The Village (aka Getting Away From It All)
Directed by: M.
Night Shyamalan
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Bryce Dallas Howard,
William Hurt, Adrian Brody, Sigourney Weaver
Review by : Trey Stone
Auteurs. Visionaries. These types produce tapestries NOT marketed
to death. They don't care about marketing and demographics.
They have a tale to tell, a point to make, and by God, they
are going to make it. Many of these produce what are called
"art house" movies, abstract oddities that have some proclaiming
"genius", while others scratch their heads and wonder what
the heck they just saw/heard. The TRUE geniuses in that lot
are ones who have such an artistic vision, yet have bardic
skills to relate an experience that's accessible. Sometimes
you have to be patient and diligent, but it isn't beyond your
grasp to get, if you care enough to try. Hitchcock was one
of the originals in this category, in the world of film. Coppola
sometimes goes into this zone. Kubrick was one of the kings.
Spielberg has the interesting ability to combine pop sensibilities
with auteur roots.
The latest
in this breed of filmmaker is M Night Shyamalan. To me, this
man occupies the place opposite Michael Bay on the art/pop
continuum. He makes quiet, contemplative films that have MUCH
going on beneath the still surface, while Bay makes loud,
simple empty films, as lacking in substance as cotton candy.
Cotton candy that is too sweet and artificial tasting. So,
if what you are into is short attention span theater that
is spoon fed to you in three-second cuts, Bay is your man.
If you want something more substantive, which requires a bit
of work to get into, well, Shyamalan is your man.
Night
to his fans, since Sixth Sense, he has explored the imaginative
genre, with a yen to turn genre convention on it's ear. Whether
ghost stories, superheroes, alien incursions or whatnot, Night
gets into the core of each type of tale, breaks it down to
essentials, spins it around, and shows it to you anew, usually
with a twist of some kind at the end.
Which
brings us to Night's latest, "The Village". The premise? You
have an isolated Pennsylvania colony, apparently early America.
A small village where everyone knows everyone, there are secrets
about, and they fear contamination from the "town". Even worse,
there are MONSTERS in the woods.
Apparently,
an understanding has existed for a long time between the creatures
and the villagers. The villagers don't go into the woods,
and the monsters stay out of the village. Yellow is apparently
the "safe" color that protects. Red is an "evil" color, which
attracts the creatures, so it's forbidden in the village.
Color and its symbolic use features prominently in Night films,
by the way.
But one
day, the alarms go out one evening. Somehow, the treaty has
been violated and the monsters are making incursions into
the village, skinning pets and generally giving people the
willies. And the villagers are scared. Except maybe Luscious
Hunt (Joachim Phoenix). He's the quiet one among the eligible
bachelors of the village. The one who doesn't wrestle and
cut up like the other folks. And he holds the record of standing
at the edge of village at the torches that mark the border,
back turned. Daring the creatures, apparently. He, shy and
retiring as he is, wants to make a trip to the "town", for
supplies. And he falls for Ivy Walker (Bryce Dallas Howard),
lovely, brave, blind redhead. And it costs him.
Ultimately,
trouble forces a trip to the "town". And Ivy will be the one
to take it. At that point, her father and village Elder, Edward
Walker (William Hurt), gives her the 4-1-1 about what's REALLY
going on in the village, with the creatures and what not.
And off she goes, her two male escorts pussing out before
they get far. And then comes the obligatory twist…
This movie
was mismarketed. Big time. The trailers made it out to be
a horror flick. Now, Sixth Sense was a horror flick. And Night
delving into other realms of horror, groovy. I'd get into
that in a heartbeat. But this movie WASN'T it. In fact, in
the end, it's very hard to classify. Mystery comes the closest.
But it's the ultimate horror of Hollywood marketers, who think
films should be easily classified, hence, sold. Screw them.
Because of them, you go into a movie, expecting one thing,
and getting something entirely different, feeling ripped off.
I'm down
with the Night and his sensibilities, and I'm content to let
him take me where he's going to go. If it's not where I was
expecting to go, I think A. it's a Night film, and B. movie
marketers are know-nothing f*cktards. But most moviegoers
aren't that flexible. Hence, I believe the main reason for
the less than favorable reviews. Not my favorite Night film,
but I dug it.
Look for
the cleverly placed inevitable Night cameo, too.
The big twist is that Trey Stone is A MAN, BABY! Seriously,
he's a man that writes lots of different stuff for the Shotgun.
Twist with him here.
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