’s War of the
Worlds, but the essential situation, of a family hiding in the basement
from a mysterious invasion, belongs with George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead. Both films, oddly, suggest Cold War
thinking, a time of bomb shelters, the dual possibilities of nuclear explosion
and family implosion, and the failure of trust, which makes the centripetal
movement of Shyamalan’s work strangely antique.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย The picture’s theme of faith and redemption in a rural
setting, however, connects it with more contemporary science fiction films,
which in recent years tend to deal with religious rather than political
concerns, a telling point of difference perhaps between the middle of the 20th
century and the beginning of the 21st.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย In Signs,
Shyamalan continues his interest in children and families, mixing the domestic
and ordinary lives of the Hesses with an apparently typical accompanying
interest in the supernatural. Grieving over the horrible, senseless death of
his wife, Graham Hess is an Episcopal priest who has abandoned his faith. When
he comes to understand his dying wife’s final words, which apply neatly to the
alien encounter, his faith revives, enabling him to grasp something of the
design of existence, the meaning and purpose of the fear and suffering he and
his family endure.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Some sense of purpose even governs the invasion from
outer space, the presence and behavior of the extraterrestrials, the special
plight of each member of the family — his brother and his children all
account in some way for something like the mysterious workings of Providence, a
world in which everything happens for a reason.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย As he has demonstrated in the past, the director likes to
employ actors associated with action movies in more seriously dramatic roles.
He used Bruce Willis with some success in The
Sixth Sense, and what appeared to be a statue of Bruce Willis in the silly Unbreakable. Here Mel Gibson rather
overdoes the stern and anguished Cleric Who Has Lost His Faithand, like most characters in horror
flicks, takes a long time to realize that there really is Something Out There.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย On the other hand, Joaquin Phoenix handles the chief supporting
role with competence and the two kid actors, Rory Culkin and Abigail Breslin,
simply sparkle with life, humor, and reality.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Fans of the classical unities should delight in the
tightness of Shyamalan’s script, which operates with a careful regard for
foreshadowing and the significance of detail that Chekhov would admire. As in
any horror film, the camera focuses on small objects, endowing them with a
potential for fright and meaning that the actions and characters eventually
fulfill. Symbolically speaking, the rifle on the wall in the first scene gets
fired by the last scene, demonstrating a rare sense of structure and control.
Signs,
starring Mel Gibson, Joaquin Phoenix, Rory Culkin, Abigail Breslin, Cherry
Jones, M. Night Shyamalan, Patricia Kalember, Ted Sutton, Merritt Wever, Lanny
Flaherty, Marion McCrory, Michael Showalter; written and directed by M. Night
Shyamalan. Cinemark Imax; Cinemark Tinseltown; Hoyts Greece Ridge; Loews
Webster; Pittsford Plaza Cinema; Regal Eastview; Regal Henrietta.
This article appears in Aug 7-13, 2002.
