October 5th: Signs (2002, Thrift Store Purchase)

I feel like it would be a bit odd to talk about Signs and discuss it as though I were reviewing it for people who haven't seen it.  Instead I feel more inclined to examine it from a slightly different point of view that I was exposed to via Cracked.  They suggest that you view the movie from the gaze that it is not about Aliens invading earth, but rather Demons.  That is a very interesting way to view it.  If you think about the protagonist (Mel Gibson) and his faith it is an amazing way to view it.

It really changes how the film is viewed.  I loved this film when it came out and I was twelve.  I loved this film when I got into horror films in highschool.  I got luke warm on this film when I got into literature and films.  I got bored with it in my twenties after becoming jaded.  This new view of the film really changes the way that you look at it.  I greatly enjoyed viewing this film from this gaze and seeing it as a heart warming tale of a fallen priest regaining his faith and being protected by the spirit of his wife.

This was probably the best viewing of this movie I have ever had.  I really was more fixed in, the foreshadowing was far more poignant.  It was less about "his wife's dying breathes told them how to defeat aliens!" it was "god had a plan in place to restore this once greatly respected priest to his former mantle.  And all of the little things in the film hit so much harder!  The aliens were first defeated in the Middle East!  Why would the Middle East be the first who did this?!  Their Piousness.  And the Aliens being present, front and center, at a child's birthday in Central America makes perfect sense!  They make one of their first nation wide full body appearances in an area that is majority Catholic.

And let's look at how Mel Gibson is treated in the film.  His first born and only son is taken by a demon in his domain.  As though Lucifer has come to Earth to corrupt Jesus.  The demon attempts to corrupt his son, but the divine intervention of his song having an asthma attack and protected him from the poison, the brute force of the Metatron destroys the demon and the blessing of the Virgin Angel allows him to do it.... oh my god.... Signs is M. Night Shyamalan telling the second coming with Mel Gibson as The Father, Aliens as the Demons, Jaoquien Phoenix as the Metatron, Rory Culkin as the Son and Abigail Breslin as the Holy Ghost.  Jesus Christ!  I thought Apocolypto and The Passion of the Christ were heavy handed.  In this movie, Mel Gibson and company pout together a team about to fight back the demons in the Rapture.  OH.... MY..... GOD.....!!!!! I wan't that movie!