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

[Chad Underkoffler]

> Date: Tue, 28 Nov 2000 00:40:13 -0500

PLEASE NOTE: We've switched to semi-spoilers.

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

TT> I think I know the scene you're talking about, and I laughed

TT> _near_ it. Not at it, near it.  It touched on the absurd, 
TT> intentionally or unintentionally (and if it's the one I'm 
TT> thinking of, it's probably intentional), to show the 
TT> dislocation from reality necessary for Dunn to open his
TT> eyes to the truth.  We couldn't POSSIBLY imagine ourselves
TT> in that situation, as it continued to bend out of true, and 
TT> yet everything smacked of the familiar.

Ummm. No. I don't think we're thinking of the same thing. I
think you're thinking of the (I lied) scene, where we get to see
two ordinary people react to something really weird... and
wonderful.

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

Closer. I'm not thinking of the earlier kitchen scene, but the
(french toast/newspaper) scene, near the end.

TT> I don't think that there's anything wrong with getting a 
TT> chuckle out of it--unlike, say, in Braveheart, where 
TT> audiences guffawed when the king tossed his son's 'friend' 
TT> out a window.

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

KM> for example, frighten me.

I'm not sure. The son's reaction/facial expression in the french
toast/newspaper scene does not seem to call for a deep
belly-laugh, which is what it elicited in my audience. 

Now, back to UA-- I think I'd like to run my next UA campaign
like this... a slow movement into the weird. (I ran a GURPS
campaign a bit like this movie; I think UA would rock for the
same theme.) 

This movie showed me more about what Greg & John were getting at
in the core book about the Occult Underground (well, fuse 8MM,
PULP FICTION, IT, and UNBREAKABLE, and that's how I think I see
the OU now).  However, UNBREAKABLE was unsatisfying because I
wanted *more* of the weirdness. This is my issue with the
relative sparse nature of "real magick" in the canon OU. I just
want more-- bigger, faster, louder, now.



=====
Chad Underkoffler [chadu at yahoo.com]
http://www.geocities.com/chadu/index.html
"Hold your breath. Make a wish. Count to three."
  -- Willy Wonka

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Shopping - Thousands of Stores. Millions of Products.
http://shopping.yahoo.com/

_______________________________________________
UA mailing list
UA at lists.uchicago.edu
http://lists.uchicago.edu/mailman/listinfo/ua