English Film (the Village)

In his film The Village M. Night Shymalan creates a community which on the surface is a utopic society. This society was created by a group of people, “the elders,” who were disillusioned with the world around them and the violence and corruption in it so they decided to create a community cut off from this world in order to protect their children. However they keep their children within the confines of the village through the creation of an artificial threat; creatures that live in the forest around. They refer to these creatures as “those we do not speak of” and they instil a deep fear of them into their children. This was done because the elders wanted to preserve and protect the innocence in their children. However an idea that challenges me in this film is how the elders perceive innocence and what they believe is the nature of it. Shymalan uses various film techniques such as costuming, sound effects and camera shots to challenge the viewer with the idea of innocence. The Elder’s try to protect innocence with a lie and seem to feel that denial of base human emotions and the cutting off of curiosity in their children will sustain innocence. Because of this the honourable intention becomes a corruption of basic parental obligations.

To try and protect innocence the elders (leaders of the community) instilled a deep fear of an artificial threat “those we do not speak of” into their children. The reason for this fear was to keep their children within the confines of the village as the world outside was perceived as a killer of innocence. We see the deep abject fear they have instilled in the scene of the attack of “those we do not speak of.” Shymalan uses sound effects and costuming to create this effect. Soundtrack with discordant strings and banging create tension for the viewer as they are nondigentic sounds and sound frenzied making the viewer feel uncomfortable and apprehensive about what will happen. There are shots of panicked villagers running around,