We loved Glass. You could say it shattered our expectations of what a comic-centric film could be. And, without spoiling it, that M. Night Shyamalan twist cut us deep in the third act, too. We left our local cinema a little fragile – like we’d contracted the emotional equivalent of Type I Osteogenesis Imperfecta. Only the best films can affect us like this.
Even better, now that it’s becoming available to own, this Glass is much more than half-full with fan-service extras. Carefully scoop Glass up on 4K Ultra HD or Blu-ray and you’ll be in for more than an hour (!!) of behind-the-scenes bonus materials. You’ll be unleashing The Beast of binge-watches, essentially.
In this raft of side content are in-depth looks at the making of the film, deep insights on the characters, not to mention alternate and deleted scenes (the stylish alt-opening is worth the price of entry alone). What interests us personally, however, are the insights offered on the painstaking prep-work and directorial process. One could say that at present fans are looking through a Glass, darkly. Only by peering into the exclusive extras does Shyamalan does his artistic vision become crystal clear…
A Dunn Deal
Before we dive into all that, let’s get a brief overview out of the way first. Glass effectively weaves together the narratives of two stand-out originals—Unbreakable and Split—into an impressive comic-book thriller. We happily paid for a seat to see it. Turns out we only needed the edge of said chair.
This is the tale of stoic superhero David Dunn (Bruce Willis) who’s hot on the trail of Kevin Wendell Crumb’s superhuman figure of The Beast (James McAvoy). For the uninitiated among you: the latter has multiple personalities, animalistic skills and an appetite that’d put Hannibal Lecter off his liver pâté.
These two heavyweights are unwittingly being groomed by one Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson)—known also by his pseudonym, Mr. Glass—an orchestrator who holds secrets critical to both men, in this riveting culmination of Shyamalan’s worldwide blockbusters.
Meeting of the Multiple Minds
Now that we’re up to speed, welcome to spoiler territory as we provide a tiny glimpse into a featurette that’s (arguably) the most exciting inclusion in the extras – A Conversation with James McAvoy and M. Night.
“Split was distinctly a thriller, but I think Glass is a mixture of two genres,” says Shyamalan when he’s pressed to define his work. “It’s the comic book genre, with its archetypes and expectations, and the thriller genre which is a pressure cooker of the mystery that’s growing, with the answers that come at the end.”
From a cursory glance, a newcomer could mistake Glass for being familiar territory, in a genre that dominates the cinescape at the moment. That said, what we have is a breath of fresh air on the comic book ethos – what Shyamalan calls “a tonal fresh take”. You’d best believe that the serpentine plot of Glass and the motivations of its major players are anything but transparent.
“We’re making an ‘A’ drama,” Shyamalan insists. “The grounded nature of Glass is really fresh, and the level of [McAvoy’s] performance is extraordinary. One of the things I intended for is an original tone for the film. And why that’s so important is, with a movie you have no idea where it’s going and it’s so singular in its structure and in what it’s saying, on Monday morning at the water-cooler at work it’s hard to say, “I don’t like those types of movies.” Because there isn’t any like Glass.”
We couldn’t agree more. Since day dot it’s been obvious that this talented director has tried to make his films, Glass especially, as unique as possible. To ride that line of originality. Interestingly, he admits that it can make his works a difficult sell to studios, though. Different is scary, but Shyamalan makes the case that this is Glass’ most potent weapon against every other movie in this bloated world of comic books.
A Cracking Good Tale
It’s just as McAvoy suggests later on: with a lot of superhero movies out there at the moment, the audience is asking the studio and the filmmakers to show them something they’ve not seen before – to delight and surprise. The challenge is to achieve this in more clever ways. Constantly trying to manifest that pay-off through bigger explosions and more complex CGI wizardry just isn’t Shyamalan’s way. Rather than responding to an audience ask, Glass asks the viewer to come along for a ride that they’re otherwise not used to strapping in for.
“The crash and the bang [with your films] happens with the character’s emotional states,” points out McAvoy. “There are summits to get to that are hard to reach, but if you do get to them it can be thrilling for the audience.”
McAvoy knows his craft back to front, and we think he hits the nail on the head with his summary. It’d be a sin for us to spoil much more of the extensive Glass extras, but we will say it’s absolutely fascinating to hear the next section of their pow-wow. Visionary creator and world-class artist explore the challenges of rendering an antagonist suffering from dissociative identity disorder (DID).
The basic gist: McAvoy mentions how he upped his “personality count” by nine or so characters. That’s got to be a Mount Everest for even the most talented thespian.
Thankfully, we’re of one mind over here at Fandom, and that’s that Glass has been elevated by this bountiful cache of extras. It’s confidently gone from must-watch to must-own in our opinion. Make no mistake; the take-home version of Glass is all it’s cracked up to be and more.
M. Night Shyamalan’s explosive comic book thriller Glass is new to buy on 4K Ultra HD™, Blu-ray™, DVD and Digital. Bring it home today.
