COLUMN: A 'sixth sense' for picking the winners

From Daniel Septimus', "I Known My Last Name is Septimus," Fall '00 From Daniel Septimus', "I Known My Last Name is Septimus," Fall '00The surprising number of Academy Award nominations garnered by last summer's hit film, The Sixth Sense, is fitting for a movie whose popular and critical success was totally unexpected. In another surprise move, Hudson Hawk veteran Bruce Willis was cast in the lead role. Willis plays Dr. Malcolm Crowe, an accomplished child psychologist trying to help 8-year-old Cole Sear cope with a particularly rare pathology -- he sees dead people. Willis' inspired performance is complemented by Oscar-nominated supporting roles for Haley Joel Osment -- who plays Cole -- and Toni Collete, who stars as Cole's single mother. But the film's biggest surprise -- and its greatest asset -- is its ending. To a large extent, the power of the film's ending can be attributed to the novelty of surprise in an age characterized by intellectual arrogance. Indeed, we have become accustomed to being in control of the world. Technological and scientific advances have made us cocky. We can transport ourselves thousands of miles within hours; we can talk to someone on the other side of the world through a piece of plastic. And we have complex knowledge of how our body and environment functions. What's more, not only do we understand past phenomena -- and not only can we be in control of present phenomena -- but we can predict future phenomena. The world has been stripped of its mystery. We assume that things are comprehensible and explainable. The Sixth Sense received its Oscar nod because anything that we cannot or did not predict is damn well deserving of our respect. Using fiction to try to shock a human race that has cloned a sheep is not an easy task. However, our appreciation for The Sixth Sense runs even deeper. An interesting dialectic is constantly at work in our minds. But at the same time, we covet innovation, change and surprises. We favor progress over tradition, variety over monotony and pluralism over conformity. We're sick of seeing the same plot and narrative played out over and over again, whether it's on TV or in real life. Our obsession with surprise on the one hand and rationality on the other is very evident in the March Madness that always accompanies the NCAA college basketball tournament. Before the tournament, we fill in our brackets trying to balance our assumption that the highest seeded teams will win (i.e., our affinity for order and stability) with our intense attraction to the underdog (i.e., our desire for innovation and surprise). This parallel between The Sixth Sense and the NCAAs runs deeper still. In August -- while The Blair Witch Project was being marketed through a clever Internet campaign -- Shyamalan's movie was attracting audiences primarily through word of mouth. Because of this, most people going to see the film were well aware that there was a surprise ending awaiting them. Did this ruin the surprise? Surprisingly, no. Instead of keeping viewers away, the knowledge of an unexpected ending challenged viewers to try and predict what would happen. Predicting unexpected events brings recognition and personal satisfaction. (Just ask Nostradamus.) Similarly, we are aware of the fact that there are upsets in the NCAA Tournament every year. Because of this, we feel the obligation to pencil a few upsets into our own brackets. And let's face it -- Jim Carrey has a better chance of winning an Oscar this year than we do of getting the entire tournament bracket correct, but that doesn't stop us from trying. Honoring The Sixth Sense with Academy Award nominations celebrates our affinity for the unexpected and the thrill of predicting future events. NCAA office pools pay tribute to the very same aspect of human nature. With the Academy Awards and the next rounds of the NCAA Tournament, this weekend will afford us new opportunities to predict and be surprised. So fill out your brackets and jot down your winners; affirm the inevitable and bask in the glory of the unexpected.

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