Thoughts on "The Village" (SPOILERS INSIDE!!!!)

[Beware the Beast Man]

OK, so who else here saw it and guessed the plot twist about five to twenty minutes into the film?

The thing that tipped me off initally: the creepy noises heard as the "Ones We Cannot Speak Of" were afoot sounded vaguely industrial, like cars, trains, etc.


It was also the first collective groan my wife and I heard at the end of a movie.

[bigwillq]

1. Very predictable

I wanted to like it so much more than I did.

[Beware the Beast Man]

3. I give it 2 1/2 stars for cinematography, and the story was decent.

What ticks me off is that this is the second time that Shymalan has passed off a film as "horror." As my wife noticed, he is the master of the bait-and-switch.

Initally, I thought the acting was very stilted, even for a period film. In hindsight, the characters in the film were esssentially playing characters themselves, so they had to be wooden. I thought that was a neat trick.

[bigwillq]

5. A few critics were saying

Is MNS really a genius or just good at tricking his audiences not only in the movies but in there marketing campaigns.

[bigwillq]

2. About the ending

Didn't you want the cop guy to go into the woods? It was implied but I wanted to see it.

[Beware the Beast Man]

4. Yes, but it appeared as if

Shymalan's cameo character knew damn well what was going on inside. Oh yeah, and mentioning the alteration of flight patters was a handy way of sealing up a plot hole!

[bigwillq]

6. You're slicker than I am

I thought that the other cop who was reading the newspaper might've been in on it but not the other cop who first found the blind girl.

[Nevernose]

18. I've been to places w/o overhead flights

Namely Arkansas. Though I was having trouble explaining how "The Village"'s Jersey Devil didn't leave contrails...

[slutticus]

30. You mean "chemtrails"?

:)

[slutticus]

28. Yep...

...I'm pretty sure he was in on the whole thing....that's why he was so forceful about "never talking to ANYONE" by the border.

[DS1]

7. what was the twist?

or even the gist of the movie, I'd rather just know, please

[bigwillq]

8. Here it is

Set in modern day
The elder members of the village raised their kids as if it were the 1700's to protect them from the harsh crimes of our society.

[Khephra]

9. I KNEW IT

FUCK HIM.

If this is true, I've known the end of ALL Night's films from the ads. That's hack work.

[bigwillq]

10. MNS genius or crook? (nt)

[Khephra]

11. O Henry/Rod S Hack

[Enraged_Ape]

32. Yeah, I figured this out from the ads too.

Shyamalan needs to stop with the dumb twist endings and make a real movie, like he almost did with Unbreakable (except again, for the dumb twist ending).

[Screaming Lord Byron]

34. Jeez, talk about transparent.

Isn't that an old Avengers plot? Hell, it is the plot of The Prisoner.

[Beware the Beast Man]

12. And now for the symbolism

Anybody see the parallels between the safe color (yellow), the bad color (red), and the Terror Alert system? It's a reach, but from what I read, MNS was trying to make some sort of commentary about the post-9/11 fear climate.

[bigwillq]

13. I thought about that too

There was a lot of high school kids when I saw it tonight, it was packed and it seemed like the whole movie went over there heads.

One girl (about 15 yrs.) blurted out "I don't get it."

I had to explain a little bit.

[Beware the Beast Man]

14. Did I mention the Village=Monty Python and the Holy Grail parallel?

Both were period films that ended in modern times.

"They Who Cannot be Spoken of" = Knights who say "NEE!"

It's plagiarism, I tell ya!

OK, maybe it's time for bed...:p

[bigwillq]

15. Didn't see that movie

Sorry.

[Nevernose]

16. Are you being serious?

Did you leave off a winky face in your post, perhaps? Or were you raised in a cave on the island nation of Tuvalu?

[bigwillq]

17. I've never seen any Monty Python

Sorry. I'm only 26, isn't that from way back?

[Kali]

19. You MUST see Monty Python Movies

Go, now, rent.

[DoNotRefill]

20. PHILLESTINE!!!!!

Or, at least a member of the Judean People's Front crack suicide squad!!!

[DS1]

22. Excuse me. Are you the Judean People's Front?

[Lorien]

21. Way back??

Early '70s I guess, but that hardly seems like "way back". Hey, I've seen "the Wizard of Oz" quite a few times, and that was made decades before I was born. "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" is another timeless classic, So much so that it even has it's own action figures!


And YOU MUST see "Life of Brian" and "Jabberwocky" too. Run! Now!

[Kali]

24. way back

Holy Grail - 75

Jabberwocky - 79

Life of Brian - 79 (remember the fundies having fits and protesting?)

Meaning of Life - 83

Has it really been that long?

Great movies, hard to pick a fave, though jabberwocky would be my last choice.

[bigwillq]

26. I thought they were made in the 60's

Sorry. the 70's early 80's really isn't that long ago!

[Lorien]

27. Wow. Guess I must have seen them when they

came out. I was still a kid (well, hit my teens by the time "Life of Brian" came out), so it all kind blurs together.

[Arcturus]

23. I'm 24.

I saw that movie for the first time when I was 14.

YOU HAVE NO EXCUSE.

[bigwillq]

25. I guess now I have no choice

but to check out those movies.

[LWolf]

36. You must.

It's best to watch them with friends and refreshments.

I personally have used them to torment my boss on occasion. I have been known to follow him into the staffroom with clopping coconuts when he's called one too many meetings during a week. (Holy Grail).

I've also been known to cheerfully whistle "Always look on the bright side of life," with arms artistically braced, when he announces yet more budget cuts and extra duties at those meetings. (Life of Brian).

[DeposeTheBoyKing]

37. Or Harry Potter

Lord Voldemort ("he who must not be named")

[slutticus]

29. Absolutely...

...and also if you listened closely...you could hear the news reports about soldier casualties on the radio (in the "guard shack") coming from Iraq and also the newspaper he was reading was nothing but violent crime.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

39. Yes. The whole deal with the red intruders, the marks on the door,

ringing the bell and all was completely an allegory on the SURreality that is the U.S. right now. That's what I was thinking, and pretty much guessed right away that it was probably the elders jerking everyone's chain to stay in control.

[Beware the Beast Man]

31. "The Village" is to post-9/11 fear-mongering

what "The Crucible" was to McCarthyism.

That's Mrs. Beast Man's theory :)

[LostInAnomie]

33. I thought it was an interesting commentary about our mistrust of human...

... nature. Warding ourselves off instead of truely engaging the problems.

If you listened closely you heard a radio report about 14 coalition troops being killed in a convoy when the park ranger walked into the building to get the medicine.

The whole thing reminded me of an episode of "Garfield and Friends" though. The one where they land on a desert island somehow and make hut, fire, etc. and then at the end they explore the island and find out that there is a hotel on the other side of the island.

[Beware the Beast Man]

35. I saw this on IMDB.com

But the date of the newspaper Night was reading was dated July 30, 2004. Pretty neat, huh?

[lazarus]

38. check this review

from my favourite reviewer at my favourite review site:

http://www.filmfreakcentral.net/screenreviews/village.htm

"The Village is based on the premise that occupants in a little valley have made a pact with red-robed monsters that live in the surrounding woods. The pact has something to do with the villagers staying in the village and the monsters staying in the woods. Soon, skinned Chihuahuas start showing up around town along with red marks on a few village doors (Passover scholars prick up their ears (as do Mexican pet scholars))--it appears as though, for whatever reason, the pact is ending. Because Shyamalan's films are just about the twist now, and because he's invested lately in a bizarre religious conservatism, it's actually extremely easy to predict what the twist is going to be. Without being able to talk about it and how stupid it is, what we're left to discuss is what the film is about outside of the twist: nothing."

Much viciously more.