The Sixth Sense. Through close analysis of the restaurant scene and where Dr. Crow is in the house with both Cole and his mother, discuss the techniques used to make the audience believe that Dr. Crow is alive

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Through close analysis of the restaurant scene and where Dr. Crow is in the house with both Cole and his mother, discuss the techniques used to make the audience believe that Dr. Crow is alive

When Dr. Crow, an award winning child psychiatrist, try’s to help Cole Sear, a frightened and confused eight year old child, he soon finds out that it is not as easy as it looks. After many attempts to get through to Cole, Dr. Crow finally finds out Cole’s secret, he can see dead people. Disturbed by what Cole tells him, Dr. Crow try’s his best to help him. The twist is extremely unexpected and is reviled at the end of the film. We find out that Dr. Crow is dead, and only Cole can see him. In this essay I am going to argue that there are several clever techniques that convince the audience that Dr. Crow is alive. I am going to examine two key scenes and discuss the techniques used.

  One of the scenes I have analysed is the house scene, were Dr. Crow and Coles mother appear to be discussing Cole before he arrives home from school. The scene opens with a medium shot; Cole’s mother is sat facing Dr. Crow who is also seated. Their knees are angled away from each other, this makes it seem like the have just been talking. We feel as though we have just walked in on something. Because Dr. Crow cam see Cole’s mother, we can never assume that she cannot see him. As the camera turns to Cole’s mother we see that she appears anxious, it seems as though Dr. Crow has said something to her to make her anxious but now he’s trying to reassure her. Although there is no conversation between them, it seems as though they’ve been talking about Cole, as the door is central of the focus of the shot, it then opens and Cole enters. Still in medium shot. This reinforces that they have been talking about Cole. Dr. Crow turns to look at Cole first and then Cole’s mother turns and says, “Hey baby”. As she rises from her seat and walks towards Cole she says, “How was your day?”  It seems that she is trying to put Cole at ease because they have been discussing him and have more serious things to say. As the camera turns round there is a medium close up shot of Dr. Crow, as he sits back and smiles. The shot shows his emotions and makes him seem part of the scene. Cole’s mother kneels down in front of him, as she try’s to come down to his level, in both senses of the word. As she speaks quietly to Cole it gives the impression that she is trying to reassure Cole that Dr. Crow cannot hear them. As they chat she makes up a silly story to put him at ease. The audience don’t expect Dr. Crow to have anything to do with this because it is an intimate moment between Cole and his mum. The camera zooms out to a medium close up shot of them, as Cole plays along with the game. The camera then cuts back to Dr. Crow smiling again as he finds this a “cute” scene. Coles mother then stands to make him food which avoids the problems of Dr. Crow talking to her. As she walks from Cole we now return to Dr. Crow, he looks up at Cole’s mother and appears to glance in his direction as she walks out of the shot saying “you got an hour”. She really means you have an hour until his teas ready but we think Cole has an hour session with Dr. Crow. Cole then has a psychiatric session with Dr. Crow. This confirms what we think “you got an hour” means. It seems that Cole’s mother was getting Cole ready for the session.

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  The second scene I have examined is the restaurant scene. The first shot establishes the scene, as a restaurant. We see Anna at the table dressed in red with her head down. The table is the centre of the shot. We home in on the table and focus on Anna. The camera gradually zooms in on the table as Dr. Crow walks in quickly and apologises. Anna appears to look up at him. By this time an over the shoulder shot has been established. We only see his face, not hers. We can’t see the lack of reaction on ...

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