Run. The Truce Is Ending.
Sorry for no posts yesterday. I had mad work all day and night, then (despite others' advice to the contrary) went straight to see M. Night Shyamalan's new "thriller" The Village. And I liked it! It had its slow parts, but I didn't think it was silly. Better than Signs and Unbreakable.
Kevan had some funny things to say about the twist, which you can read "after the jump" if you don't mind spoilers.
Otherwise, there's Joaquin Phoenix Radio.
Kevan says:
the tombstone on the kid's grave said 1890-1897. that's my big complaint. m. night could say that the elders were lying about the year to fool the kids, but that's stupid, because the kids would have no context. They wouldn't be like, "But, Jebediah, if it's 2004 then where's my iPod???" Jason's response to this, which I guess is valid, is that lying about the year makes it easier for them to lie about history. Otherwise, they'd have to come up with so many elaborate lies to explain what happened between 1897 and the present. They would have had to invent a whole alternate history.Also, what's with the accents? If they're first generation Villagers, they should talk like Manhattanites and UPenn professors, not like 1890sers. And why name the kid Lucius? Were they concerned that if they named him Scott he would think, "If my name is Scott, then there should be hovercrafts"?
Posted at 8:34 AM
Reality Check. Just think how incredibly stupid it would have been to put the correct year on the tombstone. Just for a second. It would have destroyed the movie. Derrrrrrr.
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I've been wondering how they addressed the idea of airplanes flying over. Giant metal birds? Quatzequatl?
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err, gary, remember the cameo at the end of m. night hisself, reflected in the cabinet door, talking about the awkward payoff years back in order to keep airplanes out of the reserve's airspace?
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Brian, they could have just not showed the tombstone up close. Just like how in The 6th Sense they never specifically showed him going to the hospital and surviving the gun shot. We just assumed he did.
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Thanks rcr. I didn't bother seeing the movie since someone blew the surprise for me the day after it opened. Stupid monkeys.
I prefer the flying lizards story to keeping airplanes out of the reserve. More interesting that way.
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Yeah, it seems like not showing the tombstone the way they did would be a good way to get away from that issue. But, that and the accents didn't really bother me. I just didn't like the movie period. I love M. Night's other three films, but I thought The Village was...lame.
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A friend figured out the Village twist because he knew M. Night makes cameos in all his movies, so there had to be an opportunity for an Indian character. Clever!
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i went on a great date last nite!
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Good point, Prampy.
I just think that a lot of the mannerisms, accents, etc. were in the movie for the benfit of the audience.
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I figured out the ending 10 minutes into it. I'm not a hyper brainiac or anything, and I saw it on opening day, so I hadn't heard anything. I think it's the director's rep -- you know what kind of ending there's gonna be, so you're just trying to figure it out the whole time. I don't know that I would have figured it out so quickly if it had been directed by, I dunno, Pitof.
Anyhoo, I don't want a movie about the monster within us all, I want a movie about a flippin' monster. Ripoff.
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I also figured out the twist during the movie, because of the direct's rep as well, though in a slightly different way. As many of you know, M. Night always has a cameo in his movies. So as I was watching the movie, I thought to myself, how are they gonna stick an Indian guy into this 19th century village for M. Night's cameo? Even if the blind girl goes to the "town", it's hard to believe that the nearby town would have Indian guys as well. So i figured it must be in present day or something....
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maybe this explains it:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5654063/
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My theory is that they were all nerds and Hurt was the biggest nerd and perhaps a bit of a cult leader. Given he was a history professer, he probably convinced the adults and trained them in all the ways. I would have snuck in a Swiffer and in the little box of sneakers - lots of Hershey bars because they, um, are a reminder of the old world....
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I figured out the ending, and whispered to it as a friend, as a joke. It turns out, it was the real ending. The movie itself wasn't bad at all, but the accents bothered me a lot.
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i did not see that ending comming. i was to busy thinking about how hot the blind chick was.... oh by the way what the hell does bloging mean. i post on the best week ever site and thats how i found this... what is it and who are you people. thankyou
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i missed the very beginning of the movie so i'm all confused. what's all this talk about the tombstone? showing it vs not showing it?
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Dear confused, there was a funeral for a kid in the first scene and they showed a tombstone. Then Joaquin was talking about going to the towns to get medicine because kids were dying. I guess that whole story arc was just to introduce the idea of going to the towns for medicine.
I liked the movie too. The cheesy twist didn't bother me. I could have used more Joaquin though. He spent half the movie sick in bed.
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The reason that Upenn professors would desire to speak with the old fashioned accents, use the names, etc... is because Upenn professors are nerds like that. Seriously, they do stuff like that for fun. It's about being authentic.
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I haven't seen this film yet, but guessed at the ending at dinner with some friends who had seen it, and they confirmed I was right. (I also guessed the ending to "The Sixth Sense", and was really shocked by the reaction it got when it was revealed in the film. It seemed obvious. I mean, there are only about 10-15 decent surprise ending scenarios our puny human brains are capable of coming up with, people... and at least four of them involve childhood sexual abuse or incest, so the Lifetime Movie Network has already run those into the ground.)
Anyway, I never asked my friends this, but you've kind of answered it for me with the "M. Night at the end" thing -- were there no black folks in the village? Is race addressed at all? It would have been repulsive to have anyone be a slave for the sake of this "experiment," but if the elders were making up the rules of this society anyway, why not have people of color live there too? They could have created their own history/mythology of where people of different races come from, and how everyone came to live there. If the kids never even knew slavery existed they wouldn't have questioned anything.
Yes, I know it would have ruined the film (or at least the "twist"), blah blah blah... I'm just saying.
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Yellow, they group members knew each other prior to the village because of circumstance. They were all members of a support group for the survivors of murdered violent crime victims. The idea was to create a communal lifestyle that did not include materialism and violent crimes. Race was not an issue as it was not just a random historical social experiment, like the colonial house on PBS.
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"You are my cherished one."
It was lines like that which made me dislike this movie.
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Well, first off I guess I am slightly unobservant because I didn't even notice the dates on the tombstone (also slightly blind so this could explain the missed sighting) but as soon as the movie started I just begain watching it as if it was set in the present day and watched the whole film knowing she was going to end up in modern civilisation... I thought the reason he sent her was because she was blind and wouldn't be able to clearly report back... So when the twist was revealed, I was still waiting for the twist... So for me, no twist, and no monsters... hmmmm.
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What was with all the skinned dogs and sheep, why would the elders bother killing them
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guestebeseasapi
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