Cultural Criticism

Rating: Null/10 (1 August 2004)

First of all I believe there are movies that in themselves may not be great but raise good questions that may be explored in discussion as we do here. Cultural Criticism looks at a film or work of art from the perspective of what was going on in the world of the film maker. This means that a movie such as The Village can be looked at as a note book for M Night to jot down his ideas about the world today. So yes in the film he may have been taking a jab at bush or, and I think this is more probable, making a statement about crime and punishment.
I know my spelling sucks, bite me, or ill bite myself...which ever comes first. Noah is in a sense the blank slate on which the Village writes its rules. Its almost as if Night is saying that a Society's rules must be understood be even its weakest and most base individuals. If this is correct then what is a simpleton (Noah) to understand about the society in which he lives? Heres a few thoughts from his perspective: The elders work through fear, teach through fear...creating fear in others is a fun and good thing. Make promises not to hit (NOT stab) and then break that promise...it must be OK to break promises. If you commit a crime you can be jailed but then others are free to abuse you...does this mean that the more intelligent people in society have the right to violence where as the weak and slow do not.
Noah commitied a crime, he may not have understood it but he committed a crime. Walker is so diluted that he would prefer to mentally abuse the children of multiple generations than expose them to the sometimes brutal but often wonderful world. Remember when Ivy said to the security guard " you are kind, I did not expect that." The children of this village are not so much afraid of the monsters of the woods as they are of humans outside their own village. Night is making a case that a society that teaches through fear will only lead to violence. This is what noah thought. Even though star wars episode 1 sucks, the breakdown yoda gives to the kid about fear leading to violence is what I am getting at. These kids in the village don't look at a tree and see beauty as we do they see the fear and danger of the forest. Apply that lesson to the world around you now and it seems a timely lesson. But I think that night makes movies and teaches lessons that go further beyond today. Who really cares if he is commenting on today or yesterday, its a good lesson.
The Mistake of this movie is the same mistake they made with Clive Barker's Nightbreed. The studio didn't know how to market either film so they give you slasher film trailers. Night has made such an impact on me that they could have had a trailer that simply showed his name in white on a black background saying "M Night has a new movie go see it." But that doesn't work for most of our society. I find it silly that they still preface his trailers with "From the director of the Sixth sense.." If someone needs that kind of reminder please do not throw them in a theater with me because the movie will let them down. Most people in the theater i saw it in thought they were going to get die hard the minute J phoenix said he was not afraid of the creatures. You can fill in the blanks when they found out the creatures were not real.
Great movie, bad marketing. Bottom line a discussion movie whose messages were stronger than it's delivery.