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

[Kevin Mowery]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Timothy Toner" <thanatos at interaccess.com>
To: <ua at lists.uchicago.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, November 28, 2000 12:24 AM
Subject: Re: [UA] Unbreakable (Non-Spoilers with mild Analysis)

> ----- 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.

    If you're thinking of the scene I'm thinking of (the kitchen scene), I
must admit, I chuckled.  Not a laugh at how funny everything was, but sort
of an "oh, man, this is clever--it's unexpected but it makes total sense!"
kind of chuckle.

> As Mel Brooks said, "If it bends, it's comedy.  If it breaks, it's
tragedy."

    What a lot of people don't realize is that it can also be comedy when it
breaks.

> 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.

    I'll even forgive that--heck, I might've done it the first time I saw
it, mostly out of recognition of what was coming than because it was really
funny.  OTOH, people who laughed during certain scenes in "Saving Private
Ryan," the stabbing for example, frighten me.

>
>
>
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Kevin Mowery_____________profbobo at io.com
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