M. Night Shyamalan's The Village

[Finn]

Great! Can't wait for the dvd and the documentary!

[Weak2ndAct]

The dvd is blah, nothing terribly interesting on it, though the deleted scene 'pipes' should DEFINITELY have been left in the film.  It certainly clears up a question I had.

I found the movie to be an interesting failure (like others I guess).  Definitely suprised by BDH, I had written her off as fugly and only getting work b/c of her daddy.  Cinematically, I found the weakest part of the film to be Ivy's trek/confrontation w/ the beast (complete w/ step-printing slo-mo, one of the biggest crimes of post).  No surprise, the behind-the-scenes shows how they had no time to shoot the stuff.  The 'twist' could have been worked better (I too, was thinking 'so what?' when Ivy was being chased), and I would have thought they could have been a better way to reveal what's in the mysterious black boxes (Hurt and his wife going through it in secret is not dramatically interesting, just horribly presentational).  I thought the stabbing scene was brilliantly done, and kudos for the first 'invasion' scene, definitely well-done.  It's a shame all the pieces don't quite mesh, b/c I do dig the message.  Oh well.

[MacGuffin]

The dvd is blah, nothing terribly interesting on it, though the deleted scene 'pipes' should DEFINITELY have been left in the film.  It certainly clears up a question I had.

What question was that?

[ᾦɐļᵲʊʂ]

The dvd is blah, nothing terribly interesting on it, though the deleted scene 'pipes' should DEFINITELY have been left in the film.  It certainly clears up a question I had.

What question was that?

Buy the DVD and find out.

[cine]

The dvd is blah, nothing terribly interesting on it, though the deleted scene 'pipes' should DEFINITELY have been left in the film.  It certainly clears up a question I had.

What question was that?

Buy the DVD and find out.

Ahem

[Weak2ndAct]

The dvd is blah, nothing terribly interesting on it, though the deleted scene 'pipes' should DEFINITELY have been left in the film.  It certainly clears up a question I had.

What question was that?

Where the sounds in the forest were coming from.

[ono]

I think in regards to M. Night, he just makes terrible films with remarkably thin plots and the same formula over and over. That's not auteurism, that's autism.

[SHAFTR]

Awful.  I liked the 6th Sense, Unbreakable and the first 2/3 of Signs.  I always felt that Mid Night Shamalamadingdong was a skilled director but not a very good writer.  Now I'm convinced of that even more, although I think less of his direction after this.  

I hate to say a movie is boring, it tends to reflect the attitude of the viewer more so than the movie, but this was boring.  There were 2 moments (and I mean 3 second shots) that I liked.  This was the 2nd and 3rd shots of the "creatures'.  The first shot of the "creature" was good except for the cheap "insert loud sound here" technique.  

I agree the twist is awful, but I could have lived with it had the characters been developed into something, but they weren't.  When *Spoilers* Joaquin gets stabbed, I was happy he was dead (Dead Man Joaquin). \.  The timeline of the reveals are all wrong with us knowing that they are fake when blindy is in the woods.
*end spoilers*

There are the obvious plot holes, but during the film I couldn't help but think that in this small village with the young generation being about 8 people strong, one was blind and another was retarded.  Good genes.

Shamalama is wearing thin on me.  I always admired him for his long takes and how he stays away from the close up but he took that a little too far in this movie.  The distance kept us from really caring about the characters.

Truly forgetable film from a writer/director whose career will likely end with similiar results.

** out of 5 stars

[Finn]

What The Village Is Really About...

SPOILER WARNING!


All of the haters of this movie did not understand it, pure and simple. The main reason so many people were disappointed was because they wanted it to be scary. It's creepy at times, but not really scary. The whole movie is really a profound commentary on human nature and people isolating each other. I live in the south where these kinds of people are all over. Some bad things might have happened in their past causing them to be scared and not wanting the same thing to happen to their children. Thus they isolate them and keep them away from the outside world. The children are exposed to only a certain way of life with morals and values. People do this in the movie and people do this in real life. The "creatures" I believe is only a metaphor for the darkness that the adults experienced earlier in their life and it's a way to keep the community away from the outside world. They have good intentions, but what they're doing is obviously wrong. Critics were accusing Shyamalan of wanting to make just another movie with a twist ending. But the movie does a lot more than just that. It gives us insight into these kinds of people. What makes it truly shocking is the lengths people will go to to isolate others (by making it look like the 1800's when it's really 2004, etc...). I believe it's a brilliant puzzle that is profound, beautiful and quite shocking. I encourage everyone to give the movie another chance keeping all of this in mind. Some people have seen it again on DVD and liked much more the second time. But all of this is what makes The Village so good.

[rustinglass]

Agree.
I thought it was obviously a comment on Bush's America. In the sense that the authorities make their best to keep their citizens ignorant and afraid of a made up foreign threat in order to protect a would-be innocence of the community.
I think a lot of people dislike this film because they think it's just a thriller, it's not. It's a very intelligently scripted and beautifully shot depiction of current events. And I hope Shyamalan's career will end with similar results because the result is a brilliant film.

[Sleuth]

WAIT

YOU GUYS ARE SAYING THAT THE POINT WAS SUBTLE!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!?!?!?!?!?  PART OF WHY I DIDN'T LIKE THE MOVIE AS MUCH IS BECAUSE I WAS SUFFOCATING

[pete]

so I see, this is like the horror version of Dogville, which was like the dog version of nashville.

[Jeremy Blackman]

I like Shyamalan's rhythm, in kind of the same way I like Tarantino's rhythm (post-Pulp Fiction).

[A Matter Of Chance]

so I see, this is like the horror version of Dogville, which was like the dog version of nashville.

that made me laugh so hard.

[rustinglass]

YOU GUYS ARE SAYING THAT THE POINT WAS SUBTLE?

not at all. the word I used was "obviously".