THE VILLAGE
US, 2004, 105 minutes, Colour.
Joachim Phoenix, Bryce Dallas Howard, William Hurt, Sigourney Weaver, Adrien Brody, Celia Weston.
Directed by M. Night Shayamalan.
Although it has been quite successful at the box-office, a number of reviewers and audiences have said that they were disappointed by this film. Perhaps, expectations were both wrong and too high. After The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable and Signs, Shyamalan is expected to always bring us a big, mysterious thriller with some shocks and twists. While The Village does have some shocks and a twist, it is more of a small film, almost what is called an ‘arthouse’ film, the kind of film that, if it were screened at a festival without audiences knowing who made it, would be received well.
What The Village is strong on is atmosphere and suggestion. Sometimes it is too quick on suggestion and the plot leaps ahead as if it had been cut down from a longer film. The 1897 look, tone and action is maintained. In fact, a village set was built in fields just outside Philadelphia to create authenticity. This evokes responses to such communities as the Amish. However, religion is not what motivates people. What motivates them is security from the outside world which has been cruel to them. The other motivation is fear, that outsiders will intrude and, even more important, that their children will not want to leave, not even want to go into the woods where ‘those we do not speak of’ live. Actually, the people are continually mentioning those they do not speak of. This is especially the case because of weird events and apparitions that create an atmosphere of fear.
The elders control the village and people’s lives, frequently meeting in council. William Hurt, as a kindly teacher, presides. His blind daughter (Bryce Dallas Howard) is attracted to the reticent Lucius Hunt (Joaquin Phoenix). She is also admired by what used to be called ‘the village idiot’ (Adrien Brody). When Lucius needs medicine, she is permitted to go to the outside world, ‘the towns’ to seem it. The over-literal mock the film by asking who would send a blind girl into the woods on such a journey. Since, the events are meant to be looked at symbolically rather than realistically, it is evident that she is a special girl with special gifts to confront the evil.
How does the twist work in a realistic sense? In a symbolic sense? That is why you need to see The Village to work out.
Controversy arose in the US as The Village opened. The Science fiction channel publicised their two hour documentary, The Buried Secret of M. Night Shyamalan, alleging that it would raise some secrets and scandals. They then apologised. What it really was was a pseudo-documentary, a serious mockumentary made by professional documentary-maker Nathanael Kahn – who recently made a fine tribute to his father, Louis Kahn, My Architect. This film runs for two hours, has lots of interviews, especially at the set of The Village, but it is all tongue-in-cheek, in a Shyamalan way, as if all his films were based on mysterious, psychic and out-of-life experiences of Shyamalan as a child. It is very clever and well worth seeing.
1.Expectations of M. Night Shayamalan’s films? Suspense, twists? This film in the pattern of his films – fulfilling expectations or not?
2.The opening, the funeral, the gravestone with “1897”? The re-creation of the village in all its detail, the houses, the meeting halls, the church? Costumes and décor? The homes? The 19th century manner of speaking? The surrounding woods, the mysterious atmosphere? The transition to the 20th century and its ordinariness? Iraq, the newspaper, vehicles, the war? Audiences expecting the twist or not?
3.How real was 1897 – or imagined – or parallel worlds?
4.The motivation of the people of the village, the information and newspapers about shootings and crime? Their retreating behind the wall? The wealth, setting up the village? The members of the council, the elders? Their frequent meetings, authority, discussions and decisions? The different members of the council and their backgrounds?
5.The funeral, the grieving father? Setting the tone of the film, the schoolmaster and his teaching the children about the village? Births, deaths and marriages? Ordinary life? The communal sense, the celebrations and the outdoor communal meals?
6.Walker, his being a leader, the tension in relationship with his wife, the attraction of Mrs Hunt? At school, the information he gave to the children? His daughters, her wanting to marry? Lucius and his relationship with the Walkers? The issue of the rules, not going outside the fence, the woods? Those that they did not speak of? The response to the weird happenings, the deaths of the cattle, the skinnings, the red marks on the doors? His daughter and her disappointment – and then marrying another? Ivy and her blindness, her relationship with Lucius, love for him? Adrian, his attraction, teasing her? The crisis with Adrian stabbing Lucius, his coma? The decision about the medicine and helping him, Ivy having to go through the woods? The effect?
7.Those that the people did not speak of, the irony of their creating these fictitious monsters to keep the younger people afraid, confined to the village? The eeriness of the woods, the children daring each other to go to the fence, the dead animals, the feathers and hides, the sounds? Lucius, his wanting to go into the woods, talking to the elders, the nature of the rules?
8.Lucius being a dreamer, quiet, inarticulate, his work, relationship with his mother, the two sisters, his attraction towards Ivy, their being together, sharing? His relationship with Adrian? Out in the woods? His being stabbed, ill, the motivation for the change in the village?
9.Ivy, her relationship with her parents, her sister? Blind? Her strong sense of awareness? Adrian, his attraction towards her? Her attraction towards Lucius? The stabbing, her wanting to go to get the medicine, the elders’ decision, the preparation, her blindness, the young men accompanying her, their fears and return? Her fears in the woods, her falling into the trap, her discovery of Adrian as the feathered monster? Their going to the outside, her not appreciating the 21st century – the effect of her blindness? The discussions, getting the medicine?
10.Adrian, the village idiot, his behaviour, joking, at the celebrations, the attraction towards Ivy, it becoming obsessive, his anger, stabbing Lucius? The irony of his disguising himself, stalking Ivy – and his death?
11.Alice Hunt, her role in the village, her love for her son? Her being an elder? The attraction towards Walker?
12.Adrian, his parents, their being elders, their being complicit in the plot and the deceptions? Their not wanting to cause the death of their son but its being a consequence of their decisions?
13.The outside, 2004, the highway, the security guard, the wall and his explanation of what was inside? The guard and his reading the paper? The Iraq war? The effect of this twist?
14.The dynamics of the community, authority, fear and protection, lies and their consequences?
