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**Spoiler** The Village

The TVClubHouse: Movies & Library ARCHIVES: Movies: May 2004 - March 2005: **Spoiler** The Village users admin

Author Message
Meemo
Member

08-22-2002

Monday, August 09, 2004 - 6:07 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
i just saw this movie over the weekend and i have alot of questions. was noah the creature all along? was that some kind of experiment or something. because i noticed that ivy's last name was walker and the the wildlife reserve was walker. at the beginning when they are burying a small coffin and show the tombstone is that the same boy that was missing and found in the newspaper that m. night is reading? and was it noah killing the animals?

Calamity
Member

10-18-2001

Monday, August 09, 2004 - 10:02 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
****Spoiler Space*****
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Meemo: I hope I'm remembering the details correctly...Yes, Edward Walker was the son of the billionaire who was murdered (seen in the newspaper clippings) and the Walker family owns the Wildlife Preserve where the Village is hidden.

Broken-hearted by violence in our modern world, Edward and his partners (the "elders) attempted to create their version of an utopian society. They established the Village within the Walker Wildlife Preserve and banished all modern trappings. To keep the community within its borders, they masqueraded as the Creatures (a legend Edward learned from one of his text books). Once the townsfolk believed the tale, the elders could stop pretending to be the Creatures (Edward tells the school kids that the Creatures have left them alone for a long time).

Noah was guilty of killing the animals but I don't think he ever used the Creature costume until he was locked in the building after stabbing Lucius.

The small coffin at the beginning of the film and the newspaper headline about a missing boy (which I only sorta recall noticing) were two different stories. The first tragedy spurs Lucius' resolve to enter the Woods and find medicine so other children need not die - the first noticeable crack in the Village's foundation. I think the newspaper story that Night was reading was just a reminder of the violence in our world. (But as we learn, even in Utopia there is pain and tragedy - it is likely that the Village child's death was preventable if they had access to modern medicine. And then there's Noah's rampage...)

I know this film has bad buzz and, yeah, there are plot holes and problems with character development. Even some of the acting isn't that great, surprising since Shyamalan has coaxed some great performances in his previous films. (I'm not really a Mel Gibson fan - only seen two of his films - but based on his performance in Signs I thin he may have been better suited in the role of Edward than William Hurt was. Hurt wasn't bad just not that memorable.). But in its defense, I want to point out that Shyamalan actually raises some interesting questions about human nature & communities, fear & control, beliefs & values, and so on. Unfortunately, the movie didn't focus too much on those questions.

Kitt
Member

09-06-2000

Monday, August 09, 2004 - 11:35 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
The first scene confused me too. Didn't it say a date, like 1897, something like that? I suspected the plot all along, but that date had me questioning myself. I wonder why they put it there.

Calamity
Member

10-18-2001

Monday, August 09, 2004 - 11:50 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
***Spoilers***
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I think the tombstone was mostly shown to throw viewers off the twist.

The elders essentially decided to "go back in time" and this was the era they chose. They had knowledge of what life was like back then and could establish a community based on that. Although they were physically caught off from the rest of the world, the younger folks were aware there were other settlements and people. Edward must have taught them (some) history from up to that point in time.

I wonder how the ranger dealt with his experience?

Meemo
Member

08-22-2002

Monday, August 09, 2004 - 12:18 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
and the picture of all of them in front of a counseling center? i'm assuming that is where they all meet and decided to live this way? since i remember him remarking on all of them having had something bad happen in their lives.

i really liked ivy's preformance and lucius as well. when i first seen joaquin phoenix in gladiator he gave me the creeps but since then i've liked his performances.

Kitt
Member

09-06-2000

Monday, August 09, 2004 - 10:28 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Oh, so they had faked the headstone just to make the others think that was the time they were in? That does make sense, if they had to tally it up with what they were teaching the younger people.

Did you also get the feeling the head Ranger (M. Night Shyamalan) knew what was going on in the reserve? Someone on the outside would have to know, and it seemed like he was hinting about it to the ranger. I don't know how the ranger would have coped, you'd have thought he'd have told someone, as that's the natural thing to do, but if he did the secret wouldn't last very long.

Yes Meemo, the counseling centre was where it all began. It was just the elders and Lucius was a baby.

I just love Joaquin Phoenix, he always portrays characters with such feeling.

Azriel
Member

08-01-2000

Monday, August 09, 2004 - 11:30 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
******Spoiler********
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I thought the movie had the possibility of being a really great movie, but it was totally ruined for me, when William Hurt let his blind daughter go stumbling out in the woods with a little note in her hand asking for medicine. Yeah, right.

Sure two guys went with her, but they were only supposed to go as far as the road, she was then to go alone down the road and over the fence, then find her way to town dodging all the traffic when she doesn't even know what a car is, find a drugstore that would give her prescription drugs without a prescription and no money, find her way back to the exact spot in the fence, find a way to climb back over a smooth 6 foot wall and walk back down the road and through the forest back home. The reason they went into the woods in the first place was that so many people were getting killed and raped, so I guess he thought his blind daughter was capable of fending off all attackers, not too mention what if she had met someone and told her story about the town in the woods and they asked her what year it was, she says 1897. That sounds like a one way trip to the mental hospital to me.

It was just a too freaking unbelievable situation.

Calamity
Member

10-18-2001

Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - 9:56 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
*****Spoilers*****
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Kitt: I really liked Joaquin's performance too - along with Bryce Dallas Howard's. I still think it's sad that his brother River OD'd. What a senseless waste of life and talent.

It did seem as if Shyamalan's character knew something was going on in there. But how much he knew, I can't guess. He did mention how flight paths had been altered so planes wouldn't fly over the reserve.

Azriel: See, I didn't have trouble accepting Edward sending Ivy for medicine for Lucius - although you do make a great case! (But then, I also had no trouble rationalizing Signs' water-defeats-the-aliens-who-invade-a-planet-that's-mostly-water-and-attack-humans-who-are-also-mostly-water either. I still believe it was the micro-organisms in the water - á la War of the Worlds atmospheric microbes - that did 'em in. But it wasn't a smart move on the aliens part, I'll grant you that, lol.) I did have problems with other plot holes. Just not enough to turn me against the movie completely.

Kitt
Member

09-06-2000

Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - 10:41 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Yes, Bryce Dallas Howard was great too, what a debut!

I agree about sending his blind daughter out into a forest. Perhaps he knew that the border wall was patrolled constantly and that someone sympathetic would pick her up. I know, I'm clutching at straws!!

Calamity
Member

10-18-2001

Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - 10:51 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
***Spoilers***
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Didn't the guard who met Ivy say there were stations every ten miles or so? That's how I assumed Edward expected her to get help. (Guess I'm clutching at those same straws, Kitt!) It would also indicate some of the guards were aware of what was going on - 'course the Walker family are paying their salaries.

I've been switching between work & TVCH too much lately - gotta start focusing. On work, that is!