Post by abraxas on Dec 27, 2009 13:47:42 GMT -5
The following review of Unbreakable is less technical and is mostly based on my own interpretations of the film, these opinions were developed over many repeat viewing of the film in connection with my familiarity with basic Gnostic concepts.
Unbreakable deals with archetypes of a particular nature, in this case the archetype of the superhero, and by extension of the super villain. It concerns a man by the name of David Dunn, an unconventional hero figure, who is in many respects an antihero, but only in the context of his minor character flaws, not as the result of an overtly malicious nature. Upon first seeing him we are made aware of his marital status, and yet when the beautiful women comes to sit down beside him in the trail car, he removes his ring and begins to hit on the women. It isn't until a little later that we realize that he and his wife are experiencing complications in their marriage, and when she and his son come to pick him up at the hospital the full extend of these problems is shown.
"An archetype is an original model of a person, ideal example, or a prototype. Archetypes are likewise supposed to have been present in folklore and literature for thousands of years, including prehistoric artwork. Archetypes are cited as important to both ancient mythology and modern narratives"
The film ultimately deals with the comic book-hero archetype, which is significant in that hero's, particularly in Greek mythology were originally based on various demigods (the Sumerian king Gilgamesh, Jesus and the Greek hero Heracles are good examples), a mythological character viewed as being partly human and partly divine. It is here that we can see the beginnings of what in our culture became the superhero.
"Gnosticism has influenced C. G. Jung's analytical psychology, Han Jonas's and Thomas J. J. Altizer's existentialism, and Eric Voegelin's new science of politics. All these thinkers identify Gnosticism with a particular mindset of displacement, alienation, and recognition of one's unique place in the universe."
David Dunn's true abilities are unknown to him, his time is largely taken up by his feelings of uncertainty concerning his place in life, the meaning and cause of his confusion. As with many people in the world David is overwhelmed by certain nagging feelings, he is beginning to question everything around him. He conveys this to his wife one night while having drinks at a restaurant bar, she asks him if he regrets his life with her and their son. David tells her that its not that he regrets his present life, but he does feel that something is definitely wrong with him. When asked to elaborate on this he explains to his wife that he doesn't feel right, almost as if he wasn't doing what he was meant to be doing.
"The Eastern idea of Karma was regarded by Gnostic's as an adequate explanation of creation’s imperfection and suffering. But Karma at best can only explain how the chain of suffering and imperfection works. It does not inform us in the first place why such a sorrowful and malign system should exist."
"Carl Jung 'explicitly identified depth psychology, as heir to the apostolic tradition, especially in what he considered its superior handling of the problem of evil' Jung claimed that 'In the ancient world, the Gnostics, whose arguments were very much influenced by psychic experience, tackled the problem of evil on a broader basis than the Church Fathers." Dr. Satinover notes that 'Whatever the system, and however the different stages are purportedly marked, the ultimate aim, the innermost circle of all Gnostic systems, is a mystical vision of the union of good and evil.'"
What the movie ultimately deals with is the question regrading the purpose and reason for the existence of pain and suffering, and the relation between the opposites, in short it tells us, as does Gnosticism, that the opposites exist because they have to exist. Our very existence rests upon the interactions of opposition, or as many have often remarked..."They can be no good without evil, just as there can be no evil without good."
The importance of the opposites lay in the characterizations of the hero and the villain, there relation to and dependence upon each other. David Dunn is nearly impervious to pain and injury, while Elijah is extremely susceptible to injury, it is assumed that the title of the film "Unbreakable" is a reference to the hero character, when in fact it can just as easily be applied to the villain. This is reveled by a conversation that David has with Elijah's aging mother, she claims to be very proud of her child, though it is not known whether or not she is aware of her sons actions. Elijah has gone through a lot in his life and yet he had never given up, so in many respects Elijah is also unbreakable. It is also significant that David and Elijah wind up becoming friends, reafirming the relation and dependence of one opposite upon another.
Both David Dunn and Elijah are searching for the meaning and purpose of their existence, to figure out the reasons for the extreme natures that they each embody. In the end they both depend upon one another to discover these answers, a task which can only be accomplished by realizing their connection to each other.
"Human nature mirrors the duality found in the world: in part it was made by the false creator God and in part it consists of the light of the True God. The recognition of this dual nature of the world and of the human being has earned the Gnostic tradition the epithet of “dualist”. -A Brief Summary of Gnosticism by Stephan A. Hoeller (Tau Stephanus, Gnostic Bishop)
