[UA] Unbreakable (Non-Spoilers with mild Analysis)

[Timothy Toner]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Chad Underkoffler" <chadu at yahoo.com>
To: "Unknown Armies" <ua at lists.uchicago.edu>
Sent: Monday, November 27, 2000 10:48 PM
Subject: [UA] Unbreakable (Non-Spoilers with mild Analysis)


> I have to say something, though-- in the film, there's a great
> scene between Bruce Willis' character and the character's son.
> It affected me greatly-- I had a real upwelling of emotion
> during it, and a percentage of the audience *laughed*.
>
> That really bothered me, because it showed I was "reading" the
> film in a much different way than they were. I was seeing a
> moment of real beauty, and some of the people in the audience
> saw it as a joke. Who was right, and does it matter? Probably
> not.

I think I know the scene you're talking about, and I laughed _near_ it.  Not
at it, near it.  It touched on the absurd, intentionally or unintentionally
(and if it's the one I'm thinking of, it's probably intentional), to show
the dislocation from reality necessary for Dunn to open his eyes to the
truth.  We couldn't POSSIBLY imagine ourselves in that situation, as it
continued to bend out of true, and yet everything smacked of the familiar.
As Mel Brooks said, "If it bends, it's comedy.  If it breaks, it's tragedy."
I don't think that there's anything wrong with getting a chuckle out of
it--unlike, say, in Braveheart, where audiences guffawed when the king
tossed his son's 'friend' out a window.



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