“I’ve studied the form of comics intimately. I’ve spent a third of my life in a hospital bed… with nothing else to do but read. I believe comics are our last link… to an ancient way of passing on history. The Egyptians drew on walls. Countries all over the world still pass on knowledge through pictorial forms. I believe comics are a form of history… that someone somewhere felt or experienced. Then of course those experiences and that history… got chewed up in the commercial machine, got jazzed up… made titillating, cartooned for the sale rack.”
Unbreakable is, at it’s core, a movie about the idea of superheroes and our relationship to the medium of comic-books. M. Night Shyamalan wears his love of the medium on his sleeve, and many of the quirks of his filmmaking which seem at odds with cinema – such as the odd cadence of his dialogue – fits excellently in comics. Above all, however, Unbreakable is a family drama about a man who doesn’t know who he is and the rekindling of his life when he begins to truly understand himself.
Ten years ago, the name M. Night Shyamalan was synonymous with bad movies with a twist or two at the end. Today, however, there has been a shift in the perception of Shyamalan and the big swings he takes with original stories. While they aren’t crowd-pleasing blockbusters everyone is going to find some enjoyment out of, there is certainly an audience looking for these artist-driven, flawed movies distinctly about something. Shyamalan is still synonymous with imperfect movies, but there is a newfound respect attributed to one of the most interesting consistently working filmmakers in the game.
Shyamalan entered Hollywood in 1999 with the instant classic, The Sixth Sense; in which Haley Joel Osment utters those four iconic words to his psychologist, played by Bruce Willis. Willis was at the height of his career in ’99 and plays the most (or second most) iconic twist in the history of cinema perfectly. Less than a year later Shyamalan and Willis reconnected and made a superhero movie, and it’s one of the best the genre has ever produced.
- Night introduces the audience to the world of Unbreakable with an immaculate opening sequence. A tense, and desperate scene running at a breathless pace underlined by the unyielding sobs and wails of a newborn baby. The concern of the department store workers, the desperation of the new mother and the horrified confusion on the face of the doctor all make for a deeply uncomfortable opening. This baby is Elijah Price – played by the always perfect Samuel L. Jackson – who develops an obsession with comic-books and the superpowered beings who inhabit them. Born with Osteogenesis Imperfecta or brittle bone disease, Elijah spent much of his life in and out of hospital beds and wheelchairs. He breaks. He breaks over and over again and believes, like the superheroes in those books, that he must have an opposite.
The plot truly gets moving in the following scene where David Dunn – Bruce Willis – is sitting on a train absentmindedly gazing out the window as it pulls out of the station. Here, Shyamalan’s creative and dynamic camera work throughout this movie is first displayed, playing the scene from the perspective of a small child looking at Dunn through the gaps between the seats. People are going about their day, Dunn awkwardly flirts with a far younger woman and then the train crashes. David Dunn awakes in a hospital where the doctor remarks:
“…to answer your question, there are two reasons why I’m looking at you like this. One because it seems in a few minutes you will officially be the only survivor of this train wreck, and two, because you didn’t break one bone, you don’t have a scratch on you.”
So begins a series of seemingly chance encounters and events that lead to Dunn discovering his extra-human abilities.
An element of Shyamalan’s filmmaking which doesn’t get enough credit, especially during his early years, is his ability to attain great performances from child actors. Like Spielberg and Richard Donner before him, the children in Shyamalan’s movies almost outshine their more experienced adult colleagues. Haley Joel Osment is obviously the shining example of this but Spencer Treat Clark’s performance as Joseph, David’s son, is the heart of the movie. His delivery of the sometimes bizarre lines is absolutely perfect and his gradual reaction to discovering his father may have superpowers is excellent. His standout scene, and the emotional climax of his character, involves a revolver – and he plays it perfectly. Completing this dysfunctional family unit is Robin Wright as Audrey. She and David have drifted apart and are on the verge of divorce when the train crash happens. His miraculous survival convinces her to attempt to rekindle their love, and give it all a second try.
The plethora of creators behind the camera of Unbreakable are undeniable elements who constitute to the quality of this movie. There is the excellent score by James Newton Howard with grand string-based compositions harkening back to Williams’ original, iconic, Superman score from 1978. The cinematography by Eduardo Serra is glorious and truly melds with Shyamalan’s unique style perfectly. And the costuming by Joanna Johnston is impeccable, and really evokes the comic-like sensibility of the rest of the movie. Everyone is colour-coded, but not in a distracting way. Her simplicity is just what the film needs.
When he made Unbreakable, Shyamalan could not have foreseen that general audiences and critics alike would soon synonymise his name with failure, nor could he foresee the revival he would have a decade later beginning with a horror/thriller called Split. The mantle of the Hollywood golden boy was placed on Shyamalan’s shoulders in 1999 without his asking for it and without him knowing it. Then it was taken away, without him knowing that. And somewhere between his arrival and dramatic fall he created his masterpiece, an expertly woven tale of discovery, connection and the power of art for good and for ill.