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The Sixth Sense

The Sixth Sense won the first Nebula Award for Best Script for 22 years, after the original Star Wars in 1978. The other 1999 finalists were The Devil's Arithmetic, The Iron Giant, The Uranus Experiment: Part 2 and The Matrix.

I find several things puzzling about this. I can't understand why anyone would have voted for it ahead of The Matrix; I also don't understand why Galaxy Quest, which won the Hugo that year (beating The Sixth Sense and The Matrix) and the Nebula the following year, was not on the 1999 Nebula ballot.

The Nebula ballot notoriously included The Uranus Experiment: Part 2, a porn film which includes a 20-second sex scene shot in zero gravity on a parabolic flight. In a spirit of scientific enquiry, I have conducted my own investigation, and I can report that full docking in zero-G was not achieved, at least not in the footage that made it to the screen. (Personally, I think it was an entirely valid nomination, though the film is almost devoid of plot.)

The Sixth Sense has one actor who has returned from a previous Oscar/Hugo/Nebula winner. It is little Haley Joel Osment, playing Cole Sear, the psychic child at the centre of the plot (and in my view the best performance in the movie); five years ago, he was Forrest Gump's son, Young Forrest, in Forrest Gump.

Look, I know that this film is generally considered a masterpiece and won loads of awards. I found it boring and unmemorable. I actually watched it twice within three days, after realising that I had retained almost nothing about it first time round. Without spoiling, there is a major Plot Twist ten minutes from the end, which I spotted eleven minutes from the beginning. Bruce Willis spent an hour and a half working out what I already knew, and it just wasn't very interesting.

I'm putting it right down at the bottom of my list of Hugo and Nebula/winning films, between Curse of the Cat People and Heaven Can Wait. Looking forward rather more to Galaxy Quest, which is next on my list.

Comments

( 4 comments — Leave a comment )
wwhyte
Sep. 19th, 2021 01:46 am (UTC)
SPOILERS

Fintan Costello said that he walked past some graffiti in Dublin that spoiled the entire movie in four words, i.e. "In The Sixth Sense, X1 X2 X3 X4". Not having seen it yet I boggled about a movie that was so high concept that could be spoiled in four words and tried and failed to come up with what the words were. HE'S DEAD ALL ALONG folks. I applaud the frustrated genius who took that guerrilla action.
wwhyte
Sep. 19th, 2021 01:48 am (UTC)
I would defend it as a very well crafted movie and effective emotionally in a way that the Matrix isn't (and doesn't try to be). The Matrix is kind of just another Chosen One movie, though well done. Few SF movies have anything to compare to the anniversary dinner scene in The Sixth Sense.

This is not to say that it's not easy to mock, of course.
kalimac
Sep. 19th, 2021 05:10 pm (UTC)
The Iron Giant! Vote for The Iron Giant!

Sixth Sense sucked.
melita66
Sep. 21st, 2021 09:53 pm (UTC)
When I saw the Matrix (at home) with some friends, they were all, "ooh, whoah" whereas I laughed through most of it and rolled my eyes. The whole conceit of living through VR was old hat to me already. It took repeated viewings to let me just enjoy how fun and cool it is.

Galaxyquest was released on Christmas Day (Matrix on March 31), so maybe they did one of those carry-over eligibility things like they do with books sometimes?
( 4 comments — Leave a comment )

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  • nwhyte
    25 Jan 2023, 13:24
    O tempora! O mores!
  • nwhyte
    24 Jan 2023, 10:34
    Hello! Your entry got to top-25 of the most popular entries in LiveJournal!
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  • nwhyte
    8 Dec 2022, 12:44
    UK mailboxes aren't waterproof?! That seems like an odd design.
  • nwhyte
    29 Oct 2022, 16:28
    Now I know that "psephologist" is a word.
  • nwhyte
    9 Sep 2022, 11:19
    That would make things less awkward.
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