Fight Club: Oh, God!! This movie found me at just the right time!! I was just on the beginning cusp of my now full force insomnia, AND I was 16 and needing some direction, and this film talked to both. I felt for the narrator, living like I was, day to day, needing a way to just let go. Then I sided with Tyler because he was free in every way I wanted to be. Like my parents were forcing me to believe what they did, and I very rarely questioned, I really didn't think of having a mind, opinion, or even a personality of my own! Then, this movie pushed me in the right side, and I'm now independent, stuck with the right friends and just being me and free! (Wow, that was hardly as inspirational as I thought it would be, but oh well, it's the truth!!)
Can you guess what I'm going to say . . .?
Fight Club: This movie hit me like a punch to the face. It was a time in my life where I was figuring out what kind of person I was and who I was going to become. What direction would I take my life? What was REALLY important? This movie spoke to me in a way no other movie ever has. And it's so jam-packed with profound quotes and words to live by, I often reference them, (even if only in my own mind) on the daily.
Collecting and making FC clothing and props has become an obsession of extremely ironic proportions! LOL
- "Man, I see in Fight Club the strongest and smartest men who've ever lived. I see all this potential, and I see it squandered. ******** it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables – slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy **** we don't need.We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our great war is a spiritual war. Our great depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars, but we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off."
I think FC is brilliant.
But my take on it might be slightly different. While the film seems to promote nihilistic principles up the wazoo it also explains it's genesis and comic consequences when taken to excess. One can extrapolate this to explain, for instance, how fascism and jingoism manifest in real life.
What makes it such a brilliant dark comedy is that, if you think about it, a major act of terrorism (Project Mayhem) comes about only because "Jack" didn't have the balls to hook up with Marla in the beginning. Remember when he first meets Marla is when he's hanging out with a bunch of men who literally have no balls (testicular cancer). He is contently resting between a pair of massive breasts like a child until a woman enters the room. There's your setup analogy in a nutshell.
The idea that if men just got laid then we wouldn't have fascism, war or terrorism is completely hilarious.
(I might get flack for this one but note Jack/Tyler's relationship with the blonde "beautiful" guy. You can see Tyler's growing affection for the guy but Jack, out of "jealousy" beats him until he's unrecognizable. When you consider that Jack and Tyler are the same this becomes a chilling portrayal of his inability to accept that he might have an attraction to another male - and it manifests as a violent act of homophobia.)
Don't get me wrong. Despite how it sounds the film doesn't really condemn Tyler as "evil." After all "Jack" gets the girl because of Tyler - "As always I'll carry you - kicking and screaming - and in the end you'll thank me." The tragic farce in the love triangle is that "Jack" thinks he has to be Tyler to keep the girl. That's a dilemma men face all the time. Clearly we, as men, need to draw upon our inner Tyler but also need to keep him in check.
This film says a lot about the male psyche and it speaks to me at so many levels. Plus, it's one of the most beautiful looking movies ever made. I've watched it countless times.... and just watched it again last night with my wife (who is not as much into it as I am).
Didn't you laugh as Brad Pitt (of all people) says, "We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars, but we won't."?
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