John Malkovich

In the film Being John Malkovich, there are many connections that can be drawn between the character of John Malkovich himself, and concepts in communication studies. One such connection is how Malkovich’s character relates to the abandonment of notions like high and low culture that we see in the concept of postmodernism. Postmodernism is the reaction to modernism, the idea that there is a spectrum of cultural experiences (some are only accessible to higher classes than others) and moving past this point is the goal of postmodernism. Postmodernism would like to question the value of what we may have previously considered to be high art, and this directly relates to Malkovich’s character. John Malkovich is someone with certain high art connotations, a …show more content…
The film challenges this idea through Malkovich, it shows towards the end a reflection on how Malkovich changed his entire career, and soon became accepted in the community. This upheaval and revolt inside a massive industry lead by one person is both acceptance and rejection of postmodernism. It is an acceptance in the way that it shows how high and low art are meaningless if they can be completely flipped in the course of one year by a single person. It also rejects postmodernism because regardless of the perception of Malkovich, he still can do something because of his societal standing which Craig could not. Craig stood on the corner of a street attempting to make his art understood and yet his mind inside someone else’s body could do things that he normally never could. Postmodernism is about giving voice to the powerless, those on the margins, and this film simply confirms the idea that they have no voice, regardless of their ideas and abilities. Rather, they need power if they ever hope to change