Twists

I was listening to Mark Kermode on Radio 5 some months back and he made a comment about not giving twists away - apparently there is a twist in the Will Smith's film '7 pounds' which he was not revealing. He made some quip along the lines of "It's a sled, she's a he, he's a ghost"; now of course that only makes sense if you know about all those movie twists to which he is referring, but it got me thinking about twists. About how long a film has to be out before it is reasonable to assume someone knows the twist, and about if a film is ruined by giving the twist away.

Let's take Citizen Kane as an example. As a film that was made over 65 years ago one might assume that its twist is common knowledge; however when I first saw it (must have been about 6 or 7 years ago now) it wasn't enough a part of popular culture for me to be aware of it. Therefore I was as surprised as any viewer in the 1940s.

Consider instead Star Wars or Usual Suspects. These films are much more recent and have a much more prominent place in people's memories; therefore one might assume that Luke Skywalker's parentage or the identity of Kaiser Sause can be talked about in polite company without fear of causing spoilers. For some reason though I always check to see if people have seen the Usual Suspects before discussing any of its finer points. 'Sixth Sense' is ten years old, but I would never give away it's final reveal without first establishing whether everyone within earshot had either seen it or didn't care.

People seem to attach too much importance to twists, as if a film which has a twist in it is automatically better and deserving of reverence. M Night Shymalan is the worst at this, the twists in The Village and The Haunting were awful - to the extent that I feel like giving the ending away to people to stop them wasting their time watching them. A twist is just part of the plot, if done badly then it feels stupid, almost as if the audience has been duped. If done well it allows pieces of a puzzle to fall into place, leaving you with a satisfied feeling. Any film which is actually ruined by knowing the twist is probably not a very good film. Jacob's Ladder is a good example, I had accidentally read an article which talked about the meaning of the ending. I decided that I wanted to watch it anyway as I was interested in how knowledge of the twist changed my perception of the film itself - and I really enjoyed it.

I will keep on checking first when talking about classic films with classic twists, but I want to try to convince people that giving away endings and twists in no way invalidates the act of watching the film. If someone lets their tongue slip and gives away a twist or two, don't fret, go and see the film anyway. If it's any good you'll enjoy yourself regardless.