The Village is a 2004 film written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan that explores the dynamics of an insular turn-of-the-20th-century village and the collective fears of its members. The movie was shot in a recreation of a 19th-century village outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, following Shyamalan's penchant for staging his films near his hometown. Like most of Shyamalan's films, its plot is built around a twist ending. The movie opened to mostly negative reviews and was not as financially successful as some of Shyamalan's earlier movies.
Plot
The movie starts out at a funeral of a child in a small village. The death date on the tombstone establishes the date as 1897. As the story progresses, it is revealed the villagers live in fear of nameless creatures in the woods that surround the village. They have built a barrier of oil lanterns and watch towers that are constantly manned to keep watch for "Those We Don't Speak Of". It is explained that the villagers have a long-standing truce with the monsters; the villagers do not go into their woods, and the creatures do not enter their village. Even so, dead, skinned bodies of small animals are starting to appear around the village.
After the funeral, Lucius Hunt (Joaquin Phoenix) asks the village elders for permission to pass through the woods to get medical supplies from "the towns". His request is denied and, later, he is admonished by his mother, Alice (Sigourney Weaver), for wanting to go to the towns, which the villagers describe as "wicked places where wicked people live". It is revealed in that scene that the Elders seem to keep dark secrets of their own in the form of black boxes, the contents of which they keep hidden from their own offspring. After Lucius makes a short venture into the woods, the creatures leave warnings around the village in the form of splashes of red paint (referred by the villagers only as "the bad color") on all the villagers' doors.
Meanwhile, Ivy Elizabeth Walker (Bryce Dallas Howard), the blind daughter of the chief Elder, Edward Walker (William Hurt), informs Lucius that she has strong feelings for him, and he returns her affections. They arrange to be married, but things go horribly wrong when Noah Percy (Adrien Brody), a young man with apparent developmental problems who is enamored of Ivy, stabs Lucius with a knife.
Edward goes against the wishes of the other Elders, agreeing to allow Ivy to pass through the forest and seek out medicine for Lucius. Before she leaves, the first plot twist is revealed when Edward explains the secret of the creatures – they are fabrications created by the Elders in an attempt to keep any of their children from leaving the village. He does mention, however, that he had heard rumors of "real creatures" living in the woods at one time.
While Ivy is traveling through the forest, one of the beasts suddenly attacks her. She tricks it into falling into a deep hole to its death. It is then that the second plot twist is revealed — the creature is actually Noah in a costume that he had found under the floor of the room he had been locked in. It is implied in that scene that it was Noah who had been skinning the animals all along.[1]
Ivy eventually finds her way to the edge of the woods, where she encounters a large wall. After she climbs over the wall the final plot twist is revealed: the film is set in the present day (a newspaper in one scene shows July 30, 2004, the date of the film's release). A park ranger driving a Land Rover with the words "Walker Wildlife Preserve" on the side spots Ivy and is shocked to hear that she has come out of the woods. He then learns that Ivy's last name is "Walker".
The ranger retrieves medicine from a ranger station and Ivy returns to the village. This sequence is intercut with brief segments showing the Elders opening their black boxes, which are revealed to contain mementos from their lives in the actual outside world, including one or more items related to their past traumas. The film ends with a scene in a cabin where all the Elders are sitting around Lucius' bed. In that scene Edward points out that Noah's death will allow them to continue deceiving the rest of the villagers that there are "creatures" in the woods and all the Elders take a vote to continue living in the village. The film ends with Ivy arriving and saying, "I'm back, Lucius".
Explanation of the storyline
It is revealed that the village was actually founded some time in the late 1970s, when Edward Walker, professor of American History at the University of Pennsylvania, approached other people he met at a grief counseling clinic after his father had been murdered. He asked them if they wished to join him in "an idea" he had. From this apparently grew "the village", a secluded town in the middle of a wildlife preserve purchased with Edward's family fortune, a place where they would be protected from any aspect of the outside world (the head ranger named "Jay" in the ranger station, played by Shyamalan seen reflected in a glass door, fills in several plot points; the Walker estate pays to maintain the ranger corps, the rangers make sure no one goes into the wildlife preserve to "disturb the animal(s)", the Walker estate "paid off" the government to keep the entire wildlife preserve a "no-fly zone"). Once the village was created, it appears the original "Elders" rolled the clock back to the late 19th century to what they thought was a simpler, more peaceful time.
Production
The film was originally titled Woods, but the name was changed because a film directed by Lucky McKee, The Woods, already had that title.[2] Like other Shyamalan productions, this film had high levels of secrecy surrounding it, needed to protect the expected twist ending that was a known Shyamalan trademark. Despite that, the script was stolen over a year before the film was released, prompting many "pre-reviews" of the film on several Internet film sites[3][4] and much fan speculation about plot details. The village seen in the film was built in its entirety in one field outside Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania (39°50'27.64"N, 75°36'26.56"W). Another field contained an on-location temporary sound stage.[5]
Production on the film started in October 2003, with delays because some scenes needing fall foliage could not be shot because of a late fall season. Principal photography was wrapped up in mid December of that year. In April and May 2004, several of the lead actors were called back to the set. Reports noted that this seemed to have something to do with a change to the film's ending,[6][7] and, in fact, the film's final ending differs from the ending in a stolen version of the script that surfaced a year earlier.
Criticisms and reviews
The movie received mostly negative reviews.[8] Roger Ebert gave the film one star and wrote: "The Village is a colossal miscalculation, a movie based on a premise that cannot support it, a premise so transparent it would be laughable were the movie not so deadly solemn ... To call the ending an anticlimax would be an insult not only to climaxes but to prefixes. It's a crummy secret, about one step up the ladder of narrative originality from It was all a dream. It's so witless, in fact, that when we do discover the secret, we want to rewind the film so we don't know the secret anymore." There were also comments that the film, while raising questions about conformity in a time of "evil", did little to "confront" those themes.[9] Slate's Michael Agger commented that Shyamalan was continuing in a pattern of making "sealed-off movies that fell apart when exposed to outside logic."[10]
The movie did have a number of admirers. Critic Jeffrey Westhoff commented that though the film had its shortcomings, these did not necessarily render it a bad movie, and that "Shyamalan's orchestration of mood and terror is as adroit as ever".[11] Philip Horne of The Daily Telegraph in a later review noted "this exquisitely crafted allegory of American soul-searching seems to have been widely misunderstood".[12]
The soundtrack by Newton-Howard has also been widely praised, and was nominated by the American Film Institute as one of the Best Film Scores.[13]
Controversy
Simon & Schuster, publishers of the 1995 young adults' book Running Out of Time by Margaret Peterson Haddix, claimed that the film had stolen ideas from the book.[14] The book had a plot which features a village whose inhabitants pretend to be living in the 1830s when the year is actually 1996. The plot of Shyamalan's movie had several similarities to the book. They both involve an 1800s village which is actually a park in the present day, have young heroines on a search for medical supplies, and both have adult leaders bent on keeping the children in their village from discovering the truth.
Box office
The film grossed $114 million in the US, and $142 million in international markets. Its worldwide box office totalled $256 million, the tenth highest grossing PG-13 movie of 2004.[15]
Cast
As is usual in his films, Shyamalan is seen in a brief cameo. In one of the final scenes, his voice is heard for a time and his reflection can be seen.
Awards and nominations
- Won - Top Box Office Film — James Newton Howard
- Nominated - Best Original Score — James Newton Howard
- Nominated - Best Actress — Bryce Dallas Howard
- Nominated - Best Newcomer — Bryce Dallas Howard
- Nominated - Best Director — M. Night Shyamalan
- Won - Best Technical/Artistic Achievement — Roger Deakins
- Nominated - Best Breakthrough Female Performance — Bryce Dallas Howard
- Nominated - Best Sound Editing in a Feature: Music, Feature Film — Thomas S. Drescher
- Nominated - Best Breakthrough Performance — Bryce Dallas Howard
- Nominated - Choice Movie Scary Scene — Bryce Dallas Howard, Ivy Walker waits at the door for Lucius Hunt.
- Nominated - Choice Movie: Thriller
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A convert
I have never been a thriller movie advocate. When I saw the trailer for
anwdavis from United States - 14 June 2009this film, I thought: please it is so easy to see, immediately thinking
that this was signs all over again, never going to see the film in the
movie theater. I am ashamed of myself.Some would have you think it is interesting not to show the creature
because it makes the film more thriller driven, I think of such movies
as Alien, but this isn't Alien. The creature needs explanation, and is
a pivotal piece of the plot. This is more of a mystery, rather than a
thriller. A good mystery summarizes. A writer, knows that many modern
people will not look for the answers. A film is no different. Had the
answers not been delivered there would be no purpose to this work. It
reminds me of having very child-like story aspects, magical aspects,
that I appreciate. It is Walden on a larger scale, and still leaves
philosophies to be pondered by the viewer, which are all aspects of a
very good film and story.If you have missed this title, I feel sad for you.
The Village A Period Drama Disguised As A Horror/Thriller
The Village is a period drama disguised as a horror/thriller from
tburke85 from United States - 5 June 2009writer/director M Night Shyamalan whose other films haven't been nearly
as good as his first one The Sixth Sense. M. Night shows talent and
skill with the Village but unfortunately the bad outweighs the good in
this one. The Village really isn't that bad but it could've been much
better. The trailer to the film makes it seem like a thriller but I
found The Vilage to be more of a period drama with some thriller
elements. The movie does have some secrets that were surprising others
weren't so much but surprises like spectacle alone doesn't make an
entertaining film. The cast for the most part are believable in their
roles of a small community of people who live in fear of the
"creatures" that live in the woods surrounding their village. Joaquin
Phoenix is admirable as Lucius the soft spoken man whose curious about
the world outside of their village community. Phoenix however isn't in
it that much considering his role gets cut rather short and for the
remainder of the movie it focuses mainly on a female character played
by newcomer Bryce Dallas Howard the daughter of famous director/actor
Ron Howard. Bryce is quite good as Ivy a beautiful and determined blind
young woman. She brings some life into the movie and without her I
would've given it a lower rating that I did. Well done. Adrien Brody
does an okay job as Noah the village idiot whose role like Phoenix is
limited but he is convincing in the small part he plays in the film.
The rest of the talented cast including William Hurt, Sigourney Weaver,
Brendan Gleason, and Michael Pitt are very good in their roles but they
(like Phoenix and Brody) also lack screen time. The few scares in the
movie if you want to call them that are well executed but those scenes
lack suspense and didn't frighten me at all. The creatures looked cool
but like some of the characters in the film they aren't in it that much
and don't pose as a real threat to the village people. The music by
James Newton Howard is fitting for the tone of the film and the
location they chose for the village was excellent. The ending was all
right but it didn't make up for what already happened before in the
movie. If M Night had improved on the scares making them more
suspenseful and more frequent than The Village would've been a pretty
good thriller. Overall the film is a flawed attempt at a thriller the
lacked suspense but if you've enjoyed M. Night's other movies than you
might like this as well.
if you don't like Shamalan's other movies, this one's for you
This is one of the best movies I have ever seen… and I suppose that
Aleksa from Serbia - 30 May 2009my comment and rating differ from the most of the others because I
don't like any other movie made by M. Night Shyamalan. I don't like
movies that can't even theoretically be placed in the real world, I
just don't buy that stuff.Unlike other movies by Shyamalan, this one is (almost) not about
ghosts, monsters and superpowers. Instead, it's about utopia (in my
opinion) and psychology of the characters with deep emotional scars. Of
course, it's scary. I found it much scarier than most of the horror and
fantasy movies that I've seen, simply because I find them funny and
unbelievable.So, if you don't like The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, etc. and if you
like let's say The Beach you will probably like this one.
Atmospheric drama
I'd heard some fairly mixed reviews for The Village but decided to give
Tweekums from United Kingdom - 23 May 2009it a go when it was on television as I'd enjoyed M. Night Shyamalan's
earlier film The Sixth Sense. While I didn't think it was as good as
that film it was still fairly good.Set in what appears to be a nineteenth century village the locals live
in fear of the strange creatures that live in the surrounding woods,
this fear is so great that none of the younger generation have ventured
through the woods to the towns they know are beyond them. Since the
village elders have had bad experiences in the towns the younger
villages aren't that keen to risk going through to woods to go to them
any way. This changes when Lucius asks permission to venture through
the woods to get medicine from the town that he thinks may help his
friend Noah who has learning difficulties. While he isn't given
permission to go, Ivy the blind girl who loves him, has to make the
journey when Lucius's life is in danger.I've tried to avoid as many spoilers as possible as hinting at plot
twists could spoil the film. I suspected the final twist fairly early
in the film but right up until the reveal I wasn't certain about it so
it still worked. The acting was good, especially Bryce Dallas Howard as
Ivy and William Hurt as her father Edward Walker. While there are a few
scares and there is a fairly creepy atmosphere there is very little
gore and no offensive language so it is suitable for most ages. If this
is on television it is worth watching and perhaps worth picking up on
DVD if you spot it in the bargain section; I've only seen it once but
suspect it would be enjoyable even when one knows how it ends.
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