| Author |
Message |
Weimarred
Registered user
Username: Weimarred
Post Number: 79
Registered: 1-2005
| | Posted on Monday, September 26, 2005 - 12:50 am: |     |
I can't remember if I ever asked this, but have any of you seen M. Knight Shyamalan's movie "The Village"?
Some critics dogged it, but I thought it was profoundly metaphoric for the extreme fundamentalist movement. (Warning: the rest may be a spoiler if you havenít sent it!)
The founders withdrew from the world; the ensuing generations had only a warped understanding of the outside world; the founders invented bogeymen to keep the youngsters in line; their little Eden paradoxically required outside support to be maintained; the founders were torn between endangering a life or choosing to accept outside aid; the heroine was ill-equipped to seek aid from the outsiders; despite all their efforts, murderous mayhem reigned in their midst; in the end, their altered reality only made certain things even worse; and, if I understood the denouement correctly, the heroine chose to go back to her old way of life, warts and all, and to keep silent about the secrets she had discovered.
Iím sure Iím missing other parallels here. In short, it was a bizarre, yet provocative movie. I liked it, if for nothing else than the ěbeen there, done thatî feeling it gave me.
Tom
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Colleentinker
Registered user
Username: Colleentinker
Post Number: 2604
Registered: 12-2003
| | Posted on Monday, September 26, 2005 - 9:12 am: | |
I haven't seen it, Tom, but your description of it sure felt familiar!
Colleen |
Seekr777
Registered user
Username: Seekr777
Post Number: 293
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Monday, September 26, 2005 - 9:38 am: | |
Tom I think there is a book that sounds like that but not sure if it has the same title. I'll see if I can find it in my schools library.
Richard
rtruitt@mac.com
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Seekr777
Registered user
Username: Seekr777
Post Number: 294
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Monday, September 26, 2005 - 9:45 am: | |
Here's an address that discuss' the movie.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0368447/
Richard
rtruitt@mac.com
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Bb
Registered user
Username: Bb
Post Number: 92
Registered: 7-2004
| | Posted on Monday, September 26, 2005 - 11:15 am: | |
I saw the movie. I enjoyed it too, very surprising end, and yes, familiar. I know a former who also relates to the movie Chocolat. Did anyone see that? The religious town frowned upon this newcomer and her "chocolate shop" because it was near lent. She just went about her business and cared for people while the town gossiped about how "evil" she was. That felt familiar too! |
Windmotion
Registered user
Username: Windmotion
Post Number: 200
Registered: 6-2001
| | Posted on Monday, September 26, 2005 - 12:13 pm: | |
Another film sort of along the same vein is the Matrix trilogy (I did see all three, but the last two are forgettable).
For those who haven't seen the movie, the main character discovers that life as he knows it is actually a virtual reality program plugged into his brain. He can choose to be unplugged and see life as it really is, or continue the delusion and "remain in the matrix."
People can see this two ways. Either religion is the matrix, or the matrix was created by Satan to keep humanity from understanding religion. The exegesis actually goes much deeper until you can interpret great import from the names of characters, etc. It is a very thought-provoking movie! (and the marital art sequences are sweet too!)
Undeluded,
Hannah |
Weimarred
Registered user
Username: Weimarred
Post Number: 81
Registered: 1-2005
| | Posted on Monday, September 26, 2005 - 1:26 pm: | |
The part that struck home the most from The Village: the founders chose to send a blind girl to get aid from the outsiders! Now why would they do that?
Exploitation, pure and simple. The founders refused to even talk to the outsiders. Instead, they chose someone who already had an inborn dread of reality to make the contact. This way, they ran the least risk of upsetting and ending their little ěparadiseî. She would be more willing to maintain the deception, and she might fail in her mission, a result maybe half-wished for by the founders. In the end, the founders got to have their cake and eat it too: they didnít soil their own hands with ěoutside filthî, the boy got to live, and their ěparadiseî kept on.
Funny how some are willing to compromise their faith, but once the crisis is over, they revert right back to their old stubborn ways.
Tom
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Weimarred
Registered user
Username: Weimarred
Post Number: 82
Registered: 1-2005
| | Posted on Monday, September 26, 2005 - 1:27 pm: | |
Richard, the book you mentioned sounds interesting. I wonder if it was any sort of basis for the movie. I don't remember a whole lot from the extras on the DVD I watched.
Tom |
Weimarred
Registered user
Username: Weimarred
Post Number: 83
Registered: 1-2005
| | Posted on Monday, September 26, 2005 - 1:38 pm: | |
I haven't seen the last two Matrixes (or should that be Matrices??) or Chocolat.
Hannah, you're right about the matrix names. Morpheus was one of the Greek gods of sleep, and more precisley, of realistic dreams. Interesting choice by the writer. Don't remember the other names, though. |
Pheeki
Registered user
Username: Pheeki
Post Number: 654
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 27, 2005 - 8:14 am: | |
I love the movie Chocolat. I own the sound track too...lots of Django Reinhardt music on it. |
