The TV Addict 

With THE HAPPENING hitting theatres today, in the last weeks the poor guy has had to sustain no-end of interviews, most of which go right for the jugular and ask all sorts of questions ranging from the declining successes (financial and creative) of his films, to the Michael Bamberger book that seemed to fuel even more Shyamalan hate, to his increasingly poor standing in the industry. There have been prominent interviews in everything from Entertainment Weekly and The New York Times, to Cinematical, and with each new one it seems like his face is getting rubbed more and more into the dirt.

I just put myself in his shoes, imagining how hard it must be to go from interview to interview having to deal with these questions. Yes, you could argue its part of taking on the kind of career path he’s taken, but he’s still a human being in the end. It just makes me really sympathize for the guy because it seems like he’s been on the defensive for years now, with the assaults growing more aggressive and in number. Bullshit like this, this, or this, doesn’t help either. Or put it this way: how do you think you would feel if you made some mistakes and had to spend your next few years continually answering for them?

Sure, the guy does deserve a fair amount of the critique sent his way. His films have been increasingly poorer (though always highly interesting failures), and it’s hard to argue against that prominent ego of his. Still, I feel people are going way overboard. I can think of few directors that are this harshly criticized, almost reviled. Especially ones that - like him -  are actually talented. There seems to be a definite mob mentality going on where people are just dissing him because everybody else is doing it. Some of  his detractors almost come off like jilted and bitter lovers, as if people who loved THE SIXTH SENSE have felt increasingly more betrayed by Shyamalan with each subsequent film and took it personally.

Then again maybe that’s exactly it. THE SIXTH SENSE proved that Shyamalan was a filmmaker to look out for. He is a director’s director, a technically accomplished one with a fantastic visual style. THE SIXTH SENSE and UNBREAKABLE broadcasted that loud and clear, but SIGNS (which I actually liked), THE VILLAGE and THE LADY IN THE WATER failed to demonstrate Shyamalan to be the talented director many of us know him to be. Then again there’s a difference between being disappointed by a director and  taking that extra step and tearing his films apart like ravenous piranha, then dancing a jig on the bones, as many on the internet seem to enjoy doing.

That aside, though I don’t think THE HAPPENING is going to be a turning point (unfortunately I think it’s going to be bad as a film and at the box office, and his detractors are going to get fresh meat), I nevertheless have hope for the man. You see, amidst all those interviews I couldn’t help but notice a distinct change. That ego seems to be disappearing. He seems decidedly calmer and less pretentious/egotistical in his interviews, all the more impressive given that they’re all pretty hard-hitting. Sure, maybe it’s possible he is reigning himself in for the sake of damage control, but I don’t think so. Most importantly, he is talking like a filmmaker. Admittedly he may be painting himself a wee bit too much as a rebel against the system (especially in that New York Times piece), but you know what? He kind of is. He’s doing his own thing, he’s sticking up for himself and his vision (good or bad), and he’s taking risks. Most of all, he’s putting himself out there, or in his own words “putting [his] own vulnerabilities” on the big screen.” That’s what a great filmmaker does.

We should be championing him, encouraging him to somehow tap into the talent that made THE SIXTH SENSE and UNBREAKABLE, not kick him while he’s down just for the sport of it and because it’s fun to take an egotist down a notch or two. Because if we keep this up, we’re just going to keep on forcing him to feel (whether consciously or unconsciously) that he has to prove himself to us and him, and I don’t think any filmmaker can work to their true potential under such circumstances.

We, and M. Night Shyamalan, deserve better.

(Those of us who are Shyamalan’s apologists should also check out other stewards of the filmmaker, most notably Alex Billington over at First Showing and Eugene Novikov on Cinematical).