Signs
Alien invasions have become so commonly documented on film that one must really wonder (since weâve never experienced it for real) what it would be like if it happened in real life. Would it be a wild and crazy free for all where various âordinary humansâ would emerge as being âunlikely heroesâ? Or would it be a more solemn occasion where a fear of the unknown (or at least not knowing what was going to happen) would couple with mass religious hysteria (or as some would say, âthe worst parts of The Bibleâ) to cause us to literally tear each other apart before the aliens even started in? These were questions raised by director M. Night Shyamalan when he came up with this 2002 release. The man most often referred to as being the director who always does the twist endings with Unbreakable and The Sixth Sense (where the twist there was good enough to warrant Oscar Nominations for Best Director and Best Picture) is also one that seems to inhabit a deep spirituality within his works, a fact that often goes unnoticed due to the gimmick factor, but here he takes on the subject of a worldwide alien invasion and actually does it with a bit of grace as he chooses to focus on one solitary farm family in rural Pennsylvania and leave the rest of the exposition for the news broadcasts that they watch on TV. He also managed to score Mel Gibson (shortly prior to his fall from grace) and Joaquin Phoenix (red hot at the time coming off of Gladiator) as his stars this time around, playing two brothers whose cornfields have been desecrated by the infamous crop circles that have not only occurred in real life but are believed to be signs of an impending alien invasion by both conspiracy theorists and X Files junkies for years. There was one other massively important factor that could never have been planned: The film actually started shooting a mere two days after the horrific events of September 11, 2001, an incident that in and of itself caused a pretty good amount of real life religious hysteria worldwide, prompting many to predict it as being the âend of the worldâ or at the very least the beginning of World War 3 (none of which happened), so the frightened, shellshocked demeanor that most Americans really carried in the wake of that tragedy was obviously brought over by Gibson, Phoenix and the other actors going into the filming of a story that was another probable âend of the worldâ scenario. Gibson stars as Graham Hess, a humble corn farmer who six months before was a well respected reverend and man of God before giving it all up and leaving the church after a horrifying car accident had resulted in the death of his wife at the hands of a driver who had fallen asleep behind the wheel (Shyamalan). As a result, even though he still dearly loves his two children and his brother who lives with them, Gibson has chosen to forego all of his religious leanings and to turn his back on God, not allowing any prayer, crosses, Bibles or anything else that signifies such beliefs in his home. Not that it makes much difference to the other townspeople, who happily call him âFatherâ every time they see him around and still see him as a kind of religious leader in the community (one girl working in a store even compels him to allow her to have an impromptu confession). As for Phoenixâs Merrill Hess, we learn that he was a former minor league ballplayer who was known for hitting the ball with thunderous force, setting several home run records but who never made it to the majors because he also held the strike out record, having always disregarded his coachesâ instructions and swinging for the ball EVERY SINGLE TIME, so now heâs moved in back home with his brother and works in a gas station to make his ends meet. Finally the two kids include a son (Rory Culkin, at a time when Hollywood was still striving to see that EVERY member of that family was going to have an acting career) who suffers from asthma and a daughter (future Oscar Nominee Abigail Breslin in her first ever role) who despite being a sweetie, also has an ominous habit of seeming to know about (or figuring out) things before they ever happen. Thatâs our main cast, with everyone else being bit parts except for the friendly local female police officer (Cherry Jones) who initially investigates the crop circles in Gibsonâs cornfield. Gibson believes it to be the work of another farm family (presumably rivals) who are playing an elaborate prank on him and then when the news reports start showing the crop circles appearing worldwide, decides that it must be a major hoax being perpetrated by some âsecret societyâ intent on trying to scare people and gain attention for themselves. But when the news reports confirm that the alien ships are real and show the first confirmed footage of an alien being (an hour into the movie) is when Gibson and his family must finally choose between fear or faith, as while Phoenix and the kids still have a pretty strong belief in God, Gibson chooses to believe that God will not be with him nor with anyone else during this crisis and that itâs truly every man for himself in this world. And this is where Shyamalan expertly underlines the true idea of the film (which has nothing to do with aliens despite being promoted as such) which is the differences between true faith and pure atheism, the idea that things which seem to be a coincidence in this world can be readily written off as being dumb luck, a freak occurance or some such thing, while True Christians who believe that God is always on their side and always protects them will look at such âcoincidencesâ as the SIGNS (hence the title) that everything really does have a purpose and actually happens for a valid reason in all of Godâs perfect way. That thus makes for the reality that the aliens who are invading Earth (although what religious convictions they themselves might have are unknown) is actually Godâs way of testing the faith of mankind (without necessarily being a full fledged Armageddon) and in particular the faith of this one insignificant family, driven home so powerfully by Shyamalan that this film could probably stand on its own as a purely Christian based production right alongside anything that would star Kirk Cameron, albeit in a science fiction context. This viewer could have possibly done without the Culkin character obtaining and constantly reading from a book that was supposedly written by some âexpertâ not only in the possibility of alien lifeforms, but also in their strategic way of thinking as well (and of course every single theoretical statement quoted by Culkin from this book turns out to be absolutely true) which perhaps unintentionally seems to telegraph everything which the aliens do in the story, not to mention a rather strange early scene where a jovial military recruiter tells Phoenix (whose reason for being in the office is never made clear) about how he too has got the whole alien strategy figured out as well (and seems to be proven right) which makes one wonder how the aliens ever seriously expected to win given their predictable tactics and considering what their main weakness turns out to be. As for Gibson and Phoenix, itâs an interesting acting showdown at times with Gibson doing superb work playing an emotionally and spiritually broken man but Phoenix does comes close to besting him with some powerful work of his own, especially in telling his brother that losing his faith is something that he does NOT want to see, although I could have done without the unnecessary bit of having Phoenix sitting there and joining the kids in wearing tinfoil hats (probably because Shyamalan thought it would be cute). As for the ending? Yeah, thereâs a twist ending here, and a good one, because unlike the jaw dropper that closed The Sixth Sense and the unexpected yet cool setup for a (hopefully good) sequel like Unbreakable, here the ending perfectly ties together all of the serious themes brought up throughout the movie about having faith, and more importantly shows that the actual aliens themselves (with their two whole minutes of screen time) were just a means to an end in Godâs plan to test that faith without getting carried away by having too many special effects and big battle scenes, but rather just a small battle that gets conducted within the main familyâs homeâŚ
8/10