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The Village
(2004)
Dir. M. Night Shyamalan
For those who have yet to see The Village, be warned, I don’t hold back any secrets. And knowing that, like in every film M. Night Shyamalan makes, there is a huge plot twist within the last ten minutes (excluding his writing credits like Stuart Little) that this review will ruin. So, let the secret spilling begin.
When I watched The Village I was hooked like a salmon on the end of a five-year-old’s fishing rod. Shyamalan had me wrapped around his little finger with his story about a small village, set in the early 1800’s, that is surrounded by creature-infested woods. Don’t worry, as long as you avoid the woods, the creatures will avoid you. Beyond the woods are other towns where all the evil people live, at least so we’re told by the elders. By the time I had this much info I was completely sucked in, astonished by Shyamalan’s writing abilities, but then I heard it, the horn blow of a modern day SUV. I immediately realized two things: That the whole film is in present day, making the village itself a farce and that I was watching a movie. I realized I was watching a movie, because I had been tricked into believing one thing the shown another. It is like when I was a kid and my dad would tell me scary bedtime stories. If my dad said at the climactic point of the story, “oh, don’t be scared, it’s only a story,” he would have lost me. And I wouldn’t have had all those nightmares about green men in pink spandex suits. I’ve made it sound like I didn’t like the twist at the end, when I really did. I only wish he had twisted the twist sooner, so that in the end it wasn’t like being dropped into cold water. Let us ease into it, man and we will follow you to the deep end.
Now onto the more important matter at hand. Rob Lowman of the L.A. Daily News, wrote in his review about the connections between 9/11 and The Village. He said what most critics missed was the allegory of not only the colors used in the film, but the basic plot of the film. To explain: you have this village, America, that is being attacked by an “outside” enemy, when in reality it is the elders of the village, (FILL IN THE BLANK), are attacking so that they may keep us inside. The elders also tell us about the evil that is happening outside, how the other towns are full of horrible people. And to warn the villagers when there is real danger on the rise they paint certain colors onto trees and doors. Yellow is a warning to stop, and red means you better drop into the fetal position and pray for your soul, because the porcupine little red riding hood is coming to kick your ass. Shyamalan is pointing a finger with the film, and his aim is not outside our borders.
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