Sunny Days in Heaven
Spiritual/Political/Philosophical Blog on the Nature of Truth and Falsehood and Heaven


Sunday, August 01, 2004  

M. Night takes a Village

Saw the movie, The Village, last night. I thoroughly enjoyed it, although from the reaction of the audience, they mostly hated it. Which made me feel good in a strange way. I took it as a form of vindication of the way I look at life now apart from my fellows with different values, different perceptions.

The movie asks the right questions and proposes no shallow or trite answers. There is a moment of sublime truth spoken in the movie by the father, Walker, about love which is perfect.

The movie is not about morality as some critics have claimed but about politics in the original sense -- how shall we order our lives together that we might form a good and just community?

And the problem of Pain, is resurrected again in a different way than in the previous, Signs.

Some critics claim the final surprise is a letdown and makes the audience feel cheated (indeed, the one I was with was disappointed), but I accepted it at first and then liked the third surprise. It explained perfectly themany things in the beginning of the story that bugged me, and set my antennae twitching.

There are aspects of the story's setting, language, situation which are off putting and seem to work against the suspension of disbelief, but they are marvelously explained by the ending.

I give Shayamalan credit, he takes risks, big risks which paid off or me, but alienated the audience that is simply looking for some intense scares, and a trick ending.

This movie is not about scaring people although there are quite a few scenes which are frightening, surprising, and alarming.

But this fellow makes movies about people and the real problems we have in life. M. Night isn't Shakespeare. He's better than Hitchcock, though. I look forward to all his features to come, but I think more movies like this, that is especially inteligent, and he will lose the audience he created with Sixth Sense and Signs.


posted by Mark Butterworth | 1:46 AM |

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