Norton who is unnamed narrator is an employee of a traveling company employee who was suffering from insomnia. He visits a doctor who refuses to offer him medication and instead visits a support group where he would witness more suffering. He attends a support group for victims suffering from testicular cancer and fools them that he is one of them. The emotional releases relieve the insomnia he had. He later becomes an addict of attending support groups and pretends to be a victim. However, he only played a victim. He met another impostor Bonham Carter (Marla Singer) disturbed him and this led to negotiations so that they would avoid meeting in a similar group (Fincher et al).
The narrator went for a business trip and found his apartment exploded. He therefore calls Pitt (Tyler Durden) who was selling soap and they met in a bar. Tyler invites the narrator to live with him and the narrator moves there permanently. While in the bar, the two engages in a fistfight after Tyler requested the narrator to hit him. On subsequent nights, they engage in fights and this attracts crowds.
On the other hand, Marla takes an overdose of pills and later calls upon the narrator but he ignores her. However, Tyler saves her. The two engage in sex and the narrator is warned by Tyler never to discuss about him with Marla. Project Mayhem arises under the leadership of Tyler after several fight clubs form all around the country. The narrator urges Tyler that he should engage him more but instead Tyler disappeared. In addition, the narrator made attempts to track him down just to realize the public was referring him to be Tyler and even Marla confused him to be Tyler. Later, the narrator found Tyler in his house and he explained that he has been controlling his life.
After the conversation, the narrator blacks out. After waking up, he discovers that Tyler had made calls through his phone. He discovers that Tyler was planning to erase debts by destroying credit company’s buildings. He tries to alert the police, but they are also part of the project. He goes to the building and tries to disarm the explosives but Tyler takes him to the top most floors. Tyler points a gun to the narrator and since they share his body, he realizes that he is also pointing the gun to Tyler. He shoots into his mouth and Tyler collapses and he has a wound at the back of the head. Later, Marla is brought to him by the members of Project Mayhem being kidnapped by Marla. The buildings are detonated as Marla and the narrator watches as they held hands (Fincher et al.).
I heart Huckabees
I heart Huckabees is a philosophical comedy film in America that was done in 2004. Its producer is David Russell who also directs the film. The same person wrote the screenplay alongside Jeff Baena (Russell et al.).
The play involves a young man by the name Schwartzman (Albert Markovski), who is the head of an environmental group at a local chapter by the name open spaces coalition. Their current project is an attempt to put to a halt the building of a store in the Huckabees. Albert acts as a rival of Law (Brad Stand), which is a shallow executive power at Huckabees. Brad charismatically removes Albert as the leader. Watts (Dawn Campbell) is the girlfriend to Brad and they live together. Her face appears inside all the commercial stores.
Albert contacted existential detectives when he saw conspicuous strangers three times. The detectives were Vivian Jaffe and Bernard (Tomlin and Hoffman). The detectives offered Albert their optimistic existentialism. They named it as Universal interconnectivity which was characterized with transcendentalists and romantic philosophies. The detectives decided to spy on him so that they would help in finding a solution for the coincidence. The detectives introduce Albert to Wahlberg (Tommy Corn) who is a firefighter and he is assigned to protect Albert.
Tommy is dissatisfied with Jaffes because he felt they were not helping him. He undermines the Jaffes and abandons them by introducing Albert to Huppert (Caterine Vauban), who was a former student to the Jaffes, and he uses an opposing philosophy referred to as absurdist. Caterine teaches them on how to disconnect their emotions from the occurrences on their daily lives. However, she adds people wish to keep feelings that trebled them forever. Caterine takes Albert with her in woods and they engage in sex in order to prove her point. They left Tommy behind and when he finds out, he got hurt. Caterine tells Tommy that through suffering and drama caused by humans they were able to find each other. However, Tommy fails to understand and leaves furious. On the other hand, Dawn rejects his world and tries to get a deeper meaning while Brad discovers that his rank on corporate ladder has no meaning because in his entire life, he purposed to please people.
Brad’s house gets on fire while he is stuck in traffic jam. However, Tommy arrives on his bicycle and tries to put off the fire that had trapped Dawn inside. Tommy and Dawn become lovers after he saves her life. On the other hand, Brad is despair after the destruction of his house which symbolized his success. He also loses his job from Huckabees, and this leaves him rudderless. Albert reveals that he caused the fire after he burnt the Jet Ski but the fire spread to the house. Albert and Brad understand their lives are similar and that the similarity is brought around by the suffering they undergo. Brad is referred to Caterine with hopes that she would be helping him. Later, Tommy and Albert hold talks of all the unfolding as Jaffes and Caterine watch.
Aspect of Buddhism in Both Films
At a lighter note, the Fight Club seems to be against the concepts of Buddhism. However, the film shows some major similarities with tenants of Zen Buddhism. The similarities include the eightfold path, Tri Kaya doctorine, four noble truths, nirvana, rebirth and the 3 characteristics of existence. This proves that the movie has a modern twist on Buddhism, which depicts both the impotence and importance of religion. Other issues are the fights against capitalism, acts of saving people from themselves, suffering in order to enlighten and creation of an equilibrium world are all characteristics of Buddhism (Sudershan and Naik 43).
On the other hand, following I heart with huckabees movie has trends of spiritual practices with connections with Buddhism in Vietnam. Primarily, Jaffe refers to it as the blanket thing. He also adds that people makes efforts to learn the truth in the blanket every single day. In addition, Russell admits that the movie has been influenced by Zen. He had encountered Buddhist philosophies while in college. He therefore made the character of Jaffe to similar to Thurman who was a Buddhist. The bizarreness scene captures the experiences of Buddhists meditation. The aim of Russell was to debunk his conception on meditation. Notably, the meditation of Buddhism was aimed at taming their mind. Through meditation, it is possible to turn attention and realize that the mind is always active. This was primarily the experience Albert earned when he climbed into a bag.
Works Cited
Fincher, David, Arnon Milchan, Jim Uhls, Art Linson, Ceán Chaffin, Ross G. Bell, Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, Carter H. Bonham, Loaf Meat, Jared Leto, Zach Grenier, Holt McCallany, Eion Bailey, Michael Kaplan, James Haygood, Alex McDowell, and Jeff Cronenweth. Fight Club. Beverly Hills, Calif: Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, 2002.
Russell, David O, Dustin Hoffman, Isabelle Huppert, Jude Law, Jason Schwartzman, Lily Tomlin, Peter Deming, and Jon Brion. I [heart] Huckabees. Los Angeles, CA: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, 2005.
Sudershan, Rao Y, and G B. Naik. Buddhism and Modern Society. New Delhi: Deep & Deep Publications, 2008. Print.
