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This article is about the 2004 film. For other uses of this title see The Village.
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.
PlotSpoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
Image:Village-Dare.jpg Villagers daring one another to put their backs to Those We Don't Speak Of. After the death of the child, Lucius Hunt (Joaquin Phoenix) asks the Elders (the village's governing leaders) for permission to pass through the woods to get medical supplies from "the towns". His request is turned down and later he is admonished by his mother Alice (Sigourney Weaver) for wanting to go to the towns, described 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 won't let any of "the children" see. After Lucius makes a short venture into the woods the creatures leave warnings around the village in the form of splashes of red paint on all the villagers' doors.
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 though that he had heard rumors of "real creatures" living in the woods. While Ivy is traveling through the forest, a creature suddenly attacks her. She cunningly tricks the creature into falling into a hole in the ground where it is killed by the fall. It is then the second plot twist is revealed — the creature is actually Noah in a creature costume that he had found under the floor of the room he had been locked in. It is implied in that scene that it has been Noah skinning the animals all along. 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 has July 30th 2004 on it, the date of the film's release). A park ranger named Kevin, driving a Land Rover Defender 90 with the words "Walker Wildlife Preserve" on the side spots Ivy and is shocked to hear that she has come out of the woods. After hearing Ivy's last name is "Walker" he agrees to help her. Once Ivy has the medicine she is looking for, she 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 outside world, including one or more items related to the traumatic events in their past. Image:Thevillage.film.jpg The Village. Cinematography by Roger Deakins Explanation of the storyline
Spoilers end here.
CriticismsThe Village opened to mostly negative reviews[1]. 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." A lot of the criticism centered on a plot that came off as "stilted" and unbelievable. There were also comments that the film, while raising questions about conformity in a time of "evil", did little to "confront" those themes[2]. 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[3]." Fans and critics alike noted the film's (perhaps purposely) deceptive ad campaign that portrayed it as a horror film instead of the drama/love story that it was, something that may have added to the film's negative word of mouth. The movie did have a number of admirers, though, particularly among established fans of Shyamalan's work. 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"[4] . The film also was noted for Bryce Dallas Howard's exceptional performance as Ivy Walker, which received award nominations from the Online Film Critics Society and others. The soundtrack by Newton-Howard has also been widely praised. Box officeDespite bad reviews and a rapidly falling off box-office the film ended up pulling in a modest $114 million USD, although when compared to its $71.6 million production cost and $40 million advertising campaign it probably failed to make a profit on its opening run. It went on to collect another $140 million worldwide. CastAs is usual in his films, M. Night 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.
Trivia
Awards and nominations
See alsoReferences
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