James Newton Howard & M. Night Shyamalan

I mentioned my love for James Newton Howard in my earlier review of 'The Village'. Just for everyone out there I wanted to give you a listen to some of the nice work he has done on M. Night Shyamalan's films. They are, of course, not the only movies he has worked on but take a minute and look him up and find out just how many films this man has scored. It's pretty impressive.

Roger Deakins

One of the most memorable cinematographers in the last 20 years, Roger Deakins, shares one of his favorite moments from one of his best films.

The Village

 I came across some other review online about someone who saw the movie again after a while and now loved it. He/she more or less hated it when it first came out. My story is sort of similar so I decided to see the film again. I've probably only seen it in its entirety 3 or 4 times. Last time was quite a while ago so I thought I'd give it another swing.
 M. Night Shyamalan has taken a few hits in the last few years. Most of all it annoys me that I always have to look up the spelling of his name every time I mention it or try to pronounce it.
 He started out incredibly well. Almost too well I'm sure many would say. The Sixth Sense was such a hit that it was hard to match it. There's been a string of films from him since and I'll probably go through them all here - because I want to give the man another chance and I want to understand where it is all coming from. I think he has some great ideas but they probably just don't always work out or he doesn't do proper research. And the ideas are maybe a little out there like in 'The Happening' and 'Signs'. Hard for a lot of people to digest and even harder when the acting is maybe not considered the best in some of his films.
 And speaking of that - 'The Village' could probably have suffered a lot with a cast of more one dimensional characters and actors but it has an impressive array of talent lined up. At the front line is the always captivating Bryce Dallas Howard, also Joaquin Phoenix, William Hurt and Sigourney Weaver have the heavier roles and all play them with such depth, understanding, passion and tenderness that regardless of what you think of the movie itself, their performances are very strong.
 As I mentioned, I more or less hated the film when I saw it the first time. For me, it was because I had craved a good monster film for so long and had put a lot of eggs in that basket. However, this is not a monster film and I was so disappointed by that back then that I was more or less blind to the rest of the story.
 And what is the story? I'll try not to do too many spoilers in my writings here but do forgive me if I slip here and there.
 In a very small village in the middle of the woods a group of people have for a long time lived in a somewhat peaceful coexistence with 'those we do not speak of' - hideous creatures who lurk in the woods and will only harm people if they break certain rules. Suddenly, however, it seems that something has enraged the creatures and brought them into the village. Signs are all around that they have been there and the people of the village fear for their lives. Ivy Walker (Bryce Dallas Howard) requests to leave the village after an accident that leaves Lucius Hunt (Joaquin Phoenix) badly injured. She needs to go to 'the towns for medicines'. This leads to the big reveal in the film and forces the 'elders' (William Hurt, Sigourney Weaver, Brendan Gleeson, Cherry Jones) to make some painful and necessary decisions and trips down memory lane.
 After watching the film with new eyes and already knowing the plot, not to mention years later, I discovered the extreme love, tenderness and human connections that this film is all about. It's a lot about what's right and wrong in certain situations and certainly forces the viewer to consider his or her own life and what matters, how far you would go for innocence, love and to protect the ones you love.
 It's actually an extremely sweet film now that I look at it. I am a bit colored by my love for almost all the actors in this film and how I rarely have anything bad to say about them even in films I find uninspiring. It's also fun to notice Jesse Eisenberg in a tiny tiny role in this film. I don't think I even noticed him when I first saw it, but after 'The Social Network' etc he certainly does pop up even if it is only for a very few moments in this film.
 I think one of the reasons I keep giving Mr. Shyamalan chance after chance even though I haven't liked his recent films ( let's see if I might change my mind when I see them again) is because it's clear he is a very good storyteller. As I mentioned earlier I just think he needs to do better research, maybe not create too fantastic worlds on his own and come up with his own entire mythology and  drown things in effects and noise. I think 'The Village' - what I consider, for now at least, to be his last good film, is proof that he does need to keep it smaller. He is good with people and their emotions and conflicts in extreme situations, much like Stephen King is. I just think he might be too eager to do too much too soon. He tries though, and no matter what you say about the man he is pretty original. And though that's a good thing and a bad thing at the same time I actually would like to see what he would be able to do with the screenplay based on a very good novel, maybe even a Stephen King story.
  Another Thing worth mentioning is the very beautiful soundtrack by James Newton Howard. Some of the tracks are almost like classical pieces of music and holds qualities worth listening to again and again. Newton Howard has made the music for several of Shyamalan's films and even the worst ones still have a quite beautiful soundtrack attached. Also there is some quite beautiful images in the film, Roger Deakins did the cinematography and maybe it's no coincidence that it looks beautiful. He is the man behind 'The Shawskank Redemption', 'Revolutionary Road', 'No Country For Old Men' and countless other very well known films. The cinematography is slow, several very long takes and many moments of beauty that seems effortless and almost unintentional.