The Happening is a satire...

Rating: 4/10 (14 June 2008)

I first hated the film, but after thinking about it, I really do think Shyamalan meant for the film to criticize environmentalists. I believe, in other words, that "The Happening" actually spoofs, satirizes, or criticizes environmentalists who assert that our actions hurt nature and therefore we concomitantly hurt ourselves. Some reasons appear below, although more evidence would likely appear after I -- or someone who wants to email me -- more circumspectly examines the film: 1. Shyamalan created an absurd premise: Most environmentalists have stated that humans' wasteful lifestyles threaten natural life (plants, trees, water, among other elements); consequently, then, through hurting nature, they claim we hurt ourselves. Perhaps Shyamalan literalizes this idea since "The Happening" centers on plants, trees, and grass, thatbecause people threaten themrelease toxins which first confuse people, then paralyze them, and then convince them to kill themselves. In one absurd scene, for instance, a police officer stands in the street, wind blows such deadly chemicals over him, he freezes, then grabs his gun and shoots himself directly between the eyes. After he falls, a nearby, infected pedestrian finds the officer's gun and also shoots himself; a businesswoman then sees this same gun lying on the street and repeats the act on herself. If we accept that Shyamalan literalizes the environmentalists' theory, then the film's absurd circumstances actually make sense: because people threaten these plants, and such plants defend themselves through compelling people to commit suicide, the environmentalists' theory seems very literal; these people literally threaten nature and end up actually killing themselves. Dialogue further supports this idea: one prominent environmentalist in the film claims that trees talk to plants and plants to grass, creating a defense against humans. Because Shyamalan writes that such plants actually communicate with each other, we can certainly believe that he means to literalize the idea that plants have feelings and, therefore, hurt us to defend themselves, further underscoring the idea that, the more we hurt nature, the more we hurt ourselves. (Shyamalan evokes Philip K. Dick's science fiction, since this writer also and more famously literalized several theories.) 2. Shyamalan lampoons the film's nature-conscious characters: One man, who owns a green house, first mentions the idea that plants defend themselves against humans, and that's why people are dying. This guy, however, also uses binoculars to spy on neighbors; he loves hot-dogstheir shape and tasteand feels like people underestimate the food. Another woman, whom the main characters encounter much later in the film, lives alone, with no electricity; she makes everything herself, from only natural materials. Unfortunately, she also creates self-resembling dolls, hits children, and lives in paranoia; Elliot (Mark Wahlberg) repeatedly labels her "crazy." Because only the environmentally sensitive characters seem insane, Shyamalan suggests that these people are crazy because he means to lambaste environmentalists; "The Happening," then, amounts to a film that satirizes them.
3. Shyamalan compares environmentalists to Pinocchio: In the film's second or third scene, Elliot (Mark Wahlberg), a high school science teacher, wants one male student to develop more of an interest in science. He tells this "heartthrob" that every year his nose will grow a particular inch longer. Elliot's statement resembles the environmentalist's claims that the sea level rises a particular measurement every so many yearsan effect of global warming. If you really analyze this scene, though, you realize that Elliot, through saying that his student's nose will grow, subtly compares the pupil to Pinocchio: whenever Pinocchio lies, his nose grows. Perhaps Shyamalan insults environmentalists here: through evoking the argument about growing sea levels, and then conjuring up images of a liar, the director implies that such environmentalists lie. This idea further supports the notion that "The Happening" satirizes environmentalist causes. (I thank Nick for uncovering this detail.) 4. Statistics in the film are claimed useful, but actually wrong: Throughout the film, characters like Julian (John Leguizamo) and Elliot mention that statistical probabilities comfort people. In one scene, while a girl hyperventilates over seeing dead bodies, Julian gives her a mathematical word problem, with statistics, to distract her (it hardly works). Julian also declares that there's a "62% chance" the chemicals never affected Princeton, New Jersey, where he's headed. He's wrong. Environmentalists, apparently, often cite statistical probabilities to support their belief that the earth will soon falter, and critics often refute such statisticsor at least claim they debunk them. Shyamalan, therefore, further lampoons environmentalists through such absurd characters asserting statistics and then finding themselves wrong.
5. The movie involves too much over-acting: Mark Wahlberg, Zoe Deschanel, and other actors over-act, or just act absurdly: Wahlberg seems too serious at inappropriate times; Deschanel widens her eyes too much. When trouble emerges, they exclaim lines like "cheese and crackers," rather than 'dammit!' or 'shit,' or even 'Oh No.' (Dick also wrote such dialogue in his novels.) I believe that even the film's last line amounts to absurdity: two European teenage boys walk through a park and realize the plants have attacked their continent; one boy, amazed but unaffected, exclaims, "Oh My God!" The other one, the plants' chemicals intoxicating him, calmly says "My bicycle." It all makes no sense, suggesting that the film constitutes a farce or spoof.
6. The film's beginning suggests incongruity: The beginning scene displays beautiful blue skies, and the only problem involves tense violins, creating a crescendo of eventual sadness and drama. The blue skies stay beautiful, with bright white clouds, but only the music makes them tense. Since the blue skies are natural, we might believe that nature, what we actually see, is fine, but because the violins are man-made, the only source of tension is manfabricationand therefore any drama or problem unnaturally exists because man has fabricated it. Such an interpretation supports the claim that "The Happening" lampoons environmentalists through implying that problems with natureglobal warming for instancedo not actually occur; environmentalists have fabricated or dressed up these problems.