I was trying to think of where I first came across a twist in a movie. This got me thinking about twists in general so I thought I’d write a few hundred words about them, ‘see where it took me.
Don’t worry. Any talking about twists I do will be carefully monitored to avoid spoilers. I don’t believe there is a ‘Statute of Limitations’ on twists as some people seem to do.
Don’t worry. Any talking about twists I do will be carefully monitored to avoid spoilers. I don’t believe there is a ‘Statute of Limitations’ on twists as some people seem to do.
Some people seem to think, “That film is over 5/10/20 years old now, I can shout the twist all over the place, who cares?” Well, the people who haven’t seen the movie yet, they care. So, if I go on about some film (as I will) and you haven’t seen it, I think you’ll be safe. Try to see it soon though, you’re on dangerous ground leaving it this long, there’s a lot of feckin' eejits about.
The first time I encountered a twist in a movie, it just blew me away.
It was ‘Sleuth’. The first adaptation of Anthony Shaffer’s stage play starring Laurence Olivier, Michael Caine and Alec Cawthorne. (I reviewed the second version here). I remember seeing a trailer for it at some kid’s matinee show back in 1972, I remember thinking it looked rubbish and I would never watch that. Its saving grace was that turned up on TV, a few years later, as the Christmas Night Movie. In Ireland, back then, the Christmas Night Movie had a seriously captive audience. There were no other channels to flick to, no other place to be. The only thing to do was to watch the movie. I should write a separate blog post about the movies I’ve seen on Christmas Night that I would never otherwise have seen. There was ‘Gone With the Wind’, ‘Braveheart’ and… what else… oh, yeah, there was ‘Sleuth’.
Famously, ‘Sleuth’ has a twist.
No, I won’t tell you what it is (you probably know already). All I need to tell you is what it did to me.
Before 'Sleuth' I already knew movies could make you happy or sad, you could laugh or even cry when nobody was looking but I didn’t know they could flip you upside down like on a roller coaster, that your stomach could be felt to plummet three inches lower down into your pants, that your head could reel and your mind, momentarily, fail to grasp the beauty of what had just unfolded before your very eyes.
I saw ‘Sleuth’ and I was hooked. Hooked on the twist.
And there have been so few, so few really good twists. I’m pretty good at seeing things coming, at spotting the machinations of a twist-in-the-making, so I’m rarely caught out. Perhaps that’s why, when I am, I like it so much.
Jump forward to The Sixth Sense. I saw that one in the cinema when it came out. Everybody and their Granny was talking about ‘The Twist’. “It’s an Amazing Twist.” “You’ll never see this Twist coming.” Etc etc. I went to see it with the express intent of figuring out the Twist before it got me. I studied the film intently as it played out. I even got some kids thrown out of the show for talking too much (that’s another story). Guess what? I didn’t figure it out. I never saw it coming. My belly did the flip just like in the good old days. I loved it.
I’ll grant you that The Sixth Sense is a two dimensional construct. You have to look at it face-on, for the effect to work. If you go around the side of it, you can see the buttresses and wedges holding it all together. What on earth do I mean? Well, for example, the story only works in the scenes we are allowed to see. What is happening to the character in the moments between those scenes? Any myriad of events would cause the house of cards to tumble but all of them are avoided until the one arrives which deliberately kicks it all down. It’s a rather elegant thing, I think.
But the twist of all twists - oh, man, when I think of it – was The Crying Game. This is the most difficult one to talk about without doing Spoilers so you might want to skip this paragraph (you don’t have to). I went to see this with Trish in Kensington on the Sunday it came out. As usual I knew a little bit about it. I knew it was Neil Jordan, I knew the casting of the film had presented singular difficulties… Face it, Ken, you knew nothing.
When it happened… when ‘Thing’ happened, it was like going off the deep end. I had been misled in the most basic of ways and I loved it. I turned to Trish and she whispered, “I saw that coming.” I hadn’t the energy for the obvious reply.
So that’s it. There were others but I just wanted to mention three.
I really want to go and find ‘Sleuth’ now and show it to my kids. I want to see if I can make their tummy flip in the way mine did, all those years ago. Probably not, these are less innocent times.
What great movie twists am I forgetting, I wonder? Perhaps you might remind me of a few that you have enjoyed?
No spoilers though…
… okay?
The first time I encountered a twist in a movie, it just blew me away.
It was ‘Sleuth’. The first adaptation of Anthony Shaffer’s stage play starring Laurence Olivier, Michael Caine and Alec Cawthorne. (I reviewed the second version here). I remember seeing a trailer for it at some kid’s matinee show back in 1972, I remember thinking it looked rubbish and I would never watch that. Its saving grace was that turned up on TV, a few years later, as the Christmas Night Movie. In Ireland, back then, the Christmas Night Movie had a seriously captive audience. There were no other channels to flick to, no other place to be. The only thing to do was to watch the movie. I should write a separate blog post about the movies I’ve seen on Christmas Night that I would never otherwise have seen. There was ‘Gone With the Wind’, ‘Braveheart’ and… what else… oh, yeah, there was ‘Sleuth’.
Famously, ‘Sleuth’ has a twist.
No, I won’t tell you what it is (you probably know already). All I need to tell you is what it did to me.
Before 'Sleuth' I already knew movies could make you happy or sad, you could laugh or even cry when nobody was looking but I didn’t know they could flip you upside down like on a roller coaster, that your stomach could be felt to plummet three inches lower down into your pants, that your head could reel and your mind, momentarily, fail to grasp the beauty of what had just unfolded before your very eyes.
I saw ‘Sleuth’ and I was hooked. Hooked on the twist.
And there have been so few, so few really good twists. I’m pretty good at seeing things coming, at spotting the machinations of a twist-in-the-making, so I’m rarely caught out. Perhaps that’s why, when I am, I like it so much.
Jump forward to The Sixth Sense. I saw that one in the cinema when it came out. Everybody and their Granny was talking about ‘The Twist’. “It’s an Amazing Twist.” “You’ll never see this Twist coming.” Etc etc. I went to see it with the express intent of figuring out the Twist before it got me. I studied the film intently as it played out. I even got some kids thrown out of the show for talking too much (that’s another story). Guess what? I didn’t figure it out. I never saw it coming. My belly did the flip just like in the good old days. I loved it.
I’ll grant you that The Sixth Sense is a two dimensional construct. You have to look at it face-on, for the effect to work. If you go around the side of it, you can see the buttresses and wedges holding it all together. What on earth do I mean? Well, for example, the story only works in the scenes we are allowed to see. What is happening to the character in the moments between those scenes? Any myriad of events would cause the house of cards to tumble but all of them are avoided until the one arrives which deliberately kicks it all down. It’s a rather elegant thing, I think.
But the twist of all twists - oh, man, when I think of it – was The Crying Game. This is the most difficult one to talk about without doing Spoilers so you might want to skip this paragraph (you don’t have to). I went to see this with Trish in Kensington on the Sunday it came out. As usual I knew a little bit about it. I knew it was Neil Jordan, I knew the casting of the film had presented singular difficulties… Face it, Ken, you knew nothing.
When it happened… when ‘Thing’ happened, it was like going off the deep end. I had been misled in the most basic of ways and I loved it. I turned to Trish and she whispered, “I saw that coming.” I hadn’t the energy for the obvious reply.
So that’s it. There were others but I just wanted to mention three.
I really want to go and find ‘Sleuth’ now and show it to my kids. I want to see if I can make their tummy flip in the way mine did, all those years ago. Probably not, these are less innocent times.
What great movie twists am I forgetting, I wonder? Perhaps you might remind me of a few that you have enjoyed?
No spoilers though…
… okay?