Scene of the Week: Unbreakable
Indian-born director M. Night Shyamalan catapulted onto the scene in 1999 after the release of The Sixth Sense and the subsequent cranial explosions of the masses. Since then, Shyamalan has gone through somewhat of a rollercoaster ride in terms of box office success and fan appreciation for his work. I, for one, love that he has continued to make original movies over the course of his career and doesn’t appear to be like the current crop of directors who helmed one episode of Game of Thrones and are then thrown the keys to a massive franchise.
Unbreakable followed the year after The Sixth Sense and reunited M. Night with his star Bruce Willis. Instead of him hanging out with that kid from Jurassic Park, though, he was paling around with Samuel L. Jackson. I think it’s probably one of my favorite Jackson performances outside of his work in Pulp Fiction and one of the only movies I can remember off the top of my head that it doesn’t feel like Sam’s lines were typed up in ALL CAPS. It’s a movie that looks at the superhero mythos in a similar fashion to how Shyamalan has approached most of his work; a roundabout, simplistic, more realistic take. Most of his films have taken a similar approach. Whether it be a classic ghost story, an alien invasion, identity horror stuff, fairy tales, or just a different take on superheroes, Shyamalan makes movies that offer different twists on old stories.
