The Village: A Surprise Twist in Puritan Living

I have enjoyed all of M. Night Shyamalan’s movies. “The Village” is the first one I’ve actually seen at theaters, and it has the first surprise ending that didn’t blindside me. Rather than try to objectively quantify it, I’ll give my ranking of his films in order from greatest to least favorite:

1. The Sixth Sense
2. Signs
3. The Village
4. Unbreakable

Really, I can’t decide whether The Village or Unbreakable are at the bottom for me. I’ve only seen Unbreakable once, but I do remember really enjoying some of the comments Samuel Jackson made about comic books, especially his tirade to the father who was going to buy an original piece of comic art for his son.

I don’t want to spoil the film for anybody who hasn’t seen it, so I’m going to give my SPOILER FILLED CRITIQUE for those who have already seen it on a subsequent page. Click below if you’re interested.

*
* *
* * *
SPOILERS BELOW!
* * *
* *
*

There are several reasons I think this film is weaker than Shyamalan’s previous works. Part of what I enjoy about his films is the way he keeps you from figuring out the surprise even though all the evidence is right there in front of your face. In The Sixth Sense, Bruce Willis never changes his clothes and his wife never acknowledges his existence, for example. But in The Village, we are tricked into not figuring out the surprises by deliberately misleading elements and omitted information. For example, how were we to know that there was a hole in the floorboard of “the quiet room”? His being locked in there was a red herring to throw us off his trail. We had never been told about the “shed we are forbidden to enter” until Ivy’s father reveals what is inside it. Although other hints are there (the mentally challenged boy’s excitement about “those we do not speak of” and the fact that the elders drop their Old English when they’re alone together) I didn’t feel like it was my own fault that I didn’t see the secret coming this time.

But of course, the fake monsters weren’t the real secret. That was revealed half-way through the movie. I suspected the fake time period for much of the film, and was disappointed when that turned out to be the truth.

I think the reason that disappointed me was because in all of the previous M. Night Shyamalan movies the supernatural aspect turned out to be true. He really did see dead people. He really was a super hero. The aliens really were attacking Earth. Not so in this case. In the end we learn that this whole town is nothing more than a modern day social experiment gone awry, and that the monsters were a twisted control mechanism. In subsequent viewings, then, you have no reason to be intrigued by the fantasy aspect of it, knowing it is all a ruse.

There are important social comments and questions raised, however. They formed this community in order to escape the senseless death that modern society occasionally brings. Instead, they brought about the senseless death that rejection of modern medicine brings. Their children died, were mentally handicapped or blind due simply to their unwillingness to join society. And even so, they decide to maintain the lie in the end.

So I liked it. The worst of M. Night’s suspense thrillers is better than many other directors’ greatest films. And I hope you haven’t read this far without having seen the movie for yourself. :)

Comments

[Bill Wiltfong]

I loved the movie, but I had some of the same problems with it you did. I wanted "the truth" to be revealed that the creatures were real, even though all the evidence, even halfway through, pointed to them being a ruse. I guessed about 8 or 9 different possible underlying plots through the course of the movie, but most of them revolved around the village being set in modern times (the only time anyone said "God" was when Ivy's sister said "Thank God" and it seemed like a writing oversight) and the creatures being a fabricated method of control. The fact that I guessed this about the movie from the get-go made it a little dissappointing that M.N.S. didn't surprise me.

But what did surprise me was Noah. Incidently, I adhere to the O.S.Card school of character naming in that every character should have a reason to be named that way. Why was he named Noah? Could it be that M.N.S. gave him that name because Noah was the only one out of the whole town to know the truth on his own, like Noah was the only one on earth worthy to save humanity?

But the worst, most horrible thing I've ever seen in a movie is when Noah stabs Lucious. That broke my heart, and when I saw the movie a second time, I left the room for a bit, as soon as I saw Noah enter Lucious's house. I couldn't take seeing it twice.

I also found it surprising that Noah had dressed up as one of the creatures. The fact that he had made the end very exciting the first time around. I didn't know if Ivy was imagining the creature or if the town elders were wrong, or if in their deception the belief of the townsfolk gave life to the concept of the creatures.

In the end, I think my favorite part of the movie, and the thing that sticks with me the most, is in trying to understand why the town elders did this thing at all. So much can be said about their justifications and reasonings, and I don't think they were entirely in the wrong.

The Little Red Riding Hood elements were also pretty fun. The border patrol man's name, Lupinski, hinted to the fact that to the elders, the modern, outside world was the REAL big, bad wolf. Ivy's surprise at Lupinski's kindness goes to show a little of how misguided the elders might be.

I've seen few movies that give me so much to think and talk about (Lost in Translation was one of them), and for that alone I think it was a great movie. Also, Bryce Howard is just totally hot.

[SuperPope]

I hadn't caught the Lupinski name. Good eye for symbolism.

I'm afraid I don't agree with you about Bryce Howard being good looking, though.

Because my wife reads this blog.

[led grow lights]

@DrStevePerry our markets are flood with china goods. It's hard to find anything Made In America
led grow lights http://www.fledlights.com

[zgbofcnfi]

azgbofcnfi
[url=http://www.g91xje44mv4v367hh7r41l9z172ma1rms.org/]uzgbofcnfi[/url]
zgbofcnfi http://www.g91xje44mv4v367hh7r41l9z172ma1rms.org/