Epistemology is another core concept of philosophy which seeks to explain the authorities in which we place our trust while seeking truth. There are many different ways to validate knowledge—God, science, God as science, experience, sensory perceptions, feeling, the self, etc. Being John Malkovich challenges our recognition and conception of consciousness and control. Customers of JM, Inc. who fall short of the capacity to appreciate their own lives celebrate victoriously after spending mere minutes observing someone else ordering bath towels from a catalog. And yet, how… awkward would it be to host and battle such strange characters as Craig and Lotte determined to gain control of our consciousness? When John Malkovich commits to keeping away from Maxine, his confidant Charlie Sheen validates his friend’s experience by conjuring up notions of the supernatural/paranormal, or as he so lovingly puts it, “Maybe she's using you to channel some dead lesbian lover. Sounds like my kind of gal” (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120601/quotes).
Perhaps the puppet/puppeteer motif is our avenue to discovering the forces in which the characters struggle against, a battle as severe as man vs. God. The film begins with saddened, naked puppet Craig dancing to the last two minutes of Béla Bartók’s "Allegro” from his Music for Strings, Percussion and Celeste. What is being communicated in the passionate “dance” that accompanies this stirring tune? The theme of puppeteering continues throughout the film as we consider who is really in control, and such a discordant tone in the fate of John Malkovich after his brief glimpse of freedom before being permanently thrown into his, rather disturbing, subconciousness.
