OLD: In a Time of Crisis, Every Life Matters
Universal PicturesThe following feature contains heavy spoilers for Old.
While there are still a few productions from 2019 that are yet to be released in cinemas, more and more films shot during the pandemic are starting to see the light of day. M. Night Shyamalan’s Old is a fascinating beast, since it was originally announced back in October 2019 yet was filmed between September and November 2020 in the Dominican Republic. On the surface, the film can easily be interpreted exclusively as its own thing: an adaptation of Pierre Oscar Levy and Frederik Peeters’ graphic novel Sandcastle, with added elements of both Hitchcock and Bergman to heighten the tension and drama respectively.
However, it is hard not to draw parallels to the ongoing health crisis that hit the entire world. After all, the main narrative sees a group of characters stuck in one location, unable to escape, forced to live with one another as time moves by at a disturbingly quick pace. This was the living condition for the entire world, and in some countries that lasted for nearly an entire year before there was any sort of reopening and freedom to leave the four walls of the home.
Old features the classic brand of Shyamalan’s earnest emotions and clumsy attempts at having quirky instances of humour, and, while it understandably alienated a more cynical part of the audience, it did connect with others on a deeper level than if it were made prior to the pandemic. Stuck inside a room for months and months, unable to interact with loved ones, and at times forced to say their last goodbyes through Skype or Zoom, it became clear that what truly matters in life is not the type of high-paying and “respectful” job that one might have, nor the number of physical possessions or fame that can be boasted online: what matters is to love and be loved.
This level of simplicity has been interpreted as childish by those that act above such feelings, but it is a black-and-white philosophy that is not too dissimilar to what David Lynch, Steven Spielberg, or John Woo have in their films. Shyamalan has always promoted the power of families staying together in the face of adversities: that is the entire story of both Signs and The Happening, or the emotional core between the mother-son relationship in The Sixth Sense, or even the reason as to why The Village was created by its elders. It is moving and powerful because of how sincere it is, and when so many films rely on humour to kill moments of pathos – a practice that the Marvel Cinematic Universe has brought to the extreme with bathos – it is refreshing to have a mainstream thriller that is more focused on feelings and themes rather than convoluted and bombastic spectacle.
The situation in Old that the four groups of people find themselves in is tragic and disturbing, but also enlightening. The entire gimmick of the beach is that every person ages a few years every hour, leading to inevitable death in the span of a day for every adult on it. All of the energies are put into escaping the beach, leading to further heartache and suffering that could have been avoided. The insistence on each individual’s fight for survival is not unlike how breadwinners slave away to ensure their family can survive or how Stakhanovites spend all their efforts into work, only to be completely alone once they retire; Shyamalan wants to remind people that too much time is spent on futile things and not enough on actually loving and caring for one another, regardless of petty squabbles that might arise between couples. Life is too short to waste it like that, and every moment of connection should be savoured as long as possible.
Not only does Old emphasise the importance of human relationships, but it also puts immense worth on the value of human life. The big reveal is that the beach is used by a big pharmaceutical company to test new medicines on terminally ill patients; since time there moves really quickly, the effectiveness of these tests can be conducted in one day rather than over many long years, leading to the development of life-saving medicine for thousands of people around the world. It is the classic case of the trolley problem: is it right to let one person die in order to save five others? Is it right to let a group of people die and be experimented on like guinea pigs if that means that thousands and thousands more can be saved?
This ethical dilemma has fascinated artists, philosophers, politicians, and thinkers for decades, with utilitarian thinking often taking hold – ultimately, massive scientific breakthroughs that can lead to curing epilepsy justify the loss of certain lives. But Shyamalan is a humanitarian and deeply empathetic person, with Old showing just how much suffering the patients and innocent family members endure on that hellish beach. How can someone say that the end justifies the means when they witness the pain and quick deterioration of the mind and body of these poor souls? Had the movie ended at the reveal, it would be bleak and dour, but the director’s Spielbergian sensibilities lead to an uplifting conclusion, reinforcing that the deception of the research centre was harmful and destructive for dozens – if not hundreds – of individuals.
In a world where anti-vaxxers, hate, and selfishness are widespread diseases, Old is the movie that audiences need and deserve – not only a strong piece of escapist entertainment that has everything from comedy and romance to grotesque body horror, but also an unexpected piece of social commentary that reminds audiences that every human life matters, and no one should be deceived into sacrificing themselves for a greater good. Life should be spent loving those around us, enjoying every second of light in an otherwise dark world, and hopefully, the experience of the pandemic has made a few people realise that every life truly matters.