Huckabees - Great Movie

TheHand

Hello,
New member here... thought I'd post something to start out and maybe generate something. I recently saw the movie "I Huckabees", with Liliy Tomlin, Mark Wallberg, Dustin Hoffman and Jude Law. What a great funny movie that hits home on some very interesting stuff. The director, David O. Russell even mentioned his interest in Buddhism from some extras I watched on the DVD. I believed it was well crafted and very funny... and was a fascinating look at modern man's search for truth and meaning!

Just right off the get go... the movie had Dustin Hoffman protraying this "existential detective" who helps his clients find meaning in there lives in an effort to resolve the spiritual crisis that they are faced with. He had this new client named Adam, in which Hoffman explained what universal life entailed by way of a blanket which represented all matter and energy in the universe... everything. With his hands under the blanket he brought his hand up and said "here ya have you" followed by the other hand "here ya have me"... and so on... "and here ya have a hamburger". What was great was that the client immediately got it... he said "sure sure", "EVERYTHING IS THE SAME, EVEN IF IT"S DIFFERENT".

Very True... the underlying life that we essentially are is beyond the myriad of forms, we can label things to death but this is not "insert name" in any kind of total sense. We can speak only in terms of pointers, and only in terms of the past... never fully summing up ourselves in any true sense. WHY??? As Eckart Tolle, and the like of J Krishanmurti stated, we are the "presence" or "awareness" that is working thru this or that form!

The movie was just hilarious... I highly recommend it... I could go on and on on this one...

Curious if anyone else can give me a movie PICK that would equal this. Any comments or observations would be interesting also.

Sincerely,
TheHAND

Malacosteus

I too very much enjoyed I Heart Huckabees, everything about it; it could have been a disaster of a movie but it handled itself extremely well and I will second your recommendation. As far as other movies to recommend, I'm not sure what you are looking for: movies like I Heart Huckabees that revolve around Buddhist themes while remaining watchable to unbeknownst viewers, or movies that are strictly about Buddhism. If the latter is the case, then obvious recommendations would be Seven Years In Tibet and Kundun, both quality films (though to me Seven Years In Tibet is a bit more openly emotional and awe-inspiring, while Kundun prides itself in being artsy). If you are looking for movies fitting the first description, I can't think of any off the top of my head except The Glimmer Man, with Steven Seagal, about a duo of cops trying to solve various murders (cliche cliche CLICHE). The reason I mention it is because a.) Steven Seagal has claimed himself as a Buddhist before and b.) his character is highly spiritual, most likely Buddhist, and his mannerisms are reflected as such. The film is cheesy, the script is mediocre and the acting is pretty bad; the only reason I mentioned it is because it does hold some Buddhist meaning. Otherwise, I can't think of any. Sorry if this didn't help at all :P

TheHand

Yea... I didn't mind "Seven years in Tibet"!

This one sounds good...
http://www.whatthebleep.com/faq/
Not sure... I just like movies that make you think or reinforce what is positive in ones life... maybe my ego going on there...

Other than that... yes, I'll have to check out the Steven Seagal thing perhaps... I never knew that about him!

Thanks for the response

TheHand