I saw "The Village" last night. It really should be retitled "The Village Idiot."
I liked "The Sixth Sense." I didn't care for "Unbreakable." I liked "Signs." I hated "The Village."
Why? Without revealing the plot or any of Shyamalan's expected surprises, I will simply say the following:
1. The acting was terrible. William Hurt acted like he was on drugs. Sig Weaver was equally as bad. Most of the cast acted as if they were told by Shyamalan to "act Amish" and they gave their performances based on stereotypes of the Amish. Bryce Dallas Howard as Ivy Walker gives an excellent performance as the blind girl in the village.
2. Rod Serling's estate should sue (and maybe hire John Edwards to do it!) I have seen variations of this plot several times in the old "Twilight Zone." So, there is nothing really new here.
3. There is a complete lack of logic to the film. After the film is over, we had a lengthy discussion about the serious flaws in the movie [you will have the same discussions if you see it].
SPOILERS: DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE MOVIE!!!!!! AND NO SPAMMING ME IF YOU READ PAST THIS POINT AND HAVEN'T SEEN THE MOVIE!!!!!!!!
Logic fault #1: 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? How does she stay on a straight path? How does she find the hidden road? Which way does she go on the hidden road? Does a blind person walk as quickly as a non-person (so would it be a full day for a blind person)? What does she do when she gets to the towns? How does she retrace her footsteps? Shyamalan answers this by having Hurt tell her: "Follow the creek." Well, we never see or hear the creek (at least I didn't see or hear it). Yes, I understand why Hurt sends the blind girl, but in reality no one would REALLY send a blind person on such a journey.
Logic fault #2: The preserve is a restricted airspace. That is supposed to assure us as to why we never see any airplanes or helicopters. C'mon! You mean that none of the kids in the 1890's village ever saw jet trails at dusk or the twinkling lights of aircraft at night? Nobody saw a single hiker, a troup of Boy Scouts, people on dirt bikes, etc.? For 20+ years? Jeez.
2) Your logic faults are right on. And I knew within five minutes that the "monsters" were going to turn out to be Hurt and his hellow Elders wearing suits. Which is too bad, because the movie might have been much more effective if they were real.
3) Bryce Dallas Howard is a revelation, and deserves to have a long, successful career in Hollywood.
Didn't have that much trouble w/ your "logic fault #1" since she had already demonstrated her capability in the film, and it was also verbally reinforced by a statement from Hurt's character. It is also reasonable to assume that the road is a cord within the circular border, so either way would have brought her to the wall. Her selection was also somewhat reasonable since blindness increased the chance that she would not come back with "problem" information (at least from a script standpoint).
The greater idiocy is why the "elders" would go to the trouble of funding and establishing such a thing and not structure provision for this very problem. Further, why did the "preserve" have the supplies needed in such quantity if they were meant only for "first aid"? Why did the elders hide the red outfits, yet not hide a modern change of clothes for reentry into "town" for this very situation? The stupid logic problems in this film go on and on.
A few more of my concerns... Two of the three "rules" made some sense - if one does not go into the woods one never finds out the truth, and running for cover when the bell rings gives the elders an effective way to "quarantine" the town in the event of an airplane or a group of curious teens. But what is with the red and yellow color crap? Can't see any reason. Why on earth didn't one of the elders go to town? Wouldn't modern medicines be easier to conceal and explain than the elaborate charade that was being propped up to maintain isolation? Seems to me that the "elders" traded the arbitrary violent deaths of loved ones in the "towns" for arbitrary deaths in the village due to their poor planning and stubbornness under the guise of "principle".
In The Sixth Sense the viewer inevitably goes over the story reconstructing the reality of Willis being a ghost. In The Village I found myself going over the story thinking of all the ways it was one big lame shaggy-dog story that just didn't add up.
Last comment, Howard’s' daughter was one of the few bright spots in a movie that is barely worth a DVD rental fee.
Logic fault #1: 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?
1) You send the blind girl precisely because she's blind, and won't be able to see "the towns" thus hopefully preserving the secret of The Village when she gets back.
2) Since "The Village" is situated in the middle of a wildlife preserve, presumably rectangular or other closed shape, it won't matter which direction she takes when she hits the road. Either one gets her to the boundary. (Like say if The Road cuts across the preserve.)
Another possibility is that it's common knowledge in The Village what general direction "the towns" are, and it would have been obvious that she should turn left. (For example, you live in the middle of California and ask someone how to get to the ocean, he says "go north [pointing] until you reach a highway, then follow it, it'll take you straight to the ocean." Exercise: do you really need him to tell you which way to turn?)
How does she stay on a straight path?
She can see vaguely (light/dark). She knows and can feel where the sun is. Also, it doesn't actually matter too much. (Again: they live on a set aside patch of land surrounded by a fence and a road.)
How does she find the hidden road?
You're pointed in a direction, told to walk in that direction, and that you'll hit a road perpendicular to your path.
Unless you get turned around completely, you're not going to miss the road. It's not geometrically possible.
Does a blind person walk as quickly as a non-person (so would it be a full day for a blind person)?
She seemed to walk at normal speed. But maybe she walks a bit slower so perhaps her dadd was wrong about that half-day thing. He said "half-day's walk", he was thinking about the average person, he didn't make the adjustment for her slower speed. Big deal. He should have said 6/10's day's walk I suppose?
What does she do when she gets to the towns?
She hands the piece of paper with the needed medicines on it to a person and hopes for the best. Her father decides this is better than the alternative of watching her watch Joaquin Phoenix slowly die, and suffering in agony because of it.
How does she retrace her footsteps?
The road takes her to "the towns". Hopefully she succeeds in "the towns". If so, maybe someone will point her back to the road. Which she follows for approximately the same length of time (or #footsteps?) she walked it the other direction. Then leaves the road, into the forest.
Also, remember she left her cloak on the road when she started following it. When her stick hits a cloak she knows she's at the right spot.
Yes, I understand why Hurt sends the blind girl, but in reality no one would REALLY send a blind person on such a journey.
In reality would anyone have agreed to co-found and live in The Village in the first place?
It's a movie.
The preserve is a restricted airspace. That is supposed to assure us as to why we never see any airplanes or helicopters. C'mon! You mean that none of the kids in the 1890's village ever saw jet trails at dusk or the twinkling lights of aircraft at night?
Yes. You see, it's a restricted airspace.
Any who did, BTW, would not have been able to comprehend what they were looking at. A "jet trail" would just be an especially strange, wormlike cloud.
Nobody saw a single hiker, a troup of Boy Scouts, people on dirt bikes, etc.?
No, because such people were prohibited from entering the Walker Wildlife Preserve, whose perimeter was regularly patrolled by a full-time staff.
For 20+ years?
Yes, there have been guards patrolling etc for 20+ years. Walker's father was a billionaire.
Jeez.
My thoughts exactly:
Jeez.
No, you'd send her with a guide or two who could see. JUST AS THEY DID IN THE MOVIE. Are you sure you were paying enough attention? The fact that the guides chickened out and ran home, leaving her to make the journey alone, wasn't part of their plan.
Logic fault #2: The preserve is a restricted airspace. That is supposed to assure us as to why we never see any airplanes or helicopters.
Right.
C'mon! You mean that none of the kids in the 1890's village ever saw jet trails at dusk or the twinkling lights of aircraft at night?
And what if they did? Think about it. Vapor trails in the sky would be just another type of cloud formation. Twinkling lights in the sky, even if moving, would be just more celestial lights, like the stars, moon, and planets, part of the mysteries of the universe. As long as nothing approached closely enough to be identified as a flying *craft*, distant lights or trails wouldn't give away the illusion.
Nobody saw a single hiker, a troup of Boy Scouts, people on dirt bikes, etc.?
I guess you missed the part about the park being walled off, and run by a guy hired by Walker to keep people away.
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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.
Why do you people have to get so tedious with dissecting movies? I'm starting to think modern man has no imagination.
I've come to the conclusion that you have not been in the wilderness (I mean the true wilderness). As a former backpacker, I can tell you that there are areas with millions of acres that you would NOT see a hiker in, unless you were on a marked trail. So, who is to say that this preserve (remember, it was bankrolled by a BILLIONAIRE's estate)isn't in that range. The movie never tells you where it is. So, if the guy had the $ to ensure no flyovers and no one invading the walls, and if the village were truly in the midst of these million acres, it is certainly quite feasible that you would never see anyone. I took a hike into the Rockies back in 1976 on a clearly defined backpacking trail and after three solid days hiking in, I finally ran into two hikers coming down the mountain. If you are a wilderness expert, you will know these things.
Good Point, it would be impossible to not notice them, even with a million acre preserve.
The largest "restricted air space" in the USA is the southwest 1/10 of Nevada just north of Las Vegas - popularly known as "Area 51". One can clearly see across the restricted air space when flying @ 30,000ft next to it. Therefore airplanes and their contrails would be a daily if not hourly sight in Pennsylvania. And yes, childern would instictivly know other humans are flying them;
I suppose the elders could successfully mislead the children into believing that the satellites they see passing overhead @ night {@ 80 to 140 miles up} are "mysterious moving stars" - for the children would certainly see them, because living a 1870's lifestyle would include stargazing as a activity sans electric light/ communications/ entertainment.
Good Point, it would be impossible to not notice them, even with a million acre preserve.
The largest "restricted air space" in the USA is the southwest 1/10 of Nevada just north of Las Vegas - popularly known as "Area 51". One can clearly see across the restricted air space when flying @ 30,000ft next to it. Therefore airplanes and their contrails would be a daily if not hourly sight in Pennsylvania. And yes, childern would instictivly know other humans are flying them;
I suppose the elders could successfully mislead the children into believing that the satellites they see passing overhead @ night {@ 80 to 140 miles up} are "mysterious moving stars" - for the children would certainly see them, because living a 1870's lifestyle would include stargazing as a activity sans electric light/ communications/ entertainment.