To what extent does 'Unbreakable' conform to the conventions of the superhero film genre?

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Claire Watkins        Media Coursework

To what extent does ‘Unbreakable’ conform to the conventions of the superhero film genre?

Superhero characters and stories first evolved in comic books, for example Superman in Action Comics in 1938. Some became television series’ in the 1940s and subsequently films, which more recently have made millions of dollars each in the Box Office and with merchandise. The superhero film genre has several typical conventions; every superhero has a nemesis, such as the Green Goblin for Spiderman. Most have costumes or motifs related to their character and the hero always has some special powers or abilities which make him or her “super”. Another common feature is the superhero’s weaknesses, often exploited by their enemy. Almost every superhero film involves a battle between good and evil, in which good triumphs and saves the day. The main character tends to have a secret identity; to the world they are one person, such as Clark Kent, but inside they are a superhero, like Superman. The superheroes always have strong morals and fight tirelessly against the forces of evil. Generally, they will try to save as many people as they can from the evil acts of their nemesis. When the film ‘Unbreakable’, starring Bruce Willis, was released in the year 2000, many of its critics described it as a superhero film. The purpose of this essay is to investigate to what degree the film conforms to the conventions described above.

In most superhero films, the main character has a particular enemy or nemesis. An example of this is Spiderman and the Green Goblin. The villain is often a friend or acquaintance of the hero, for instance Peter Parker and Norman Osborn. He is often also the opposite of the hero, such as Osborn is rich whilst Parker is from a poorer family.  He is also often shown out of proportion, with a particularly large head. They often have a particular name, such as the Green Goblin.

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In ‘Unbreakable’ the main villain is Elijah Price. Dunn and Price are friends at first, but at the end of the film, when they shake hands, Dunn discovers that Elijah caused the deaths of hundreds in order to find him. Price is the opposite of David Dunn in that his bones break at the merest touch, but contrastingly Dunn can survive a major train crash completely unscathed, without even a bruise or scratch. During childhood, Price was known as “Mr Glass” due to his fragile bones.

‘Unbreakable’ certainly conforms to this convention. All of the key features of it are ...

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