Buddhism: I [heart] Huckabees

Hey folks. I’ve volunteered to give a talk on the Buddhist Philosophy in “I [heart] Huckabees” for our Philosophy Society in the near future. I found the following online:

“Anyone who has been regularly following trends in spiritual books knows of the widespread interest in Buddhism. Call this movie Buddhism 101. Screenplay writers Russell and Jeff Baena have done a bang-up job exploring the spiritual practice of connections or what Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh calls “interbeing” — everything is in everything else. Bernard Jaffe calls this the ‘blanket thing,’ and says, ‘We need to learn how to see the blanket truth in everyday life.'” (from here)

I was hoping to find more, but haven’t stumbled across anything else of substance. I see several mentions of it in other reviews, but nothing in depth (and most reviews I find are misleading, “…Zen’s essence is that everyone is self-taught.” – from here, or mean-spirited and dismissive, “David O. Russell’s new film…. is an essentially airheaded look at the struggle between the need to earn a living and the search for meaning.” – from here)

Oh well. It is like one of those that you either love or hate, depending on what you’re looking for. I was looking for the cinematic illustration of alternative world-views, and I was very pleased with what I found. But it’s been a while since I’ve seen it, so I won’t say much more now. My friend Ali, an Iranian-Existentialist/Nietzschean, and I will watch the film Friday and prepare our talks (his on the Existentialism of the film, mine on the Buddhism) shortly thereafter.

(*update: thank goodness for the BBC. Here we get a solid tie to the ever-wacky professor and potential future teacher or mine: Robert Thurman of Columbia University.)

In the meantime, if you know of any lovely reviews of the movie or articles which weave the points of the film with relevant Buddhist material, please let me know. Thanks. 🙂