Unbreakable
After his daring, Oscar nominated, phenomenom with a twist ending called The Sixth Sense that rocked the world in 1998, M. Knight Shylamalan would return two years later with a movie that was HORRIBLY mismarketed upon release as a story about a man who cheats death and questions his own mortality (ala Fearless) but in reality is a fascinating dissection of comic book superheros (and villains) told in an utterly realistic fashion so much so that it most likely inspired Christopher Nolan to do his Batman / Dark Knight trilogy in an ultra realistic way as well. But while those films still had the spectre of the long time popularity of the BATMAN character hanging over it, this film had no such restrictions by literally creating its own lineage of a hero, using the popularity of comic books themselves in society as a starting point (again, an idea that would be used in later comic book films). Maybe the real greatness of the film lies in the perception that the real life comic book / superhero stuff was in and of itself a smokescreen for the storyās real themes, which are finding your own identity and place in this world when sometimes you canāt seem to figure it out, drawing a study of two fascinating main characters who somehow do so through each other. Bruce Willis plays an everyman security guard at a college football stadium who suddenly finds himself on a train that derails off the tracks, brutally killing everyone on board except for himself, as he winds up completely unhurt without a scratch. It isnāt long before he is sought out by an unusual individual named Elijah Price, played by Samuel L. Jackson in one of the most sensational performances he has ever given, mostly because Jacksonās performance avoids so many of the pitfalls and clichĆ©s (i.e. excessive profanity) that have marred so many of his other roles. Price is a strange bird indeed, a seemingly wealthy dealer in comic book style art, who himself has studied comic books so thoroughly that he has become convinced that there is actually some realistic inspiration for all the comic book stories he has read his whole life, something he has had plenty of time to do since he suffers from a rare medical condition which has made his bones so brittle they break upon the slightest provocation (including his arms and legs upon birth) and his own obsession with finding the truth and reality behind these stories in an almost biblical sense leads to him explaining to Willis that his survival in the train wreck was no accident or stroke of luck and that he must indeed be āThe Unbreakable Oneā, someone with literal superhuman strength and instincts when it comes to uncovering and stopping the forces of evil in this world, as along with his indestructible nature, he also possesses the psychic abiity to identity people by mere touch or even sight as being evil and knowing just where and how to stop them as we soon discover when Price implores him to go out among where thereās people at. In some ways itās amazing that Shyamalan would cast someone like Willis (already thought of as a screen icon at this point) and even more amazing still that Willis could pull it off so successfully as he actually does here, disappearing into the part and bringing the human side to the role in spades especially in his dealings with his estranged wife (Robin Wright) and son (Spencer Treat Clark), the latter of whom starts to get quite a bit too carried away with his hero worship of the old man. In the end, the superhero metaphor becomes clearly a depiction of finding out just what your purpose is in life, and even finding an almost inner peace with yourself by doing so, an idea so profound because many in real life never do such a thing. Shyamalan brings it all together with a meticulously slow but never dull pace, his trademark clever camerawork and moves, and a brilliant slow burn score by James Newton Howard that always seems just about to break out in a John Williams or Danny Elfman type grandeur, but never quite does. And of course, as with The Sixth Sense and his films after, there is the legendary M. Knight twist ending, just as good if not better than Sense and moreso, one that comes off as being absolutely perfect without letting the viewer think for even one second that heās been cheated, and unlike Sense, opens up the film as one that can be enjoyed time and time again by just watching and knowing what is coming together. A brilliant effort and work by Shylamalan that shows his genius, and if ever a film of his deserved a sequel, this is itā¦
10/10