Director Quentin Tarantino has identified M. Night Shyamalan's 2000 film Unbreakable as a standout masterpiece. Speaking to Sky Movies, the filmmaker included the superhero drama in a curated list of top cinema from the 1992–2009 period.
Tarantino's 20-film selection including Fight Club and The Matrix
The Sky Movies interview, conducted ahead of the 2009 release of Inglourious Basterds, featured a curated list of 20 films that Tarantino considered essential to the 17-year span between 1992 and 2009. As reported by Sky Movies, his selections spanned various genres, including Battle Royale, Fight Club, Shaun of the Dead, Lost in Translation, Speed, and The Matrix.
This list reflects a broad appreciation for influential filmmaking during a transformative era for cinema. by placing Unbreakable among these heavyweights, Tarantino elevates the film from a standard genre piece to a significant work of modern storytelling, despite the film's more subtle approach to its central premise.
The "buried" Superman mythology in Shyamalan's vision
Tarantino's praise for Unbreakable is paired with a specific critique regarding how the film handles its superhero elements. According to the report, the diretcor viewed the film as a brilliant retelling of Superman mythology, but argued that the concept was somewhat obscured during the viewing experience.
The director suggested that the film's approach actually did the story a disservice by not leading with its core mythological connection . He specifically highlighted Bruce Willis's performance as David Dunn, the indestructible survivor of a train wreck, as being magnificent and perhaps the best of Willis's career at that time. Tarantino believes the film's central hook—a man discovering his superhuman nature—was too deeply embedded in the narrative rather than being the driving force of the marketing and presentation.
Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson in the Eastrail 177 Trilogy
The characters introduced in Unbreakable serve as the foundation for what would become the Eastrail 177 Trilogy. The film features Bruce Willis as the superhuman David Dunn and Samuel L. Jackson as Elijah Price, a comic book enthusiast with brittle bone disease who acts as the hero's antithesis. This character dynamic eventually expanded into the 2017 film Split and the 2019 follow-up Glass.
While the trilogy eventually connected these disparate elements, Tarantino's focus remains on the strength of the original 2000 entry. the film's ability to blend a grounded reality with superhero tropes—culminating in a twist involving a fatal train crash—helped cement Shyamalan's reputation for narrative surprises following the success of The Sixth Sense.
The effectiveness of Tarantino's suggested Superman tagline
Tarantino proposed a specific tagline that he felt would have better served the film's identity: "what if Superman was here on Earth and did not know he was Superman." This suggestion raises questions about the original creative direction of the film's marketing. It remains unclear whether such an explicit connection would have helped audiences grasp the film's scope or if it would have stripped the movie of its unnique, deconstructive atmosphere.
Furthermore, the source provides only Tarantino's subjective perspective on the film's presentation. We are left without a response from M. Night Shyamalan or the original production team, leaving the intentionality behind the film's more subtle, "buried" approach unverified. Whether the film's success was aided or hindered by its understated mythology remains a point of debate among cinephiles.
Comments 0