8/21/04

Defense and response to The Village

(with apologies to Tonya)

TJ: But did the change in the adults' and childrens' relationships really need to be explored?

I thought so, yeah. I wanted to see how the adults and children adjusted , compromised and lied to each other to accomodate the radical break in status quo. I think that would have been even more disturbing and horrific than a few scare setpieces.

I'm reminded of a short story by J.G. Ballard, "Thirteen to Centaurus," where a small group of people are crammed into a small spaceship embarked on an interstellar journy for the nearest star system; turns out it's an elaborate hoax to study how humans would react to such a journey. What Ballard comes up with in that story is a hell of a lot more unsettling than anything Shyamalan does in his movie.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why apologies?  We're allowed to disagree.  Well, if that had happened it would have been an entirely different film.  As it was, he left no room for that shift to be explored since it happens at the end - it was just a given that a whole lot of adjustment for the truth would have to be made.

Anonymous said...

Apologies not so much for disagreeing but for cutting and pasting you comment to showcase my reply.

"a different film entirely"

Think I agree with you on that.