Mel Gibson and the Crop Circles, what a crap!

[Brown Jenkin]

Just an obvious observation but no one has mentioned it yet. The title of the movie is "Signs" which most of us interprate to be the crop circles but if this was really the correct interpretation the movie could be called "Circles." The other interpretation for the title could be "Signs" from God. Once more this seems like an intentional double meaning from M. Night.

 

[Storm Raven]

I had more the impression that aliens and alien visitations have replaced angels in mainstream culture. I remember reading a report about the fact that angel sightings might have been the equivalent to UFO sightings centuries ago. Which makes a lot of sense, as we "know" that god and the angels live in heaven, while demons and devils come from below. This theory obviously wouldn't fit the Signs idea.

I would say that modern alien and alien sightings have replaced both angels and demons in mainstream culture. Sometimes alien visitors are benevolent, ethereal, and wise beings, like angels. Sometimes they are scary, violent creatures that want to carve up cattle and probe abductees backsides.

 

[Quasqueton]

Stormraven:

What is your sig referring to? I don't get it. I've wondered about it for along time. What/where says getting pulped by a mace is a "good result"?

Quasqueton

 

[Rackhir]

Although I really like the demons concept very much -- actually makes a lot of sense to me, I'm surprised everyone is complaining about the "stupid alien" thing instead of about the "bad God" thing....

Well I didn't want to get into the religious aspect of things, but you hit pretty much all the points I would have.

 

[Arnwyn]

Actually, it remains an unwarranted assumption - you made an assumption about this narrative based on things you saw in other narratives, with no support in the story you were watching. He knew you would leap to the conclusion, but that doesn't make your conclusion warranted. It just makes your conclusion ill-advised.

Nah, of course it's warranted. Movie-making is movie-making, and since "gotchas" are M. Night's schtick, it's shows he knows about movie-making and the opening scene as much as anyone - just like you said, he counted on it. (And no surprise, since it was a warranted assumption based on film-making basics... one doesn't count on people making unwarranted assumptions - one does, however, count on people making warranted assumptions. Thus the 'dirty pool' with the opening shot.)

And thus the quality difference between The Sixth Sense and The Village.

How about to this end: aliens, and alien visitations, have replaced demons in mainstream culture. You can draw clear parallels between things like incubi and succubi and alien "sexual probes" and so many other elements of modern "alien lore" that I think he was playing with the comparison. If demons showed up in the modern world, why wouldn't they (as mutable supernatural creatures) appear to us, and be interpreted by us, as vile aliens from another world?

Sure - I'm not arguing with the "demon, not alien" interpretation of Signs. I think the many posts here show that it's a very valid interpretation.

I'm just saying that by showing the demonmobile, for no reason, was just foolish and pointless - something that doesn't make the movie better and in fact leads to criticisms.

(I don't know - maybe it's the difference between blatent and poorly done misdirection [Signs, The Village] and subtlety [The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable].)

 

[Desdichado]

All in all, it seems like God screwed Mel and his family royally, with the revelation at the end that, "It was for the better good of his family." If I were Mel, I think I'd be more pissed at God than ever -- "Why didn't you just let a truck run over this alien today, than have a car hit my wife last year?"

That's the rub; there's no reason to assume that God caused any of the bad things to happen. The movie makes no such allegations at all; and in fact, Mel Gibson's character "repentance" from that belief is the key driver of the film. Rather, God more subtlely turned the bad things into "blessings in disguise." If you still believe what Mel's character in the beginning believed, rather than what Mel's character at the end believed, then you completely missed the point.

 

[Rackhir]

That's the rub; there's no reason to assume that God caused any of the bad things to happen. The movie makes no such allegations at all; and in fact, Mel Gibson's character "repentance" from that belief is the key driver of the film. Rather, God more subtlely turned the bad things into "blessings in disguise."

So you're sayin that an omnipotent, omnicient God can't be held responsible for bad things that happen, only the good?

 

[Quasqueton]

If you still believe what Mel's character in the beginning believed, rather than what Mel's character at the end believed, then you completely missed the point.

Didn't Mel say at the end, something to the effect of, "It all had a reason."? I took that to mean he thought that all the bad stuff was to save his family (minus his wife) from the alien attack.

What point did I miss?

Quasqueton

 

[ken-ichi]

At risk of violating the no religion rules.
Sometimes 'bad' things are allowed to occur (or even purposefully done) to enable good things to occur.

I guess it is how you define a 'bad' thing.
Is Gibson's loss of his wife a bad thing? Perhaps it was a 'good' thing for Gibson and his family in the long run. Perhaps his faith would have remained weak and perhaps been broken and lost if his wife was still alive. The loss of his wife and the lesson he learned helped to build up and strengthen his faith. Hardships and tribulation are sometimes purposefully brought upon people, other times they are just natural results of occurances. We can't tell the difference, but do we really have to? We don't know what could have happened had his wife still been alive.

 

[jester47]

All in all, it seems like God screwed Mel and his family royally, with the revelation at the end that, "It was for the better good of his family." If I were Mel, I think I'd be more pissed at God than ever -- "Why didn't you just let a truck run over this alien today, than have a car hit my wife last year?"

Quasqueton

I think this is because if it worked out that the alien got hit by the car there would be no grounds for faith. Mel thanks the driver of the car and thus needs no faith in anything larger. And so he doesn't think twice about it. Persistant coincidence however shows what level his god is suposed to be working in Mels life. At least that is what I think MNS is trying to show.