even the most faithful of all of us can lose sight of our faith.

Rating: Null/10 (19 March 2003)

"Signs", starring Mel Gibson as Graham Hess, focuses on the faith of a man and his family. Life's tragedies create a different reaction in all of us. Some of us get stronger, weaker, lose faith, gain faith, give up, or ask why. Mel Gibson is dealing with his catastrophic situation in life while strange and eerie circumstances begin to take place around his large, farm house. Extraterrestrial life is a dominate factor in the movie, but the theme of Signs deals with earthly problems. The director, M. Night Shyamalan, shows us that even the most faithful person can lose sight of their faith when tragedy strikes.
Mel Gibson struggles to raise his two children, played by Rory Culkin and Abigail Breslin, after a terrible accident. His brother, Merrill Hess played by Joaquin Phoenix, moves in to try and help out. Soon, several incidents occur to interrupt the normal, everyday life of the Hess family. We get a sense that the world is in danger as perhaps we did from "Independence Day". The underlying theme of the movie brings the audience back to problems that perhaps we can understand, however; it also relates to the alien visitors. Mel Gibson questions everything he has ever believed in for two reasons. Number one, we can all understand his struggles after his wife's chance accident. But, we can also see him begin to question whether or not somebody looks over us after the extraterrestrials come to put a scare into us. Several techniques, such as close-up shots and the way mise en scene is placed, help the audience see Mel Gibson's struggle more clearly. In one scene we find Mel Gibson finally meeting with Ray Reddy, played by M. Night Shyamalan. Shyamalan was the person who caused the accident with Mel's wife. As Shyamalan is talking to Mel about the accident, the audience gets to see a close-up shot of Mel Gibson. We see the intimate details of Mel's strife through his facial expressions. A second scene is set up to show Mel's struggle and his place in the family as a leader. After encountering with what may have been an alien, Mel goes back into the house. All four family members are inside the frame with Mel to the far left, sitting down with head slumped. The other characters notice him and slowly surround him; the appearance is that he is trapped with nowhere to go. He is obviously struggling with his thought process, yet the family is still looking to him for guidance. Without one word spoken, we get a sense of Mel Gibson's desperate struggle and the family's faith in him. Most of us would probably look to our faith system during a tragedy. This may cause us to question it and seek guidance from our faithful leaders or counselors. But what if one of our faithful leaders, a Reverend or Priest for example, began to question his belief system. To me, the main idea in "Signs" deals with just that situation. Yes, even the most faithful of all of us can lose sight of our faith.