Explaining Being John Malkovich (1999)

A video essay attempting to explain the themes of the 1999 film, Being John Malkovich. Directed by Spike Jonze and written by Charlie Kaufman
#videoessay #cinema #cinemaexperience #explained #johnmalkovich #1999 #explainedmovie #endingexplained #thesis #essay #analysis #academic #neuroscience #vr #celebrity #moviestar #movie #movies #moviereview #movieexplained #movieexplain #virtualreality #socialmedia #socialmediavideo #instagram #instagramlive

[@ctrlaltdestroy8821]

The part where you said watching movies affects our minds: I saw Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas in the theater when it came out. When I walked out of the movie I felt like I was tripping balls for a good half hour. It was the strangest experience I’ve ever had while sober

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@@ctrlaltdestroy8821 Fear and Loathing is DEFINITELY one of those movies that, especially in a theater, can seriously affect your mind. Many trippy movies can totally leave your brain feeling a little disoriented after a viewing.

[@meme.interzone]

This is a seriously unhinged film

[@markdaly1648]

Brilliant, bonkers, unique

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Bonkers is indeed the correct phrase

[@MrKurtBarlow]

I always felt that would be the ultimate end goal of entertainment. Full immersion. Sight smell taste touch. Imagine being in any pov of any character from any movie tv media etc.

[@voradorhylden3410]

Go watch brainstorm

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The absurd levels of POV cinema (if we can even call it "cinema" when it's a complete sensory immersion) that will one day exist will be insane.

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@@voradorhylden3410 Agreed, Brainstorm is a great movie for the concept, too.

[@justinweber4977]

Every so often I remember this movie, that I never actually watched, exists and look into clips. Neat to see something so recent being made to give a look at it!

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It's still a American cinema classic, and helped push forward the careers of both Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman

[@siggybuttbrain7026]

@@mediatransmission who knows if this didnt happen we would have never gotten Jackass presents: Bad Grandpa, god i dont wanna live in that world.

[@linamoss292]

Absolutely CRACKED film. Thanks Jonze and Kaufman.

[@sebswede9005]

The movies of 1999(not in order). The Matrix. Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace. Being John Malkovich. Toy Story 2. The Haunting. The Mummy. Scream 3. The Blair Witch Project. Eyes Wide Shut. American Pie. American Beauty.

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@@sebswede9005 They had to crank out a bunch of masterpieces and ground breaking movies just before Y2K (just in case)

[@ReturnOfTheJ.D.]

What they're saying is that there's portals into our own minds, inhabited or occupied by forces that have nothing to do with us, but which we identify with as ourselves. You could call it ego, and those egos always create attachments, and they create suffering when the attachment doesn't bring the expected result. Without the prime driver of the ego, none of that happens though - so when Malkovich becomes occupied by a puppeteer, he turns into a puppeteer and stops acting, showing that he was a mere puppet of something all along - to give up such an illustrious career for something totally different at over 45 years old.

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This is a fascinating take on the film! Thank you for your comment!

[@ReturnOfTheJ.D.]

@@mediatransmission Satori, or a glimpse into Enlightenment, is really just the burden of ego removed from the mind. It's what the mind is in its pure state. This movie demonstrates the thing that plagues the mind, distorts it, and creates a Pandora's Box of problems - the Seven Deadly Sins and its myraid of variants. We think we can't live without this thing behind all of that, but true life is the thing behind the thing that's behind our problems (which we think are just the way life is). The attraction of drugs is that they move the mind in directions that approximate egolessness, but in the same way that raping someone approximates normal sexual intercourse with consent - it's a forced phenomenon, not a natural one.

[@CliffBronson1212]

Brilliant vision by writer/director 😊

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@@CliffBronson1212 Written by Kaufman and directed by Jonze. Match made in heaven for cinema

[@jesseespinosa9440]

I commend you for the amount of work you put into this. Please do more. thx.

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Wow, thank you. Very much appreciated. More in on the way.

[@Smashy360]

Watched it last night for the first time, and didn't realize how deep it was intended. Feel like it grossly fell short of a tacit meaning. I suppose this explanation is sufficient, but I still feel like it was more random than it should have been, and I'm not motivated to look much deeper.

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@@Smashy360 That's a fair take. I'd be curious to see what your readings of other Charlie Kaufman movies would be like.

[@HighStrangeDrifter]

Great take. I miss more insightful musings like this as opposed to, “nothing happened, or I didn’t get it”…

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Thank you! You have a killer username by the way!

[@HighStrangeDrifter]

@@mediatransmission Thx. I got lucky.

[@TeamBOBBYEE]

In his GQ interview he said they gave him the script with his name already attached I just have a fucking hard time believing that they produced the screenplay without ever contacting the actor John malkovich I was a kid at the time was JM super relevant at the time or ? So random of an actor

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The obscure choice for casting, I think, adds to the bizarre nature of the film, and also the nature of fame and acting, and how these elements connect to audiences.

[@terrymoss2183]

Damn people roasting you in the comments lol over a decent video essay no less

[@brankelly1921]

I don't understand JACK

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Join the club 😵

[@nuclearthreat545]

Wtf

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@@nuclearthreat545 my reaction as well.

[@ograndemito]

Need more Wikipedia facts there, .brother. Forgot about fight club

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Dang, I can't even cite other films that came out in 1999 without randos claiming I'm using "Wikipedia facts" 😔 KZbin is not a kind place

[@rckli]

“ChatGPT, write me a generic script on a movie from the 90s” I hope ai forces people to be better writers

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You've heard my thesis on Being John Malkovich before? I never used any AI to write this essay.

[@rckli]

@@mediatransmission i didn’t write “you used chatgpt” 🙃 I find content as generic as the stuff chatgpt would come up with

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@@rckli Oof. Okay, thanks for the constructive feedback. A lot to work with, there.

[@LinwoodBlackmore]

@@mediatransmissionI didn’t think it was generic. I liked it.

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@@LinwoodBlackmore thank you, much appreciated 😊

[@imme8104]

Boring movie

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@@imme8104 A fair opinion. I definitely didn't think so, but I could see people feeling like it's boring or slow