FILM I DRAMA
‘The Village’ — Shyamalan’s Beautiful, Misunderstood, and Underrated Period Piece Just Turned 17
A love story about loss and trauma wrapped in pseudo-horror.
People are judgmental. They cheer for a talented 29-year-old, a rapidly emerging storyteller, but hate him for not delivering near-perfect movies all the time. They love an eerie drama filled with ghosts but hate a love story about trauma and loss for not being the same. Besides being judgmental, these people are often dead wrong, too.
Here’s an opinion: I like M. Night Shyamalan far more now than I did back when he broke into the industry in 1999. I appreciate his struggle and endurance for going through almost two decades of filmmaking while being called a hack, a one-trick pony, and a fallen wonder child of Hollywood. Yet, he’s still standing, taking risks with each and every one of his new projects.
Say what you will about him, but he’s one of the most skillful directors American cinema ever had. Despite his many failures in the past fifteen years, Shyamalan’s directing style remains as unique and distinctive as ever.
His sixth film, The Village, is cited as the tipping point of his career spiraling downward. Since its debut, it became a widely…
