Posted on 08/02/2004 6:04:08 AM PDT by BluegrassScholar
M. Night Shyamalan's new film, The Village, begins with one of the director's trademark spooky conceits: a preindustrial village separated from the world by a forest full of monsters. It's an apt metaphor for Shyamalan's own hermetic universe. He lives outside of Philadelphia with his wife and children and insists on shooting most of his films within a day's drive. His movies have their own internal schemas, their own calling cards, their own signature sound effects. And the oh-so-polished presentation leads to the nagging question: Is M. Night a filmmaker or is he a marketing plan?
To understand the Shyamalan phenomenon, turn to his high-school yearbook. In a photograph doctored to look like the cover of Time magazine, M. Night is wearing a bow-tie, cummerbund, tuxedo top, and sneakers. The headlines above the photo read "Best Director" and "N.Y.U. grad takes Hollywood by storm." Born in India and raised in an affluent Philadelphia suburb, M. Night grew up ensconced in the world of regulated suburban achievement: polo shirts, test prep, and college stickers covering the rear window of the Volvo station wagon. He may have wanted to be Spielberg, but money would be the measure of his success.
Wasting no time, Shyamalan graduated NYU early. At the age of 21, he was writing, directing, and producing his first film, Praying With Anger. He played the lead, an Indian-American college student who discovers the spirituality of India. Released in 1992, the movie grossed a meager $7,000 dollars. He next wrote and directed a movie called Wide Awake (1998) for Miramax. It was the story of a sports-loving nun, played by Rosie O' Donnell, who helps a boy find God after his grandfather dies. The rough cut was too treacly even for Harvey Weinstein (a soft-touch for little kid movies, especially foreign ones), who unleashed a legendary speaker-phone tirade that humiliated Shyamalan and made O'Donnell cry.
M. Night Shyamalan's new film, The Village, begins with one of the director's trademark spooky conceits: a preindustrial village separated from the world by a forest full of monsters. It's an apt metaphor for Shyamalan's own hermetic universe. He lives outside of Philadelphia with his wife and children and insists on shooting most of his films within a day's drive. His movies have their own internal schemas, their own calling cards, their own signature sound effects. And the oh-so-polished presentation leads to the nagging question: Is M. Night a filmmaker or is he a marketing plan?
To understand the Shyamalan phenomenon, turn to his high-school yearbook. In a photograph doctored to look like the cover of Time magazine, M. Night is wearing a bow-tie, cummerbund, tuxedo top, and sneakers. The headlines above the photo read "Best Director" and "N.Y.U. grad takes Hollywood by storm." Born in India and raised in an affluent Philadelphia suburb, M. Night grew up ensconced in the world of regulated suburban achievement: polo shirts, test prep, and college stickers covering the rear window of the Volvo station wagon. He may have wanted to be Spielberg, but money would be the measure of his success.
Wasting no time, Shyamalan graduated NYU early. At the age of 21, he was writing, directing, and producing his first film, Praying With Anger. He played the lead, an Indian-American college student who discovers the spirituality of India. Released in 1992, the movie grossed a meager $7,000 dollars. He next wrote and directed a movie called Wide Awake (1998) for Miramax. It was the story of a sports-loving nun, played by Rosie O' Donnell, who helps a boy find God after his grandfather dies. The rough cut was too treacly even for Harvey Weinstein (a soft-touch for little kid movies, especially foreign ones), who unleashed a legendary speaker-phone tirade that humiliated Shyamalan and made O'Donnell cry.
Shyamalan now had two bombs to his name and supported himself by screenwriting. There was, however, one chance to turn things around—a long shot. M. Night was in pursuit of the screenwriter's holy grail: the perfect script, one so redolent of profit, star-friendly roles, and greenlight power that the studio executives simply could not turn it down.
Not only did Shyamalan write that script-The Sixth Sense (1998)—he also realized that he had written that script. He flew to Los Angeles, rented a suite at the Four Seasons, and gave the final draft to his agents on Sunday, telling them to auction it off on Monday. Disney offered him $3 million and promised him he could shoot the film. On the Philadelphia set, Shyamalan somehow transformed himself into a disciplined director. He made the film very simply, with long, soothing takes. He coaxed a good performance out of Bruce Willis by essentially requiring him not to act, while Haley Joel Osment turned in one of the greatest natural performances by a child actor. The movie wasn't like a Spielberg film, except for the feeling that you should call your mother afterwards. The closest influence was Hitchcock: the point-of-view editing, the emotional close-ups of actors, the fixation on detail, and the eerie score. It also adhered to Hitchcock's definition of terror: "If you want the audience to feel the suspense, show them the bomb underneath the table." We knew the ghosts were coming to chat with Haley Joel, and that's why we were under our seats.
The Sixth Sense became one of top 10 grossing films of all time, and what does M. Night do with his newfound power? He stays put in Philadelphia, refusing to move to L.A. and play ball. He creates a local film industry around his productions. And most importantly, he begins the process of burnishing his legend. When a reporter asks him what he wanted his name to mean in the future, he replied, "Originality." Access to his scripts in progress is extremely limited, lest anyone reveal their secrets.
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.msn.com ...
WOW! Thank you. That makes tons of sense and I feel rather stupid for not piecing that together.
Once you know she's Ron Howard's daughter, you can't help but say, "SHE LOOKS SO MUCH LIKE HIM!"
I live 80 miles west of Philadelphia in Lancaster County. I own a small and thriving Internet-based company. Am I doing myself, ny customers and my industry a disservice by not moving to Silicone Valley? Hey, Shy, baby. The movie was a bomb, but you stay right here and make more of them. We need all the entrepreneurial talent we can get here in Pennsylvania as we figure out how to wean ourselves off steel and manufacturing. You go, boy.
Is it just me, or is this the very definition of the "American Dream" and "Family Values"? No wonder the liberal Hollywood critics don't like him. (In addition to the fact that he's hired 2 big conservative stars--Mel Gibson and Bruce Willis--for his movies).
Could be, but it must have been done without the knowledge of the elders. Otherwise it would have been an easy thing for them to walk out at night, stake out the guard post and collect any med supplies needed when the guard went to the can. If it is possible to keep newspaper clippings and monster suits hidden yet available for use for ~20 years it is an easy matter to do the same with medical supplies. At the least they could easily be repackaged to appear to be from the town doctor.
This takes the discussion right back to the logical problems of this movie: The elders constructed an elaborate escape to form a society where they thought tragic death could be eliminated. They traded disease for murder yet failed to make adjustments when reasonable solutions were readily available and would preserve the village. It all comes back to M. Nite Shamalamadingdong and the writers IMO; they wanted to build a particular story with a particular twist and were quite willing to stand reason on its head to do so. That's why I think the film is lame. That was a lot of time and work to deliver a 1/2 hour Twilight Zone twist. Glad I paid the matinee price.
The same kind of contrived crap was poured on by the ocean full in "The Day After Tomorrow". The film was loaded up with stupid actions by people who know better stacked on top of wildly improbable events in order to deliver poorly contrived suspense scenes where I didn't care if they DID just go ahead and die. TDAT was just more heavy handed and obvious. At least the film had some good special effects.
Could be, but it must have been done without the knowledge of the elders. Otherwise it would have been an easy thing for them to walk out at night, stake out the guard post and collect any med supplies needed when the guard went to the can. If it is possible to keep newspaper clippings and monster suits hidden yet available for use for ~20 years it is an easy matter to do the same with medical supplies. At the least they could easily be repackaged to appear to be from the town doctor.
This takes the discussion right back to the logical problems of this movie: The elders constructed an elaborate escape to form a society where they thought tragic death could be eliminated. They traded disease for murder yet failed to make adjustments when reasonable solutions were readily available and would preserve the village. It all comes back to M. Nite Shamalamadingdong and the writers IMO; they wanted to build a particular story with a particular twist and were quite willing to stand reason on its head to do so. That's why I think the film is lame. That was a lot of time and work to deliver a 1/2 hour Twilight Zone twist. Glad I paid the matinee price.
The same kind of contrived crap was poured on by the ocean full in "The Day After Tomorrow". The film was loaded up with stupid actions by people who know better stacked on top of wildly improbable events in order to deliver poorly contrived suspense scenes where I didn't care if they DID just go ahead and die. TDAT was just more heavy handed and obvious. At least the film had some good special effects.
If you haven't seen Unbreakable, I highly recommend it. It's another of his films starring Willis along with Samuel L. Jackson.
I am definitely a fan of Shyamalan, and will gladly see any film he makes.
I saw the faulty logic part of the character flaw within the elders. You said it best, the elders tried to create a society devoid of tragic death but ultimately failed to make adjustments inspite of a reasonable solution. Their failure to act was not a result of faulty logic but of hubris. Walker the elder swore and oath not to return to society. By sending his blind daughter, he kept his oath and because she was blind, her innocence was spared. Moreover, because she was attacked by one of the beast, her illusion was spared as well. As for the elders, they all chose to continue living as they had for the past 20 years, though I imagine with heavier hearts, knowing that they could have done more prevent illness and death all along.
I agree that for all intents and purposes this story would make a decent 1/2 Twilight Zone episode. Still, there was enough chills and suspenseful scenes for me to like the film, even without special effects. After reading so many posts here, I think it is a film worthy of discussion.
Thanks, I'll write that down ;-)
Good stories are about conflicts. Bad stories are about silly contrived conflicts.
I can't help but wonder how Walker and the others can manage to retrieve the boy from the pit without breaking their oath, given that he couldn't escort his daughter safely to the edge of the preserve... Oh, the hand wringing that's gonna cause!
For the record, I thought Sixth Sense was amazing - easily a 9.5 out of 10. I enjoyed Signs a bit; would give it a 6 or so out of 10. I've caught peices of Unbreakable on TV (pun intended) and plan to rent it - the scenes and premise look intreaging... But I'll check reviews before I'll pay full price for one of his movies in the future.
Not only did Shyamalan write that script-The Sixth Sense (1998)—he also realized that he had written that script. He flew to Los Angeles, rented a suite at the Four Seasons, and gave the final draft to his agents on Sunday, telling them to auction it off on Monday. Disney offered him $3 million and promised him he could shoot the film. On the Philadelphia set, Shyamalan somehow transformed himself into a disciplined director.
I like how this critic tries to gloss over how Shyamalan managed to "write the perfct script", sell it, and direct it into a blockbuster.
The author of this piece is a moron.
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more spoiler space ...
Who would really send a blind girl into the woods with the instructions "Walk through the woods for a half a day until you find the hidden road, then follow it to the towns." What direction should she walk? Since she can't see, how does know which direction to go?
We talked about that after the film. The sense we got was that the preserve was roughly a circle or ellipse, completely surrounded by the wall, with the security stations placed at equal intervals. It didn't *matter* what direction Ivy walked in - if she stayed in a straight line she would come to the wall. The security guards were patrolling the perimeter.
IOW, the "towns" were really the guard stations.
Walker sent Ivy because she was the least likely to discover the secret. Even so, she did ride in a car, I believe - which would have been pretty scary & surprising to her.
As far as the airspace bit, that was too big a stretch for me to swallow. Shmalyan (sp?) does that - he starts off with these interesting stories but bites off FAR more than he can chew, and thus backs himself into these ridiculous corners. There is NO way they could have forestalled any flyovers, especially military ones, and *especially* post 9/11.
spoilers ahead ...
you have been warned ...
turn back now ...
spoilers ahead ...
oops, too late...
But what is with the red and yellow color crap?
One reason M.Night is such a good director is that he *shows* you things instead of just telling you. In medieval / church art, color is *highly* symbolic. Red in this movie symbolizes passion - strong feelings, sexual passion, anger, blood. The "elders'" desire to eliminate all strong feeling from life is of course hopeless - the animals will bleed when killed; women bleed; there's blood during childbirth, and all this is *shown* - not told - in the scene where the little red flower just comes up on its own. The "elders" ultimately can't control human passion - and the prevalence of red *shows* us that.
Yellow is the color of cowardice. Notice that Ivy drops her filth-stained yellow cape as she heads towards the perimeter. The elders are *cowards* for thinking they can hide from the world and from passionate feeling (including all the bad sides of passionate feeling, like anger & violence.)
What were they, if not aliens? Throw me a bone here, because I *really* wanted to like Signs - and did like a lot about it - but the whole "aliens" thing was too much to take. What *were* they???
That I could buy *if* they were confined to the farm. But they were seen by just about everyone on the planet. We never "see" the invasion directly, but it does take place "off camera" i.e. during the news programs seen on the TV.
You see the whole "invasion" only through the eyes of Mel Gibson's character. There's no objective proof that any of the movie's plot action occurs anywhere but within his own mind.
Based on the word of mouth I have gotten (I saw it early), I am shocked it has grossed as well as it has.
Signs: 8
The Village: 2
Okaaay... trying to remember back to that film. Tell me if I'm wrong - I recall that Joaquin Phoenix's character was watching the TV program while Gibson was walking around (you see shot of alien ship on TV screen, voice-over of news announcer.) I'd have to see it again to be sure.
I'm not dissing your interpretation, especially since I don't recall every detail of the film. It *did* strike me as rather strange that a world-wide invasion was going on & everyone was so *calm* about it. It certainly puts an entirely different cast on that film.
The "twist" is that the movie REALLY BLOWS. Is it just me, or did this movie not have an ending? It's like Shyamalan decided at the last minute to get rid of the last half hour of the movie and just roll credits instead. I haven't been that dissatisfied with a movie in a long time.
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