"The Village" is Severely Underrated

SPOILER ALERT: If you haven't seen The Village by M. Night Shyamalan, don't read this!!! Twist spoilers are present!!!

I don't much consider myself a cinematic aficionado, but I do LOVE movies. Furthermore, I tend to really love movies that other people love to hate. Take "The Blair Witch Project" for example. That movie scared the living tinkle out of me. I got so absorbed in the story that when the camera lands on Josh standing in the corner of the basement at the end, I think I almost wet myself. That being said, I never would have gone into that damn house in the first place.

I have yet to find another person who enjoyed that movie as much as I did, at least in my personal circle of acquaintances, but this post is not about The Blair Witch Project, it is about another movie that is near and dear to my heart: M. Night Shyamalan's THE VILLAGE. Yes, I had to google his name to make sure I spelled it correctly. Now, overall I am a big fan of M. Night Shyamalan as a director and while a lot of his films like Signs and The Village and Lady in the Water get criticized over and over again, and rather harshly I might add, I could watch these movies over and over again and always be entertained. I'm going to focus on The Village and give some bulletin points on why I think this film is fantastic, and why I think everyone should give it another chance:

1. The Music

I enjoy listening to film scores just as much as watching the films. James Newton Howard is my hero when it comes to cinematic compositions. The score from The Village is amazing. The violin solo work by Hilary Hahn is so hauntingly chaotic, constantly making you wonder where the music will take you next. While James Newton Howard, especially with scores for M. Night Shyamalan films, relies heavily on repetitive themes (which is not a bad thing in my mind, but rather makes for beautiful themes that get stuck in your head for days, playing as your own person life soundtrack), the violin part works against that idea. Just when you think it is going to be repetitive it goes somewhere else, sometimes directly defying the rhythmic patterns of the score as a whole to keep you on your toes. I could listen to it for hours, and often use this soundtrack as background music when I am writing.

2. The Acting

So this is where things get interesting. Realistically, you could say that the acting in this movie is absolutely terrible, and the first time I watched it those thoughts were definitely in my mind. What everyone needs to realize is that the acting is terrible on purpose! Can you imagine how hard it is to be William Hurt or Sigourney Weaver or Bryce Dallas Howard, trained to be some of the best actors in the business, and suddenly you have to play a character who is supposed to be acting badly? The whole premise of this film is that these people living in "The Village" are present day human beings who are PRETENDING to live in a small village in the 18th or 19th century. Of course, we don't know this until the end, so throughout the film we think to ourselves "why does their dialogue seem so forced?". Because it is! People make the argument, but the children were born into "the village" so why does THEIR dialogue sound forced. Well, who do you learn to speak from? Your parents! These kids grew up listening to their parents' attempts at 18th/19th century speech, and so their speech patterns mimic this forced dialect. The intricacy of this is absolutely genius on the part of M. Night. Had the actors perfected their speech patterns, it would not have made any sense. These are normal people trying to protect their families by avoiding the dangers of present day life, they aren't experts in the time period they are trying to replicate. So you end up with really good actors doing a really, REALLY good job at acting like they are bad actors! Come on people, give credit where credit is due.

3. The Twist(s)

Let's just cut right to the chase. Everyone saw the fact that the creatures in the woods were not real from a mile away. I'll admit, I did find myself wondering if I was wrong and we would find out that the actual twist is that they were REAL. I don't know this for a fact, but I would bet money that M. Night Shyamalan had no intention of fooling anyone with those creatures. M. Night is a magician, he was dangling this shiny golden twist out in front of us and we sat there chewing on it for the entire movie thinking we were so smart for figuring out the twist and besting the great Shyamalan. But, if you try and tell me that you figured out that these people didn't actually live in the old-timey world, but in present day society inside a fenced compound cut off from the real world, you are a LIAR! LIAR LIAR LIAR! You were thinking about the damn creatures! Even when they sent the blind girl into "town" for medicine, you just thought they were idiots and maybe you had a suspicion that something was up, but you did not have it nailed down. Looking back on it, the clues were obvious, but not the first time you saw it! Only M. Night could hide a twist behind another twist like this and get away with it. My jaw hit the floor when that bomb dropped and so many things snapped into place at once that I'm pretty sure I almost lost consciousness.

Conclusion:

The Village is pure entertainment and I will fight fervently against those who feel otherwise - and I will win because my argument is based simply on the fact that if you are sitting there in the theater trying to figure out the ending then you do not know how to watch movies, nor do you understand their purpose. Allow yourselves to be entertained! This post is super outdated since The Village came out fourteen years ago (WHAT?!?!), but I've wanted to say my piece on this one for a long time and now I have. I feel much better after typing that rant. Now go make some popcorn, turn down the lights, turn up the sound, and watch The Village again. Those we don't speak of are waiting for you...

Oh, and to the esteemed M. Night Shyamalan, PLEASE KEEP THEM COMING! Your mind is a strange and frightening place—and I hope that never changes.