I take a close look at The Village, communities, disability, and violence in this video essay. Specifically, I consider The Village in the context of Walter Benjamin’s landmark 1940 essay, “On the Concept of History”, also known as “Theses on the Philosophy of History”, which proposes a new analysis of historical materialism (maybe).

Spoiler info:
This video contains major spoilers for the entire plot of The Village. In the "Coda" section, there are also a few spoilers for some other Shyamalan films, namely The Sixth Sense (first scene) and Unbreakable (ending of the movie). Split is mentioned but not really spoiled.

Resources used for this video essay:
The Village (2004; dir. M. Night Shyamalan)
“On the Concept of History” by Walter Benjamin (1940)
Community by Zygmunt Bauman (2000)
The Inoperative Community by Jean-Luc Nancy (1986)
The Sixth Sense (1999; dir. M. Night Shyamalan)
Unbreakable (2000; dir. M. Night Shyamalan)
Split (2016; dir. M. Night Shyamalan)
The Purge: Election Year (2016; dir. James DeMonaco)

this video features a couple tracks by the inimitable Daniel A. Wolfe. check out their music here: https://danielaaronwolfe.bandcamp.com
video synth footage was prepared by Nicky Flowers:   / yiffpolice  

Chapters:
00:00 - Intro
01:44 - Part 1: Community
07:08 - Part 2: Death
08:40 - Part 3: Into the Past
13:28 - Part 4: Disability
20:53 - Part 5: Failure
22:20 - Coda: Intentionality