Dear M. Night

So, tonight I planned on staying home and getting the things done that didn't get done during the week due to a 50 hour work schedule. Instead, I ended up pulling my bike out of the garage at 10 (and hour after I should've been in a deep coma sleep) and biked down to Edwards to watch The Happening with some chums. Was there a good reason for this? Not a good one; just that M. Night Shyamalan had made it and I loved his prior movies. This was a mistake. A wise man cautioned me against it after he'd seen previews for it, but did I heed the voice of wisdom? Nope, no I definitely did not. (Kyle, I give you full license to relase the 'I-told-you-so' deluge)

So, after a very nice bike ride I walked into the theater and at the opening scene I wanted to walk right out. The thing with Mr. Shyamalan's movies though, is that for all of the ridiculousness you're exposed to during your veiwing experience, there's always a twist at the end that consoles your mind for all the previous images. So, I waited for that consolation. And waited. And waited. It never came and I was left at the end with a lack of justification for all the horrific things I'd exposed my mind to. For those of you who don't know, The Happening is about a terrifying and unexplainable phenomenon in the Northeastern United States. For just one day, the verdure begins to emit a toxin that causes all those outside and exposed to it to begin acting strangely. Ultimately, they kill themselves. You follow a young married couple and their best friends' kid throughout the movie as they try to survive the 24 hours of torture and simultaneously heal a failing marriage. The moral to Night's movie seems to be more of a personal and political one than anything else. The reason the plants are killing people is because the human race has become too abusive and harmful to the world and so if we can't come up with a solution, nature will lend it's hand. Indeed, she does. I was expecting Al Gore to make his cameo appearance after the credits because this movie was so green.

On my way home, amidst a very peaceful and beautiful landscape of fields and trees, I spent my time in prayer and meditation. This is the conclusion I was lead to:

M. Night Shyamalan always has an underlying theme to each movie (what film maker doesn't?)

Sixth Sense: A little boy steps out in faith in the midst of a faithless world to aid ghosts in reconciling their deaths so they may move onto a peaceful rest. The little boy sees and hears the supernatural because he's unhindered by the mundane, natural things that flood the lives of all those around him in the land of the living.

Unbreakable: A man is made to understand that he was given a gift in his life; he never becomes ill and he never gets hurt. This information is brought to light for him by a man who he will find to be the evil counterpart to his role in this real-life comic book story. This man chooses to use the gift bestowed upon his life by who knows what to rid the world of evil little by little throughout the rest of his life.

Signs: It's been waaaaay too long since I've seen it to do it any justice.

The Village: A group of adults come together after having experienced horrible tragedies in their lives and they pull away from society totally. They build an almost Puritan village on some of the nation's wildlife reserve land to keep the world, with all of it's pain, anger, and darkness out of their lives. Their village is founded on a maze of lies and they go through theatrics to keep the village safe from our modern day world.

Lady in the Water: A woman, or sea-nymph, is on a journey to get to her homeland before it's too late and destiny is lost. The lives of strangers are orchestrated in such a way as to bring them all together to aid this Lady in getting back home in order for her to fulfill her purpose. By their faith and belief in who she is, she makes it back and in turn, the world she lives in will impact our world and bring about a great revolution and change.

The Happening: The Human race has become so corrupt, abusive, perverse, dark, and evil that even nature will lend a hand in providing a way for us and the earth to be rid of ourselves. Since we have no solution, an outer force must come and bring the necessary change.

Now, I know there are some thoughts forming in your mind about me right now. Thoughts like, 'She's waaaaay too extreme/religious' or 'What? Does she think she's attained or something?' or 'Duh, of course they're unbiblical movies because M. Night Shyamalan isn't saved.' You can go ahead and lay those thoughts aside. The purpose of this note is not to rage against a fim maker, and moreover, an unbelieving fim maker because that's definitely unbiblical. I did not even wirte this to bring any guilt, condemnation, or judgement to those who've seen this movie. I'm writing this all down because it's revelation for my life from God and that's a good thing.

You see, I'm not even a little frustrated with Night. I'm frustrated entirely and completely with myself. Because I saw a movie that portrayed horrible acts of suicide? No. Because I've been duped... many times over.

We are all called to live lives of faith in the unseen even when everyone around us has no faith.(sixth sense)

We are all called to be lights in the darkness and to use the truly God given power to rid the lives of those around us of evil and death (unbreakable).

We are all called to keep ourselves unspotted from the world, but to be in the world and not of it (The Village)

We are called to believe in the Savior Jesus Christ who has departed and is now at the right hand of the Father. By our belief this world will see change as we allow God's creative voice to come and change our lives first. (Lady in the Water)

There is no good thing in man. All have sinned. All have fallen short. We need an outside source of salvation and deliverance from the evil so innate within us (The Happening)

I hate that so often I get duped by plot twists, character development, story lines, and cool visual effects when I have the solution and these multi-million dollar movies never need to be made. Jesus Christ really is the solution for everything in this life and in His presence, where I learn all of this in a 15 minute bike ride, is much better than the 2 hour melee of suicides that still leave me feeling void of understanding and completely powerless to do anything that would turn the course of the human race away from the paths of self destruction. That's all. That's all I've got tonight. Jesus is better than the world. And while Shyamalan's movies have more substance than most of the movies coming out nowadays, he's still plaigiarising. God is the solution.