The Village


sorabji.com: Last movie you saw: The Village
THIS IS A READ-ONLY ARCHIVE FROM THE SORABJI.COM MESSAGE BOARDS (1995-2016).

By Spider on Saturday, July 31, 2004 - 02:06 am:

    I just got back from seeing "The Village." It was good.

    The ending was neat and came very much as a surprise to me. It totally changed the whole meaning of the movie -- I'm really tired so I don't know if that's clear, I mean, you think the movie is about one thing and then you find out it's about something else entirely.

    Also, parts of it were filmed in Chadds Ford, PA, which is about 10 minutes from my house. (In fact, I drove through the area tonight on the way to and from the restaurant I had dinner at with my family.) I thought that was pretty cool.


By dave. on Saturday, July 31, 2004 - 04:31 am:

    spider, you should find this before you go all lotech.

    if you haven't heard it already.

    i'm interested in what you think of it, since you like 16 horsepower so much. woven hand is on the same label.


By Spider on Saturday, July 31, 2004 - 09:51 am:

    Thanks, Dave. I've got it queued up to download right now.


By Rowlfe on Sunday, August 1, 2004 - 02:31 am:

    anyone into the Dillinger Escape Plan?


By dave. on Sunday, August 1, 2004 - 01:24 pm:

    i haven't heard them. aren't they sort of lumped in with bands like botch?


By Spider on Sunday, August 1, 2004 - 01:59 pm:

    Dave, I have to confess I didn't like what I heard of Bro. Danielson. His voice bugged me and the music didn't really hold my interest. Is he related to the Tri-danielson people? Should I give them a try?


By Rowlfe on Sunday, August 1, 2004 - 03:21 pm:

    DEP been very hardcore/punk/metal before. Then they did this ep "Irony is a dead scene" with Mike patton that has changed everything for them.

    Their new CD is all over the place. Theres songs that sound like Converge, Nine Inch Nails, and Tomahawk, and more. And they are technical wizards with their instruments, with bizarre guitar and drum work and difficult time changes.


By dave. on Sunday, August 1, 2004 - 04:36 pm:

    that's ok, spider. i remember a few months ago, i heard a song by them and i was totally annoyed. that squeaky voice. somebody recently posted the whole album on usenet and i nabbed it. played it a couple times whilst puttering around in the garage and i'm hooked. i should say hooked on that album. other danielson stuff is even more squeaky and twee. this album really has some great moments, i think. plus, i watched a couple videos they have on their site and they're so cute up there on stage in their nurse outfits and their choreography. i think it's neat that they're very christian but the christian music won't touch them whereas they're kinda cult indie rock darlings. they're playing here in sept. with i think deerhoof and xiu xiu. steve albini has produced them. yeah, the squeaky voice is an acquired taste but thankfully, it's used sparingly on this album.

    as for the squeak, i got to thinking about some other famous squeakers like robert plant, geddy lee, the dude from triumph and zebra and the scorps. ummm, andi sex-gang. . . probably some i'm forgetting. but yeah, this is the squeakiest.


By dave. on Sunday, August 1, 2004 - 04:37 pm:

    rowlfe, thanks. i'ma go get it.


By Spider on Sunday, August 1, 2004 - 07:10 pm:

    Geddy Lee makes me want to rip out my ear drums, and I can tell you Bro. Danielson didn't come close to that. Geddy Lee makes me want to kill.

    Robert Plant is squeaky, but The Sex outweighs The Squeak by 6 tons, so he's cool. It was kinda neat watching that 4-disc Led Zep DVD -- he was so skinny and ugly and skanky, but you could totally see why women would line up to sleep with him. Behold, the power of charisma. Bill Clinton's like that, too.



By dave. on Sunday, August 1, 2004 - 09:56 pm:

    zeppelin is chick rock. rush isn't. speaking of annoying vocals, that dillinger is really irritating. if i could remove the vocal track, i think i'd like it a lot. i fear i'm getting TOO OLD for that. i liked stuff like that back when i was a wee 30 year old. and now i'm sad.


By Spider on Sunday, August 1, 2004 - 11:51 pm:

    Have you read this? I totally relate, and not as a joke. Only I'm 26, not 35.



    *whimper*

    Tomorrow is my last day here! I said goodbye to my aunt tonight, my aunt I get along with only 30% of the time, and I cried in my car on the way home. My dad is leaving tomorrow for Italy, so I have to say goodbye to him early, and that's making me sad. Dave, what's your email address again so I can send you my mailing address when I get it?


By Spider on Monday, August 2, 2004 - 12:10 am:

    Oh, yeah, about Rush.... my brother is going to a Rush concert in a few weeks, and we have already decided that every girl there will have been dragged there by a guy. Because no girls ever like Rush on their own. Now, I usually despise categorical remarks about the sexes, but in this case I make an exception, because it's a fact. Women do not like Rush.


By dave. on Monday, August 2, 2004 - 12:37 am:

    wow. that's so me. except i really do still find music that i like but the live show thing is spot on.

    in fact that guy IS me. i'm even wearing that same tshirt. only difference is that my head is nigh shaved. because, you know, shaved is the new combover.


    spider, please do send me your new address. i will send you cds. buy a cheap (or not-so-cheap) mp3-cd player and i'll send you cds full of mp3s that i can guarantee you will love, hate, and\or feel indifferent towards.


    mouthbreether@yahoo.com

    mouthbreether is also my yahoo id.


    also, to correct something i said up there -- i said christian music won't touch them. i meant christian music fans won't touch them.


By Spider on Monday, August 2, 2004 - 12:52 am:

    That will be so awesome, Dave, thank you! I actually did just buy an MP3/CD player, so you can load up those CDs with, like, ~125 of your favorite songs and send them my way.


By Antigone on Monday, August 2, 2004 - 01:06 am:

    You want an MP3 CD from the tiggster?


By semillama on Monday, August 2, 2004 - 10:25 am:

    TO get back to the topic,

    We saw the Village yesterday too. I was actually annoyed by what I thought were historical inconsistencies, but then the ending surprised me by explaining everything. I thought the music was tremendous, and I really appreciate how Shyamalan can get the subtle nuances of relationships and emotions to come across on screen.

    And yet again, it leaves you thinking: "What the HELL will he do next?" You can figure that Sixth Sense was his horror film, Unbreakable (my favorite) was his superhero film, Signs his sci-fi, and I suppose the Village is a period piece. What next? What genre would you like to see him tackle?


By dave. on Monday, August 2, 2004 - 11:52 am:

    m night shyamalan

    fuck, man. can there possibly be a more pretensious name than that?



    hi. what's your name?

    my name is m night shyamalan.

    i'm sorry, what did you say?

    i said, my name is m night shyamalan.

    shut up.

    but why? that is my name.

    just shut up.


By Spider on Monday, August 2, 2004 - 01:07 pm:

    I'm glad you liked it, Sem. I've been coming across all these online reviews from people saying they hated it, it sucked, etc etc. (The newspaper gave it 3 stars, which I agree with.) So, I'm glad you liked it.

    I loved the scene between Lucius and Ivy on her porch. The two characters were so sweet, and you don't often hear men in films say what he said. (Women, yes.)

    Shyamalan should do a fairy tale (with changelings or goblins...not Cinderella) next. He's already done ghosts, aliens, superheroes, and now monsters...I want to see a fairy tale.


By Spider on Monday, August 2, 2004 - 01:08 pm:

    Antigone: sure! Thank you!


By dave. on Monday, August 2, 2004 - 01:18 pm:

    how about a movie based on the LIGHTNING BOLT! LIGHTNING BOLT! uhhhhh. . . film?


By semillama on Monday, August 2, 2004 - 02:42 pm:

    YES! YES! LIGHTNING BOLT- THE MOVIE.

    Starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Juliette Lewis and Rufus Sewell.

    I'd go see it.


By wisper on Monday, August 2, 2004 - 03:14 pm:

    I'm just wondering when he's going to stop doing twist endings. On one of his DVD extras (it was Signs or Unbreakable..) he said in an interview he wanted to stop with the twists, because "I don't want to just be that guy who does twist endings".
    But then he went and did 2 more.
    Is he a self-hating one trick pony?



    and hey, would you still take me seriously if i told you i was arguing with 14 year olds on a Sailor Moon forum?
    Well, i am. Deal with it.


By semillama on Monday, August 2, 2004 - 05:02 pm:

    That's hilarious.


    How do you know they weren't 40 yr old geeks posing as 14 yr olds?


By RC on Monday, August 2, 2004 - 07:36 pm:

    LOL! I thought I was the only one who considered his name pretentious.

    His REAL name is Manoj Nelliyattu Shyamalan.
    He picked up Night as a middle name in college.

    I have no plans to see THE VILLAGE. Night already wasted my time & money with UNBREAKABLE & SIGNS --both of which sucked ass. SIXTH SENSE was the only good & genuinely suspenseful film this guy had in him. (But even in that, there was too much foreshadowing -- 20 min. into the film, I'd guessed that Willis was already dead. A plot twist isn't a twist if half the audience guesses it beforehand!)

    Night is a 1-trick pony who keeps relying on the same gimmick in every story -- after stating publicly that he was swearing off the twist endings. He even resorted to a phony Blair-Witch style/Making Of documentary on the Sci-Fi channel to try creat buzz for THE VILLAGE. It was so transparent that no one fell for it.

    Night's 15 minutes are way past up. Hopefully, after this movie tanks, he won't be able to get a deal for another one.

    - RC


By Antigone on Monday, August 2, 2004 - 07:50 pm:

    Unbreakable is a great movie, you just have to be in the right cultural context.

    It's a comic book geek thing. You wouldn't understand.


By wisper on Monday, August 2, 2004 - 09:08 pm:

    We just saw the Village.
    We were going to see the Metallica documentary, but at the last minute i realized i could not handle 2 and 1/2 hours of Larz Ulrich, not today.

    The ending didn't come as much of a surprise to me, i think i saw an episode of The Outer Limits with a very similar ending once.
    I thought it was good, I liked it. This one held my interest longer than most of his other movies did, even though i had most of it figured out from the trailer. It could have been the period look though.

    I think parts of it ran pretty long, like her running in the woods for example.

    ----------------------

    as for the Sailor Moon thing, tell me this:
    do little pre-teen nerds (or, NEW nerds, as they may be called) wander into Star Wars fandom forums and go "OMG i just saw Empire Strikes Back and i think Luke and Laya might be related!!!" or "So, iz darth vader Luke's father or wat? Wut do U guyz think??!?"

    Somehow, i don't think that happens.

    So why must these new fans wander into the Sailor Moon forum and ask if we think Haruka (Sailor Uranus) and Michiru (Sailor Neptune) are infact not cousins, but lesbians?? NO FUCKING SHIT.
    Do they not realize that the show has been over for almost 10 years now, and such info is only new to them alone? They haven't even watched it in uncut Japanese yet....
    Good lord.

    And sem, if they really are perverted men in their 30's, I must give them mad props, because they've got their 'idiot 12 year old girl' routines down to perfection.


By RC on Tuesday, August 3, 2004 - 06:38 am:

    No, I'm not a comic book geek. So maybe that was it. But as a cineaste, I'd like to think I have the savvy to appreciate a well-made flick, regardless of genre.

    Even without knowing there was a comic book related to UNBREAKABLE, I knew after the guy tells Willis about the hotel fire that Sam Jackson's character had to be the one behind all the accidents. His disease made him the anthithesis of Bruce's character & you knew he was fucked up in the head from all the pain he'd been through. So of course, he'd do anything to draw Willis out.

    But I also found it hard to believe that a guy who could barely walk could have pulled off setting up all those disasters for so long.

    My biggest problem wasn't the flaws in the story so much as the poor direction. That scene where Bruce is lifting in the basement & keeps adding weights to see how much he can bench press -- that shit went on for nearly 20 minutes! Ridiculous for a scene that doesn't reveal any info or advance the plot at all! The whole movie dragged & felt way too long -- which should NEVER happen in a suspense film.

    So no -- Night ain't getting my $10 again. I'll wait 'til I can catch THE VILLAGE on cable or DVD at someone's house.

    (Although my sorry-ass really does need to buy a DVD player when I move at the end of the month...)

    - RC


By Antigone on Tuesday, August 3, 2004 - 02:27 pm:

    One point of the weightlifting scene was developing the boy's view of his father. It relates directly to the scene where the boy threatens to shoot his father, and the climax of the movie where the father reveals to his son that he is a superhero.

    See, boys who collect comics are hero worshippers. A comic boy's greatest fantasy is that his father is secretly a superhero because that means he could be one too. The weightlifting scene was all about the son testing his dad to see if he had super powers.


By Rowlfe on Tuesday, August 3, 2004 - 03:47 pm:

    SPOILERS

    ********************************



    my favorite thing about the Village is how in this perfect new world the billionaire made, there is no money, and no religion. I dont think this was a mistake or an accidental omission, especially considering how faith-centric "Signs" was.


By semillama on Tuesday, August 3, 2004 - 05:50 pm:

    You're right! I picked up a little on the no religion thing, but I didn't recall it at the end when i was reassessing the whole purpose of the community in light of the information at the end.

    In the course of my work, I've had to study some millenial groups, like the Shakers and the Harmony Society, and I was really picking up on the similarities between the community in the movie and these historic groups, but I'll be damned if the religious aspect (or lack there of) slipped right by me.

    Good call Rowlfe.

    Can you imagine the size of their warehouses, though? just to keep all the things they couldn't make themselves and would need to replace, like the mass-produced fine ceramics, the window glass, and some of the fancier clothes.


By Rowlfe on Tuesday, August 3, 2004 - 09:20 pm:

    I have a theory as well about the use of red in the movie.

    Besides the symbolically filmic obvious - red = violence, horror, etc..

    It also helps to reduce violence in the village. By making red 'not allowed' under penalty of Monsters, it keeps people in the town from hurting each other.

    Violence = blood = red = monsters, so play nice.


By Gee on Wednesday, August 4, 2004 - 10:57 am:

    This post has spoilers.

    I was very dissapointed with The Village.

    I love Joaquin Phoenix, because he's got mad skillz, and he's hot, to boot.

    I enjoyed Ron Howard's daughter, muchly.

    The twist with the monsters being made up was cool, but the later twist with Adrien Brody as a monster was tired.

    and ultimately, the whole thing being set in modern day, was guessed by myself and many others from very early on. Almost from the very beginning of the movie, actually.

    I'm not saying it's a bad movie, though, just because it didn't surprise me as I wanted it to. Although I will say that when you go to see one of Shyamalan's movies nowadays, it's like he's trying too hard to surprise you and the actually story gets lost in his zeal for the twist.

    it wasn't a bad film. just a dissapointing one.

    also, I hated Shyamalan's cameo. huge rolls of the eyes there.


By Semillama on Wednesday, August 4, 2004 - 12:34 pm:

    yeah. i agree with the cameo. and I did think Adrien Brody was wasted.

    His next twist should be that there is no twist. that would be a twist in itself for him. Then he could really stop relying on it so much.


    That said, I still enjoy his work, and he does put out some rather different movies than the usually cartload of offal. I mean, between "The Village" and "Taxi", which one would you rather see?


By Gee on Wednesday, August 4, 2004 - 02:36 pm:

    at first I thought you were talking about the old TV show. haha, silly me.


    "Unbreakable" will always be my favourite of all his films. it's the only one so far that's actually surprised me. I love! surprises.




    I have finally downloaded every episode of "Enterprise" and now I can start watching it. does anyone have an opinion on it? without giving too much away. I've never seen an episode, in spite of my deep and abiding love of Star Trek (and Scott Bakula).


By wisper on Wednesday, August 4, 2004 - 03:39 pm:

    I don't like Enterprise. But I'm one of those people that thinks Next Generation was the pinnacle of Star Trek, and it's been going down from there. Except for the first seasons of DS9, that was great too.
    Although i have found myself watching the odd Voyager episode, since it's on when I'm usually eating something infront of the tv.
    I love Spike TV. LOVE IT.

    But anyway, I don't like Enterprise. My dad swears by it, but he'll watch just about anything. I think he just likes the blinky lights.
    I say, if there's no holodeck, it aint Star Trek.

    ------------
    **more spoilers**

    I thought the Adrian Brody death part was dumb as well, and pointless. I thought that the monster chasing her was actually going to turn out to really be a coyote or a bear or something, and Ivy was just perceiving it as one of "them" because she's blind.
    That would have been compelling, and made a lot more sense.

    I didn't know she was Ron Howards daughter. She is amazing and beautiful.

    (i mention her being beautiful only because we were seated in front of a pack of giggly girls who exclained during the Ivy/Lucius porch scene: "OH NO! Don't marry her! She's sooo ugly!". We moved seats soon after.)

    I wish now that Mr.Night would stop making his own movies, and try his hand at making other peoples.
    I think he would do well.


By semillama on Wednesday, August 4, 2004 - 05:06 pm:

    Gee - I think you'll like Enterprise. It's no TNG, but it's better than Voyager. Some pretty good characters. Unfortunately, a lot of phoned-in episodes, as far as the plot/script goes. It IS cool to see some of the aliens that haven't really appeared since the first series though. It would be fun if some of the first series klingons appeared, although I doubt that would happen.


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