I haven’t yet seen “The Village” so I had to skip those parts of your post. Even so, the idea of human choice is an interesting discussion as applied to at least the first two movies, especially considering your comments on “Signs.” I didn’t catch your thoughts on that one before, which is a shame because that would have been an interesting discussion.

I wonder if this is the theme that was intended, or if it’s merely just a byproduct of the way Shyamalan writes. In all three movies I’ve seen (The Sixth Sense included) there always seems to be an air of determinism- that people are going through motions without a real free will.

But to address your question:

Quote:
In much science fiction literature, from George Orwell to Star Trek to The Matrix, the ability for people to choose is presented as amongst the most important things in people's lives

What do you mean by “the ability for people to choose”? Because it seems to me an overarching theme found in a lot of Sci-Fi is that human choice is not about affecting your destiny but revealing your character. The happy endings are merely there to provide reader/viewer satisfaction.

For example- Neo “chooses” to go after Morpheous when he has every reason to believe he will fail (after all, he isn’t the one right?) Yet he does anyway, not because he can choose the outcome but because the choice defines his character. He chooses to save Trinity in the second move, not because he wants the destruction of humanity, but because his love for her defines who he is. Finally in the last movie there’s a big speech on why he will fail and he comes back with “because I choose to.” What exactly is he choosing? Not to succeed (though he does), but to struggle. As a matter of fact, I do believe this was the major theme of the trilogy.

In the LOTR (not Sci-Fi, but related literature) the characters consistently state that they have little hope of success but yet they still struggle against evil. Why? Because they are good and good must struggle against evil whatever the result.

How many Star Trek episodes start out with impossible situations from which the characters have no escape? And yet they spend time struggling until Kirk/Picard/etc. finds the “magic button” that fixes everything?

In a darker example, take “Minority Report” (the story, not the movie). [Spoiler]It’s a great example of a character without choice but with character. Once the future has been defined his actions are determined but still he has the freedom as to how he will carry out those actions. In this story the character revealed is a bit more complex than the others- is it good to murder a human being to save a “system” that is morally questionable but saves lives? The revelation about the main character is “yes”. Perhaps it might be different if it were you or I in his position. Maybe we would have committed the murder out of anger, a desire to see the system destroyed, or some other reason- but we would have committed the murder.[/Spoiler]

I think this is all a very accurate reflection of real life- especially the latter example as the character revealed is not a simple one. We are all faced with choices that are made for us, be it by others or events beyond our control. Sometimes we cannot change the outcome no matter what we do- but it is how we behave in those instances that truly reveals our character.

Perhaps what your saying is that Shyamalan's movies don't addres freewill even at the level of character, but I’d say that’s not true. Especially in “Signs”- the way Hess responds to his lack of control tells us much about his character- and that character is something that changes by the end of the movie.