Compare BJM & FC

In the movies Becoming John Malkovich and Fight Club, the ideas of Plato, Augustine, and Rousseau are shown vividly throughout.

In Becoming John Malkovich, people’s spirits or minds can take over another person or “vessel.” Dr. Lester uses this process to become a puppeteer of someone younger than him so that he can live forever. In the movie this person is John Malkovich, who becomes the puppet, actually be a puppeteer while being a puppet at one point. This movie connects to Plato by suggesting that people are themselves the chains that hold them back, otherwise their souls, or minds, would be free. Also the concept behind allegorical existence can be applied. The thing or person that someone is looking at may not actually be that person.

Augustine believed that humans brought sin into the world by committing what he called the “original sin”. Aside from Lester, people begin taking over Malkovich for sexual pleasure. This leads both Craig and Lotte to cheat on each other and basically submit Malkovich to a sick version of torture by forcing him to live his life without his intervention.

Rousseau said that man needed freedom and escape from the needs of society. Dr. Lester simply refuses to follow the idea of death or societies concept of time. People would be very uncomfortable with the idea of someone defying death since the history of time. Ironically, by freeing himself from the perceived necessity of death, he takes Malkovich’s freedom in order to secure his own. Rousseau would find no problem with this as he believed that the human concept of ownership had no place in nature.

Second up for dissection is Fight Club. Fight Club follows Plato’s idea of the realm of forms by offering two different versions of the main character, or Jack. Plato believed that the idea of something was more powerful than the picture or image of the same object. So Jack exists, but Tyler is only an idea. This is what gives Tyler his great power over Jack’s body. He exists only on a mental level and can filter out any unwanted feelings or needs, such as sleep. While Jack must sleep, Tyler can do as he pleases.

As mentioned before, Augustine believed that humans were born sinful because of Adam & Eve’s past actions; that something bad was in present in humans at all time. Tyler is a personality manifestation of this very idea. Everything Jack liked about his life, everything he loved, Tyler rejected and destroyed.

Addressing Rousseau, he believed that people are inherently good, but that society ruins us. He states that we are defined by the things we seek in life. Jack looked for nothing but material things. Constantly ordering nick-knacks and furniture, he ekes out a sorry existence. Tyler is, obliviously, his polar opposite. He rejects material things and leads people instead of following. The concept of ownership ruined mankind in the eyes of Rousseau. It probably ruined Jack.

The one thing I have failed to mention before is also the most important. All three philosophers believed in thinking logically or subscribed to a philosophical form of thinking. Both movie producers seemed to be critically thinking about how someone would logically respond, or what would logically happen if the movie were real. Camila mentioned how in John Malkovich everything seemed to make sense and the dialog in Fight Club gives subtle hints as to what is really going on. For example, when Jack is beating himself up in his boss’s office, he says that it “reminds him of when he and Tyler fight”. These two movies are closely tied to the philosophical workings of Plato, Augustine, and Rousseau

----------------
Listening to: mc chris - Fett's Vett
via FoxyTunes