The Film
The world wasn't ready for The Sixth Sense. The script by then-little-known young director M. Night Shyamalan was thoroughly original and remarkably simple, about a boy (Haley Joel Osment in one of the great performances of any child actor ever) who is routinely visited by needy ghosts, and the strongly motivated psychologist (Bruce Willis) determined to help him. The movie's very real, very human exploration of childhood, death, family and friendship only adds to its hypnotic quality, which sets up the audience like bowling pins for a generous helping of frights, on the way to one of the best, most talked-about surprise endings of the past decade. Although relegated by the studio to the usually sluggish release month of August, the film was phenomenally successful, second only to The Phantom Menace for its year, 1999.
The Picture
This is simply one of the most spectacular video transfers I've ever seen, with a reach-out-and-touch-it clarity at times that draws us in that much deeper, making the narrative that much more effective. I detected barely any film grain and some of the most realistc blacks I've ever seen on a Blu-ray. Even in those scenes or portions of the 1.85:1 frame that I know should be trouble (there is only the slightest buzz for example over the tweed of Bruce Willis' jacket), it is decidedly less than it should be, or less than I've seen in similar movies. Curiously, the severity of the artifacting seems to become a hint more pronounced as the movie progresses, but is still modest. I'm almost at the point where I'm resigned to the idea that there will always be some visible compression as we continue to wedge the round analog peg of film into the square digital hole of high-def. Colors are vibrant but always appropriate.
The Sound
The uncompressed linear PCM track puts clarity over pizzazz, so don't be listening for a lot of "showoff" moments here. There are a total of two gunshots and both are killer, but instead tune your ears to the ever-so-soft rainfall in the background of certain scenes or the subdued atmospheric effects like the din of a crowded but classy restaurant, a delicacy made possible by the high audio resolution at the disposal of this Blu-ray. Lesser tracks would boost such background information to make sure that they register in the home theater. The prevailing restraint of the mix of course paves the way for all of the sonic jolts that Shyamalan hits us with, most of which are tied into James Newton Howard's musical score. Voices are well-managed, all dialogue is readily understandable, even when it emanates from off screen. The overall tone is truly natural, as if we too are really living these events, which is all that a filmmaker could hope for.
This disc pulls together most of the bonus features from the two different DVD releases of The Sixth Sense, all in standard definition. "Reflections from the Set" is a 39-minute "making of" assembled from extensive interviews and behind-the-scenes footage. "Between Two Worlds" is a serious (37 minutes!) discussion of "ghosts" and the enduring power of ghost stories, with on-camera comments from writers William Peter Blatty and Bruce Joel Rubin plus clips from their movies Ghost, Jacob's Ladder and The Exorcist. It also includes clips from Shyamalan's first two movies, Praying with Anger (unavailable on home video) and Wide Awake.
"Moving Pictures: The Storyboard Process" (15 minutes) covers the director's use of storyboards and his collaboration with artist Brick Mason. "Music and Sound Design" (six-and-a-half minutes) dissects the careful implementation of the score and effects, "Reaching the Audience" (three-and-a-half minutes) stabs at why the movie became the hit it did, and "Rules and Clues" (six minutes) describes the efforts made to be true to the story's own internal logic, plus tricks such as the meaning of cold, the color red, foreshadowing, etc. The deleted scenes run 14 minutes with introductions, and the Publicity section is comprised of a theatrical trailer and two TV commercials.
Not included is the excerpt from one of M. Night Shyamalan's amateur movies which appeared on the first-ever Sixth Sense DVD, perhaps because it was apparently shot on VHS and could not handle the trip to HD.
Final Thoughts
This is one of those times when the right Blu-ray makes a good movie even better. I would say that the experience was like watching The Sixth Sense for the first time all over again, but once you know the ending, you're never the same….
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