If you haven’t seen ‘Unbreakable’ you are missing a Superhero Gem. Not to worry, you can still catch Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson on Blue-Ray and Netflix.
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“There are 35 Pages and 124 Illustrations in the average comic book.
A single issue ranges in price from $1.00 to over $140,000.
172,000 comics are sold in the U.S every day.
Over 62,780,000 each year.
The average comic collector owns 3,312 comics and will spend approximately 1 year of his or her life reading them.”
The above is the opening screen shot of the M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘Unbreakable’ a film from 2000; before comics and their movies were “en vogue”. The film was publicized as another psychological thriller but was actually, in my opinion, the single most effective and well-done superhero movie to date.
To preface this on a personal level, I have often touted that the 1978 ‘Superman: The Movie’ is my favorite movie ever, and there will be another time soon when I discuss why that film is so important to me, but ‘Unbreakable’ is the superhero origin film that all the others wish they could be. The film brimming with tension and excitement, but still manages to stay small and personal. It is more character study, than big budget eye candy.
David Dunn (Bruce Willis) is a security guard with a problem: he doesn’t get hurt, he doesn’t get sick and he has a sense of when trouble is around. All of this scares Dunn so desperately that he constantly lives a life in a self-defeating prophecy, at the detriment of his career, his marriage (Robin Wright), and his son (a doe-eyed Spencer Treat Clark). His problems, and his secrets, begin to catch up with him when Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson) enters his life.
Elijah is a broken man. Broken inside and out, the level at which he is broken internally becomes more evident and more dangerous as the film progresses. Jackson is particularly effective in his role. He is always “the man” or at least always is portraying a character that is in control; to see him playing a weakened character, and he does it effectively, is amazing to watch.
Willis, I still think gives his best, most understated performance of his career. He always seems to be whispering almost hissing (like the hiss of a pressure cooker) his lines. He wants to set himself free to explore who he truly is, but is filled with such fear and dread that even when lives are at stake, his sense of denial at times becomes overwhelmingly bleak.
Shyamalan is at his least “Shyamalan” here as well. He lets the story breathe and expand, without feeling force, even the notorious “Shyamalan” twist to the film is that over-the-top or unexpected. The twist just feels like a natural unfolding of events, neither forced nor phony.
‘Unbreakable’ gives us the perfect superhero origin story, without CGI eye-candy (the film is muted in color and very low on the special effects) or ear-shattering noise. I will never tire in saying that you cannot be a superhero completest until you have this film checked off your list.
‘Unbreakable’ is still available on DVD/Blu-ray and is still running on Netflix.