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The Identity Crisis of Being John Malkovich

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The Identity Crisis of Being John Malkovich G o n z a l e s | 1 Paulo Gonzales Jesse Hunter Film Theory & Criticism 05 December 2013 The Identity Crisis of Being John Malkovich Near the beginning of the film Being John Malkovich, Craig Schwartz (John Cusack) confesses to his pet monkey Elijah that: “Consciousness is a terrible curse. I think. I feel. I suffer” (Jonze & Kaufman 4:05). When looking at the work of American screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, this one line of dialogue reverberates unto the other films he was worked on as well, from looking at the memories and subconscious of Joel Barish (Jim Carrey) in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind to a reflective work on the creative process he himself goes through in Adaptation; the theme of identity and consciousness is a prominent theme in his work. The term “postmodern film” tends to usually encompass the storytelling devices of a certain film such as parody, pastiche, irony, metanarrative or genre-mixing, being more of a reflection on the medium of film like Annie Hall or Pulp Fiction. Kaufman seems to really understand how to do this effectively in his work, having used a metanarrative of Charlie Kaufman writing a script about Charlie Kaufman writing a script in Adaptation. Not to mention the creative choice of framing this whole story around John Malkovich (He was in that jewel thief movie). Yet Kaufman manages to make postmodern films that are also thematically postmodern as well, with Being John Malkovich containing themes such as gender or consciousness that can be tied back to Judith Butler or Michel Foucault, respectively. This paper serves to highlight those particular themes as well as how Kaufman uses postmodern elements to allude to these themes. The premise of Being John Malkovich is very bizarre and unusual, with Spike Jonze (the director) and Charlie Kaufman asking the viewer to pretty much go along with its very confusing G o n z a l e s | 2 plot. The story revolves around Craig Schwartz, an unemployed puppeteer who finds himself working as a file clerk on the 7 ½ floor of an office building. He stumbles onto a tunnel that leads into the brain of the title’s namesake, anybody who crawls through this portal can see through John Malkovich’s eyes for fifteen minutes or so, before being ejected back into the real world. This discovery unearths what Craig refers to as a “metaphysical can of worms” (Jonze & Kaufman 32:32). Eventually, other people start finding out about it, including his attractive coworker Maxine (Catherine Keener) and his wife Lotte (Cameron Diaz). Lotte’s experience with the Malkovich vessel exhibits a change within her, a change that convinces her that she is a transsexual, and that sexual reassignment would be the best direction for her to take. She points out that it felt right to her. These specific plot developments tie back to Judith Butler’s theories on gender roles and their performative nature. Butler theorized that people “perform gender” every day, by what we choose to do or choose not to do. Lotte gets the chance to experience and test out this theory on a more visceral level by pursuing Maxine as Malkovich. The male gaze is a common topic that comes up among feminists, with the man objectifying women. Yet in this scenario, a female gaze takes over and accompanies the male gaze. As Lotte continues being John Malkovich, she starts to fall in love/lust with Maxine. She looks at her in a different manner than she could not have without the phallic middleman to give her this lens. In fact, the vessel of John Malkovich is used for a variety of reasons in the film. For Lotte, it is a chance to fulfill her sexual desires. For Schwartz, he has the chance to play around with the ultimate puppet, as well as fulfill his dream of becoming a celebrated puppeteer. And for Lester, this is how he continues to stay immortal. Anyone can enter John Malkovich, and they can all find separate ways to operate Malkovich to their own ends, not just for the main G o n z a l e s | 3 characters listed earlier, there were hundreds of clients that entered the portal and came out changed people. This brings to mind what Foucault said about the Panopticon and about how “it does not matter who exercises power. Any individual, taken almost at random, can operate the machine” (Foucault). However in the film, it becomes clear that Schwartz, with the exception of Lester, is the only one who can truly use John Malkovich freely. This type of control is when the Panopticon theory starts to mirror the Malkovich vessel. Kaufman points out that unlike the others who became passive observers when entering and being John Malkovich, Schwartz “has the experience of using Malkovich. He uses him to be with Maxine, and then he uses Malkovich’s own notoriety to get his own career going” (Shaw 5). Foucault likens the Panopticon to a laboratory, which serves as an interesting contrast for Schwartz’s use of Malkovich. They are both used to alter perceptions and behaviours of the people around it. The film takes this postmodern look on perception even further with its use of metanarrative and parody of celebrity culture. The obvious choice to look at is that character of John Malkovich, a fictionalised version that may or may not bear any resemblance to the actual Malkovich. By including a "real person” in a movie universe, the film gets to portray a parody of the notorious John Malkovich despite the fact that no one in the film being able to identify any other film he was featured in. And though Kaufman could have picked anyone for this role, Malkovich was the right choice due to being famous enough to be a familiar name, and obscure enough to not really know that much about him. Additionally, though Cameron Diaz is not playing “Cameron Diaz,” the film “also presents a parodic play in terms of the relationships between fictional characters and the cultural texts that surround these actors in real life” (Holmbach 36). Diaz, at the time mainly known for playing super gorgeous women in films such as The Mask or There’s Something About Mary, pretty much played the opposite of those roles in G o n z a l e s | 4 this film. Looking frumpy, and vaguely unattractive, she was no longer the object of desire in this film. Not to mention the casting of John Cusack playing the anti-Lloyd Dobler in Say Anything… or Charlie Sheen playing “Charlie Sheen,” the film gives audiences a different look at the celebrities they seem to be familiar with, “subverting the cultural texts of real actors within a fictional environment” (Holmbach 37). In conclusion, Charlie Kaufman’s first acclaim to fame with Being John Malkovich is a brilliant postmodern film, both in its aesthetics, and in its themes. While still crafting an entertaining plot, Kaufman managed to write a story that delved into what it means to be anything at all, by looking at what we would rather be, how we see others, and how they see us. And while the man went on to further his ambition of where he wanted to go in storytelling, he sure topped himself with profound scene of when John Malkovich enters his own portal and Malkovich Malkovich Malkovich Malkovich Malkovich. G o n z a l e s | 5 Works Cited: 1. Shaw, Daniel. "On Being Philosophical And Being John Malkovich." Journal Of Aesthetics & Art Criticism 64.1 (2006): 111-118. Academic Search Premier. Web. 5 Nov. 2013. 2. Holmbach, Jesper. (2006). A Metaphysical Can of Worms: A Poetics of Postmodernism in the Works of Charlie Kaufman. Thesis. Aalborg University. Denmark. 3. Baron, Cynthia. "Buying John Malkovich: Queering And Consuming Millennial Masculinity." Velvet Light Trap: A Critical Journal Of Film & Television 49 (2002): 18. Academic Search Premier. Web. 5 Nov. 2013. 4. Foucault, Michel. “Discipline and Punish, Panopticism.” Foucault.info. Web. < http://foucault.info/documents/disciplineandpunish/foucault.disciplineandpunish.panoptic ism.html> 5. Welch, Royce. “Philosophical Review of Being John Malkovich.” Tru.ca. Web < http://www.tru.ca/cpj/royce_stermpaper.html> 6. Dragonoiu, Dana. “Psychoanalysis, film theory, and the case of Being John Malkovich.” Kristinscott.net. Web < http://kristinscott.net/psycho.html> 7. Being John Malkovich. Dir. Spike Jonze. Writ. Charlie Kaufman. Perf. John Cusack, Cameron Diaz, Catherine Keener, Orson Bean, John Malkovich. Focus Features, 1999, DVD. 8. Adaptation. Dir. Spike Jonze. Writ. Charlie Kaufman. Perf. Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep, Chris Cooper, Cara Seymour, Brian Cox. Columbia Pictures, 2002, DVD. G o n z a l e s | 6 9. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Dir. Michel Gondry. Writ. Charlie Kaufman. Perf. Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Kirsten Dunst, Mark Ruffalo, Tom Wilkinson. Focus Features, 2004, Blu-Ray. 10. Annie Hall. Dir. Woody Allen. Perf. Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Tony Roberts, Christopher Walken, Carol Kane. United Artists, 1977, DVD. 11. Pulp Fiction. Dir. Quentin Tarantino. Perf. John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman, Bruce Willis, Tim Roth. Miramax Films, 1994, Blu-Ray. 12. The Mask. Dir. Chuck Russell. Perf. Jim Carrey, Cameron Diaz, Richard Jeni, Peter Riegert, Peter Greene. New Line Cinema, 1994, DVD. 13. There’s Something About Mary. Dir. Peter Farrelly & Robert Farrelly. Perf. Ben Stiller, Cameron Diaz, Matt Dillon, Chris Elliot, Lee Evans. 2oth Century Fox, 1998, DVD. 14. Say Anything… Dir. Cameron Crowe. Perf. John Cusack, Ione Skye, John Mahoney, Lili Taylor, Polly Platt. Gracie Films, 1989, DVD. .
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