UNBREAKABLE is a stirring film that just gets better with each viewing. The 4K is absolutely on point and the use of colors is amazing.
It really does take multiple viewings to appreciate the nuances on display in this and most of Shyamalan's work. And his love of Hitchcock shows in how finely crafted each edit and camera movement is.
One of the best things about M. Knight's camera placement is the idea of perspective and character point of view. Almost every shot in this film is of one character or another's viewpoint, or an omniscient overhead view, placed high up and looking down on the characters, sometimes drawing in closer at the height of emotional intensity. It's a rather subjective approach, and the visual storytelling is part of what drives the plot and character development.
Shyamalon is famously inspired by Hitchcock, and while the great masters are great simply because they were masters of their craft, each new generation, it follows, must also have their masters. It is arrogant, possibly, to say that one of the new generation may have outdone those of the old school, and while it may be pointed out that M. Knight has directed his share of stinkers, he has also crested the heights of filmmaking during his early creative period. But in this regard, Shyamalan may just have iutdone ol' Hitch: he manages to raise emotional and personal stakes, create tension, and tell a compelling, driven story, all without a MacGuffin.
(Those familiar with Hitchcock's theories of film will recall that a MacGuffin is an item or person - often ultimately meaningless - which drives the central character's quest and without which the integral series of events never would have occurred.)
Like Hitch, Shyamalan has been critically hounded and maligned, as each new film was set up to be the next THE SIXTH SENSE. But in being mired in the disappointment of what they wanted and did not get, audiences and critics alike have often overlooked the fact that each of his films - save for maybe THE LAST AIRBENDER and AFTER EARTH - achieved their artistic goals.
And in UNBREAKABLE we have what might just be M. Knight Shyamalan's mission statement for his artistic career. In an early scene we are introduced to Mr. Glass (played eloquently by Samuel L. Jackson) in an art gallery, about to make a sale of a nearly priceless piece of line art. This is a unique gallery, as the primary focus is vintage comic book aesthetic, dealing mostly in original, penciled line art.
The man buying the artwork reveals that his four-year-old son will love it. Glass immediately tells the buyer off and kicks him out of the gallery, his premise being that a mere child cannot appreciate the artistic merit and quality of the piece.
In a way, that seems to be Shayamalan's outlook throughout his career. He is not only inspired by Hitchcock, but by other, more pulpy forms of entertainment. UNBREAKABLE is, quite obviously, an ode and love letter to comic books. LADY IN THE WATER (although I've not seen it yet) appears to be a hybrid homage to noir and LA fantasies of several stripes. THE HAPPENING is meant (despite its naysayers) to evoke 50s-era Cold War thrillers and monster/disaster B-movies. And so on, and so forth.
So, with this scene, M. Knight Shyamalan seems to be saying that his films will not be meant for those that expect the typically-structured popcorn blockbuster, that most of what he will do is not for kids or "normies". He is creating art that makes a statment, even if it is not what you are prepared to see or hear, that he will create art that will last and be talked about for generations to come.
And perhaps that is Shyamalan's greatest triumph, that people discuss and review his films even still. To this day THE SIXTH SENSE, UNBREAKABLE, and SIGNS, his first three picures, are endlessly discussed, dissected, and debated. And the worst sin a film can commit is to be boring. M. Knight's films are anything but. I think ol' Hitch would be proud.
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