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''The Village'' is a 2004 American psychological thriller film, written, produced, and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, and starring Bryce Dallas Howard, Joaquin Phoenix, Adrien Brody, William Hurt and Sigourney Weaver. The film is about a village whose inhabitants live in fear of creatures inhabiting the woods beyond it. The film received mixed reviews, with critics especially divided about the plausibility and payoff of the ending. The film gave composer James Newton Howard his fourth Academy Award nomination for Best Original Score. ==Plot== In the small, isolated Pennsylvania village of Covington in the 19th century, the residents live in fear of nameless creatures in the surrounding woods. They have constructed a large barrier of oil lanterns and watch towers that are constantly manned to keep watch for "those we don't speak of". It is explained that the villagers have a long-standing truce with the monsters; the villagers do not go into their woods, and the creatures do not enter their village. After the funeral of a seven-year-old boy, Lucius Hunt (Joaquin Phoenix) asks the village elders for permission to pass through the woods to get medical supplies from "the towns". His request is denied, and later his mother, Alice (Sigourney Weaver), admonishes him for wanting to go to the towns, which the villagers describe as "wicked places where wicked people live". The Elders seem to keep dark secrets of their own in black boxes, whose contents they keep hidden from the younger townsfolk, saying only that they are reminders of the evil and tragedy they left behind when they left the towns. After Lucius makes a short venture only a little ways into the woods, the creatures leave warnings around the village in the form of splashes of red paint (referred to by the villagers only as "the bad color") on all the villagers' doors. Meanwhile, Ivy Elizabeth Walker (Bryce Dallas Howard), the tomboyish and blind daughter of the chief Elder, Edward Walker (William Hurt), informs Lucius that she has strong feelings for him, and he returns her affections. They arrange to be married, but things go horribly wrong when Noah Percy (Adrien Brody), a young man with an apparent developmental and learning disability, stabs Lucius with a knife because he is in love with Ivy himself. Noah is locked in a room until a decision is made about his fate. Edward goes against the wishes of the other Elders, agreeing to let Ivy pass through the forest and seek out medicine for Lucius. Before she leaves, Edward explains the secret of the creatures: they are a "farce", bogeymen costumes created by the Elders to keep the children from entering the woods in an attempt to keep them from leaving the village. Edward does mention, however, that "those we don't speak of" were based upon legends he had heard at one time, of "real creatures" living in the woods. Ivy seems only partly convinced by this explanation, inquiring whether the skinned animals found in the village the previous night were "also farce". Ivy and two young men (unaware of the Elders' farce) are sent into the forest, but both protectors abandon Ivy almost immediately, believing the creatures will spare her out of pity, but kill them. While traveling through the forest, one of the beasts suddenly attacks Ivy. She tricks it into falling into a deep hole to its death. The creature is actually Noah in a costume that he had found previously under the floorboards of the room where he had been locked away after the stabbing. Ivy eventually finds her way to the far edge of the woods, where she encounters a high, ivy-covered wall. After she climbs over the wall, a park ranger named Kevin Lupinski (Charlie Hofheimer), driving a Land Rover with the words "Walker Wildlife Preserve" on the side, spots Ivy and is shocked to hear that she has come out of the woods. He learns that Ivy's last name is Walker. Ivy gives Kevin the list of medicines that she must acquire and asks for help. She also gives him a golden pocketwatch as payment. During this time, it is revealed that the village was actually founded in the late 1970s, when Edward Walker, professor of American history at the University of Pennsylvania, approached other people he met at a grief counseling clinic after his father had been murdered. He asked them whether they wished to join him in "an idea" he had. From this apparently grew "the village", a secluded town in the middle of a wildlife preserve purchased with Edward's family fortune, a place where they would sustain themselves, and be protected from any aspect of the outside world. The head ranger, Jay (M. Night Shyamalan), mentions to Kevin that the Walker estate pays to maintain the ranger corps. The rangers make sure no one goes into the wildlife preserve to "disturb the animals", and the Walker estate pays the government to keep the entire wildlife preserve a no-fly zone. Kevin secretly retrieves medicine from his ranger station, and Ivy returns to the village with the supplies, unaware of the truth of the situation. During her absence, the Elders secretly open their black boxes, each containing mementos from their lives in the outside world, including items related to their past traumas. All the Elders are gathered around Lucius' bed when one of the townsfolk informs them that Ivy has returned, and that she killed one of the monsters. Edward points out to Noah's grieving mother that his death will allow them to continue deceiving the rest of the villagers that there are creatures in the woods, and all the Elders take a vote to continue living in the village. Ivy arrives, kneels at Lucius' bedside and, clutching his hand, says "I'm back, Lucius." 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Village (2004 film)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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