When
the Soviet Union launched space satellite Sputnik in 1957,
the expression "the Russians are coming" gained
currency. The successful film The Invasion of
the Body Snatchers (1956), though about extraterrestrials,
was subsequently interpreted as a paradigm for the situation
in which Russians might try but fail to conquer the United
States, and I Married a Monster from Outer Space
(1958) soon cashed in on the hysteria that superior beings
would reach the earth before earthlings even reached the moon.
A similar interpretation might be given to the film Signs,
the latest from writer-director M. Night Shyamalan: Also about
extraterrestrial bodysnatchers, the movie may be seen as an
answer to the events of September 11, 2001. Signs
take place in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, some forty-five
miles from Shyamalan's favorite spooky city, Philadelphia,
where he grew up. Rather than yet another urban setting, he
selects a corn farm because one day the former Reverend Graham
Hess (played by Mel Gibson) awakens with a start and soon
discovers that crop circles have flattened his cornfield without
uprooting the stalks. Dogs bark loudly, and one acts strangely
soon after its dish is filled with water. That night an acrobatic
monster appears on the roof but scampers away when Graham
and his mature son Merrill (played by Joaquin Phoenix) run
around the house making crazy sounds. The plot thickens as
crop circles in India and mysterious lights over México
City are reported on television. Next, Hess's ten-year-old
son Morgan (played by Rory Culkin) buys a book about alien
UFO invaders and reads passages to his five-year-old sister
Bo (played by Abigail Breslin). Gradually, the entire family
panics, and Hess poses two theories: (1) God looks after good
people through divine intervention (miracles and such) or
(2) everyone is on his own because there is no God. One day
Ray Reddy (played by the director) formulates the theory that
the monsters avoid water, so he retreats to a lake. The family
instead votes democratically to stay home, to board up all
entrypoints in the house, and then to hide in the cellar.
A monster tries to enter the cellar through the coal chute,
but that effort at bodysnatching is foiled. In the morning,
the coast seems clear, so the family goes up to the first
floor, but soon the monster captures Morgan and is trying
to spray something into his lungs. Morgan, in shock, has an
asthma attack, so his lungs are shut. Merrill then uses his
lucky baseball bat, which once garnered him awards in the
Minor Leagues, to successfully wallop the monster, who releases
Morgan. Throughout the film, thanks to flashbacks, we learn
that six months earlier Hess's wife died in a freak car accident
(the motorist was Ray Reddy), whereupon Hess decided that
God had abandoned him and resigned his position in the ministry.
In the epilog of the film, Hess has gone back to the Episcopalian
ministry, snow is falling on Bucks County, and all is at peace.
MH
I
want to comment on this film
