Hung Nguyen Essays - Philosophy, Metaphysics, Existentialists

Hung Nguyen ENGL 20803 Dr. Lacefield Unit 4 The Curious Case of Benjamin Button The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, based on the 1922 short story of the same name by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is an American fantasy film directed by David Fincher in 2008. In the movie, Benjamin Button, played by Brad Pitt, is a man who was born as an elderly man but gets younger throughout time. His story is narrated in a New Orleans hospital, where his love interest throughout his life, Daisy Fuller, played by Cate Blanchett, is living her last moment. Infant Benjamin with a terrifying appearance was left by his father outside of a nursing home, where he was adopted by Ms. Queenie. From there, he grew up and me t his love, Daisy, fo r the first time, when she visited her grandmother. The entire movie tells us about Benjamin's unusual reverse aging adventures, his relationship with Daisy, and the people around him, which portray an incredible life he has. Over the course of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, David Fincher explores the philosophy of Sartre's conf lict with the other, Heidegger's being toward death, and Hamlet's three existential conflicts. The Sartre's philosophy is mentioned throughout the movie in not just main charact er's life but also others'. This philosophy consists of authenticity and how we define ourselves in response to others ( Lacefiel d ) . The first half of the movie revolves arou nd the life of Benjamin, who grew up in an elderly man appearance but with a soul of a youngster. Even though the doctor diagnoses that Benjamin will die soon, he manages to grow up and live his life , contrary to everyone's expectation. He wants to go out and discover the world; but he cannot walk , so he use s crutches to help him. When he is able to walk, he does not let his physical condition prevent him from going to the bar, having a wild night, and getting the job of as a sailor. This period has been portrayed successfully with the skillful acting, make-up, and computer-gener ated imagery (CGI) that represent the authenticity pe rfectly. Brad Pitt portrays the psychologi cal process of how a teenager 's thoughts hide beneath that elderly look, how the child cannot understand what is wrong with him and suffer great pain, and how Benjam in stays true to himself even with others' prejudice about him. Besides Benjamin, the director also develops Sartre's philosophy in other characters' lives. When working as a sailor, Benjamin hears about the captain's dream of b ecoming an artist and how his father insulted that childhood d ream. The captain then undresses and shows Benjamin hi s body filled with tattoos, present ing that he had pursued his dream and became a tattoo ar tist. The philosophy says that "T he Other is often an obstacle to my authenticity and we define ourselves in response to others" ( Lacefield ). Because the captain's father was the obstacle be tween him and his dream, it beco me s the motivation for him to keep following this dream. He learns to be both a tattoo artist and a sailor , in order to define and respons e to the others who he really i s. Besides Jean-Paul Sartre, Martin Heidegger is also a philosopher whose ideas about death are explored in this movie. Heidegger says that our mortality is a fundamental aspect of our existence, and we must recognize the implications of our own mortality in order to live most authentically ( Lacefiel d ) . In The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Benjamin ha s a period living on the sea in the World Wa r II, where his ship encounters a submarine of t he enemy. After the fight, he i s one of t he only few people left who are still alive. He realizes that death seems t o be natural in war. In his conversation with Ms. Queenie later, his mother sees in his eyes the pains Benjamin has witnessed . However, she also see s the joys in his journey. In fact, the pains that soldiers suffer in war is often the