Movies - The Village

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	Movies - The Village

The Village is a 2004 film written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan that explores the dynamics of an insular American village colony and the collective fears of its members.

Plot

The film opens on the 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 that the villagers live in fear of nameless creatures in the woods that surround the village. They have built towers and a barrier of oil lanterns that is constantly manned to keep a watch for Those We Don't Speak Of. It is explained that the villagers have a long-standing truce with Those We Don't Speak Of, the villagers don't go into their woods, and the creatures don’t enter their village. Even so, dead skinned bodies of small animals are starting to appear around the village.

After the death of the child a young man, Lucius Hunt, asks the Elders (the village's governing leaders) for permission to pass through the woods to get medical supplies from the "towns" beyond. His request is turned down and later he is admonished by his mother Alice 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 red splashes of paint on all the villager's doors.

Meanwhile Ivy Walker, the blind daughter of the head Elder, Edward Walker, begins to express her feelings towards Lucius. Things go horribly wrong when Noah Percy, a young man with mental disabilities who is apparently enamored with Ivy, jealously attacks Lucius, stabbing him and leaving him close to death.

Knowing that the love between Ivy and Lucius has grown strong, 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 we reach the first plot twist where Edward explains the secret of the creatures — they are fabrications created by the Elders in an attempt 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 traveling through the forest a creature suddenly attacks Ivy. 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.

Ivy's 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 driving a jeep 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. Running concurrently with those events is a scene where the Elders open their black boxes, which contain mementos of the modern world and newspaper clippings describing the death of people dear to each Elder.

Explanation of the storyline

It is revealed that the village was actually founded some time in the 1970's, 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 in a violent crime. 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 dead father's fortune, a place where they would be protected from any aspect of the outside world... even airplanes. Once there it appears they rolled the clock back to what they thought was a more simple time.

The film is postmodernist in its theme of mere appearance being forged as reality and poses the question of whether sheltering one's children from alleged "evils" in the world (such as much of contemporary pop culture) is preferable to allowing a person to experience the world on their own terms. The film can be seen as having the existential theme of people taking responsibility for their own identities and lives in what they perceive as the hostile environment of modern life.

Reception

The Village received average reviews at best, even making the list of Roger Ebert's most hated films.

Despite the bad reviews and a rapidly falling off box-office the film ended up performing modestly , just clearing its $60 budget and $40 million advertising campaign with a gross of $114 million USD domestically. It went on to collect another $140 million worldwide.

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Movies - The Village

Plot

Explanation of the storyline

Reception

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