tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12380553.post5325873544392820518..comments2024-03-29T04:57:26.162-04:00Comments on John Kenneth Muir's Reflections on Cult Movies and Classic TV: CULT MOVIE REVIEW: John Carpenter's Village of the Damned (1995)John Kenneth Muirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15629979615332893780noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12380553.post-15031978520580348612009-06-25T08:24:09.090-04:002009-06-25T08:24:09.090-04:00Michael Pare's fate is probably Carpenter riff...Michael Pare's fate is probably Carpenter riffing off on Janet Leigh's fate in Psycho - " oh, look, there's that guy, I like him, he's always good in...oh...oh, I never thought he'd buy it that quick...blimey !"Gatchamandavenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12380553.post-12779089733265542472009-06-24T19:02:42.596-04:002009-06-24T19:02:42.596-04:00Thank you J.D., Gatchamandave, amrice and Jim for ...Thank you J.D., Gatchamandave, amrice and Jim for the lovely comments.<br /><br />Jim -- you are right about the casting. Michael Pare -- icon of Eddie and the Cruisers and Streets of Fire -- starts the film with great flourish...and then dies about fifteen minutes in. You're left to wonder what the heck is happening, and why he was introduced so prominently, with such a recognizable actor...only to be shuffled off the mortal coil so quickly.<br /><br />I do like that all the big 1980s sci-fi franchises are represented, though: Kirstie Alley represents Star Trek, Reeve represents Superman, and Hamill is there for Star Wars.<br /><br />best,<br />JKMJohn Kenneth Muirhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15629979615332893780noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12380553.post-83746535985949583792009-06-24T18:26:06.657-04:002009-06-24T18:26:06.657-04:00Great review John! I'd say that's about a...Great review John! I'd say that's about as close as one could come in mounting a defense of the film. It's made me reconsider a few points with regard to the race relations theme, and how it plays out visually (e.g. the police battle at the end). Things still don't quite come together, but at least it may be more of a thoughtful film than I've ever given it credit for.<br /><br />Perhaps the one thing that's always stood out to me as both a blessing and a curse for the film is the loaded to the gills genre casting. Not only do you have a lot of the Carpenter regulars, but also a host of past their glory days stars. As our mutual THB comrade in arms Tony said to me recently, it makes it feel like a movie of the week.<br /><br />The funny thing is I like most of the people. Christopher Reeve, Mark Hamill, Michael Pare, etc. The problem is, with the exception of Reeve, they're given only a fraction of screen time to basically say look it's Mark Hamill! In other words, they aren't used effectively. That's a real shame too. I love it when Reeve is given something to work with here, such as his competition vs. cooperation debate. It's great stuff and he totally sells it. Sad that this was one of his last major films.<br /><br />One final item which was alluded to in an earlier response, is that those outfits could be likened to school uniforms. Since the children were being educated privately it's not out of bounds to imagine a uniform situation. That I can accept. Unfortunately they're just a tad bit antiquated, and also come on the heels of having to accept all the hard to believe qualities of the town and its citizens that have come before.<br /><br />For the record I'd still be happy to watch John Carpenter's Creature From the Black Lagoon : )Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12380553.post-3218996181611521322009-06-24T14:32:38.968-04:002009-06-24T14:32:38.968-04:00Nice. You know what's funny I just had a John ...Nice. You know what's funny I just had a John Carpenter Movie Marathon myself just recently and after which you have your reviews up so nice timing lol<br /><br />FYI,Love reading you reviews.amricehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04235316598697918366noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12380553.post-4940521265996761662009-06-23T10:53:02.765-04:002009-06-23T10:53:02.765-04:00Ergh, that posted twice for some reason. Which, I...Ergh, that posted twice for some reason. Which, I guess, makes it twice as nice...John Kenneth Muirhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15629979615332893780noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12380553.post-692674358314641802009-06-23T10:52:04.359-04:002009-06-23T10:52:04.359-04:00Gatchamandave:
Your analysis of Wyndham's wor...Gatchamandave:<br /><br />Your analysis of Wyndham's work is good enough for an article/blog all it's own!<br /><br />That is fascinating social and historical analysis, and you get very skillfully to the root of the problem: the transplantation of the story from one locale and era to the other. I noted that in broad stokes --- you just made the case brilliantly in specifics!<br /><br />Thanks!<br /><br />best,<br />JKMJohn Kenneth Muirhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15629979615332893780noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12380553.post-13157568488605178612009-06-23T10:52:03.531-04:002009-06-23T10:52:03.531-04:00Gatchamandave:
Your analysis of Wyndham's wor...Gatchamandave:<br /><br />Your analysis of Wyndham's work is good enough for an article/blog all it's own!<br /><br />That is fascinating social and historical analysis, and you get very skillfully to the root of the problem: the transplantation of the story from one locale and era to the other. I noted that in broad stokes --- you just made the case brilliantly in specifics!<br /><br />Thanks!<br /><br />best,<br />JKMJohn Kenneth Muirhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15629979615332893780noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12380553.post-54785899515806847192009-06-23T10:47:26.397-04:002009-06-23T10:47:26.397-04:00Another thought provoking article, John. Well done...Another thought provoking article, John. Well done.<br /><br />Wyndham’s book is a favourite of mine, an important book to me in my formative years. In the community where I grew up being intelligent and not physically strong weren’t survival traits. In reading the book I identified with the children, so what is missing from Carpenter’s film for me is much sense of empathy with the kids. They are hostile from the get-go, whereas in Wyndham’s book they are different but forced to react to the hostility of the locals.<br /><br />It’s one of the great things about Wyndham’s book that it echoes concerns that were on-going in the Middle England of the time. Wartime evacuation policies meant that rural people found themselves dealing with entire communities of children transported into their midst, with different accents, manners and cultural imprints. Study a film of the time and even later television productions and they give an idyllic view of that process – poor cockney kids who gain rosey cheeks and the ability to milk a cow. All that CS Lewis stuff. <br /><br />I suspect, and Wyndham is a primary source for me as well as a few remarks I’ve heard over the years, that it wasn’t like that. Many evacuees had a horrible time, found themselves regarded with suspicion and outright hatred whilst the jolly farmers who took them in used them as casual labour, working them all the hours of the day and not feeding them much. It isn’t so much racism as provincialism.<br /><br />In Carpenter’s version the horror is that they’re not like us, whereas in Wyndham’s vision the horror is that they are like us, but ignorant locals keep doing horrible things to them. The children don’t even necessarily want changes in the book, indeed it’s not clear what exactly they or their progenitors want. I’m not even sure it’s an invasion by proxy, so alien is what is going on. The children ultimately want to go away and not be bothered whilst it should be kept in mind when considering the original title that by it’s very nature, the adult cuckoo doesn’t give a tinker’s cuss what happens to it’s kids.<br /><br />Wyndham at first makes much of the mothers who love their children and want to keep them, versus the hostility of the natives. We are thus also seeing a working out of the social tensions that went on in many communities when women who had provided warm beds and soft bodies for visiting GIs, Free Frenchmen, Poles, and even Germans working on the land found that promises to be taken back to the States or Europe were only so much empty words – and the're carrying a kid. Again, many of these women and their children had a hell of a time in a post-war, austerity Britain. Remember, abortion was illegal in Britain until 1967 – you could have a bastard ( and make no mistake, those children would have been called that by everyone ) but you could not, under any circumstances, not take it to term.<br /><br />Same with the clothes issue – in post-war Britain kids wore what they were given and the school uniform was ubiquitous. That’s why in the 60s film it works – kids in the 50s and early 60s had their identities suppressed by the state in the UK. I still recall getting capital punishment inflicted on me by one vicious bitch of a school-teacher because my tie was the wrong shade of blue stripe for the school. My brother, now a top chef in London, still recalls being regularly hit with a ruler because his middle-class, middle-aged female teacher simply thought him “ stupid” – because he wrote the figure 4 the wrong way. She liked it open on the RHS.<br /><br />The problem is he’s attempting to transplant a book that fits one culture into a completely different one – post-war Britain, which Wyndham was examining, is completely at odds with Post-Clinton USA, which Carpenter is working in. That’s why it comes over as so odd, so nearly good – if he’d made a period-piece he’d have gotten away with it but ,as with his admiration for Nigel Kneale, Carpenter’s love of British post-war sci-fi doesn’t mean that he actually understood it as a cultural reflector. How could he ?Gatchamandavenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12380553.post-37203143282464817982009-06-23T10:09:51.836-04:002009-06-23T10:09:51.836-04:00Loved this thoughtful analysis of this film. I rea...Loved this thoughtful analysis of this film. I really need to watch Carpenter's film again - it's been years and I noticed that it has been popping up cable recently.<br /><br />You did a really good job pointing out the film's many flaws. I forget, but didn't Carpenter do this film because the studio promised that he could remake CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON afterwards and then stiffed him after VILLAGE flopped? I seem to recall something like that and I'm sure this is why VILLAGE feels, in many respects, like a paycheck film for Carpenter. Going through the motions until the next film that he would feel more passionate about.<br /><br />However, as you point out, VILLAGE isn't a complete write-off and does have some nice camerawork and establishes a pretty effective mood early on.<br /><br />Nicely done, Sir!Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08164105442273577128noreply@blogger.com