I was just reading back among Roger Ebert's answer man columns and I saw this answer to THE VILLAGE:
"The Village" stirred up a lot of activity in the Answer Man's world, with 162 readers passionately defending or attacking it in about equal numbers. Some of its defenders argued that the "surprise ending" was beside the point.
Ben Angstadt of Irmo, S.C., wrote: "So did you totally miss the point that 'The Village' was about the politics of terror and George W. Bush, or did you just not care?"
And Erik Goodwyn of Cincinnati wrote -- spoiler warning: "What I mean is that even though the creatures aren't scary once their secret is revealed -- that's the point! Shyamalan is saying something very pointed about the peculiar nature of fear."
Several other readers saw the film as an allegory for terror used as an excuse for political repression. That didn't occur to me, but as a theory it doesn't make the film any more entertaining, in my opinion.
You could argue that the film was a lessor effort from a gifted director, but lessor efforts by the great ones are usually as interesting as happy accidents from medicore talents. One thing that makes the film interesting to me is that people aren't sure about the theme. How often are filmgoers confronted with thinking about movie's meaning these days?
I thought the point of the film is that evil and disharmony are a natural occurring phenomenons and you cannot simply run away from them. The village tried to create their own insulated society and yet a psycho (Adrien Brody) bubbled up within. I don't think Night was commenting on repression, but the human inclination to avoid or ignore harsh realities that will eventually find them anyway.
The village used fear the way opponents of confrontation use fear. Stay out of their space and don't make them angry and they won't bother us. Bad things happen because of action rather than inaction. The elders created an enemy that's consistent with their own fears.
Anyway, my reading is exactly the opposite of the reader who felt that it was an indictment of George W. Bush. Maybe my views are off, but I also tend to think that Night leans Right. SIGNS is about as conservative a movie as you can expect to find in Hollywood. Gibson has to confront evil in order to understand his faith. SIXTH SENSE and UNBREAKABLE both deal with redemption in conservative terms. UBREAKABLE is about struggling to find your higher purpose. SIXTH SENSE is about confronting your fears to use your abilities for good.
What did you guys think THE VILLAGE was trying to say?
No comments:
Post a Comment