Student Work
'Fight Club' in 6 images/6 key themes/250 words
1. Escapism
2. Desire vs. lack of love (position of women)
3. Marxism
4. Brotherhood/Fraternity
5. Rebellion
6. Narcissism
Fight Club is a comment on different issues within the American society. Firstly, its comments on postmodernism are extremely central from the start, through mise-en-scene, and this is also highlighted through the protagonist. ‘Everything is a copy of a copy of a copy’. This belief is shown within the house that Tyler and Jack live in, a place where everything has rotted because nothing new has been constructed. This is a comment on society because if nothing new is introduced, everything will lose its value and cease to contain any meaning. Nothing is new anymore within our postmodern society, everything is removed and recycled from its original source; lacking its’ initial meaning and everything is diluted over time.
The film explores the falseness of not only society’s belief in materialism but in its relationships amongst it. This is perhaps the lack of true emotions within the world, so the idea of going to ‘self-help’ groups give the illusion to the protagonist of being cared for and having a voice.
‘Fight Club’ explores the idea that this society is engulfed with possessions they don’t need; materialism shapes everyone’s identity. The idea of identity is seen when the characters do not, essentially ‘like themselves’ and find it hard to identify with a world without materials, with just raw rules. It also defines the way the world is always advertising a new image of their new personality, fitting in with the postmodern theme of a world that tries to constantly ‘re-create’ itself, a recyclable feature that is beneficial to no-one.
A lot of this film is entirely about the way in which the characters seem to be fighting against themselves, to the extent that Tyler is created, Marla is suicidal and completely unperturbed with the sanctity of her own life, and for the most part the members of Fight Club are simply fighting against a lifestyle. Apart from the obvious violence, there is a lot of fighting going on within the personality traits of all of the characters and we see this throughout the film which moves them all forwards in their fight to become someone else, or someone better - a postmodern version of Nietzschean philosophy.
The film shows a dark comic side of modern America and the irony is in the fact it is a product of what it is rejecting. The film shows the insanity of the social position literally and philosophically but also shows that destruction is no better than what we already have. The films narrative shows Jack’s character having an almost a moral misanthropic view of others who creates Tyler to show someone who is supposed to be perfect but in the end rejects him and chooses Marla instead who is shown as almost an opposite of Tyler (the lowest of the low); showing that people today never know what they really want. The film shows that addiction is necessary and almost an addiction its self, the film passes from one obsession to another, from consumerism to self-help groups to Marla to Tyler to fight club to destruction, showing that nothing is good enough and nothing lasts.
The idea of a white male, middle-class and working in an office in America, provides the idea of being a ‘favourite’ of the USA, so perhaps this film explores the male who wants to rebel against this anonymous identity, and becomes more accepted as a destructive, masculine form. This is shown when Jack is trying to fit in becoming comfortable with his sexuality and gender like his alter-ego, something he would never do in reality if he was ‘himself’.
The schizophrenia theme within the film is coherent to its meaning and its other themes running alongside it (violence, rebellion, consumerism, relationships, masculinity, sexuality) because it gives Tyler and Jack a blurred identity of all of these ideas, a liminal of what is reality and what is fantasy. It gives forth the role of an ‘idol’ present in many ‘road’ films; considering it’s a hybrid of genres, as the person must go on a journey to find ‘themselves’.
There are many elements of ‘Fight Club’ that give way to the conclusion of the film being about American values; Jack and Tyler are oppositions of honour and freedom because Jack is intent on keeping his moral beliefs and values, but Tyler simply wants to be free of it all, to the extent of terrorism. Both simply wish to be free of the connotations of a ‘grey collar worker’ and the security offered by America.
‘Fight Club’ is a compendium of ideologies being recycled that fundamentally questions and comments on society simultaneously. ‘Fight Club’ discusses issues that riddle modern America and the foundations of modern society, whilst beating one another to escape the monotony of the ‘Grey collared’ workers everyday lives. Fight club mastermind Tyler Durden visually represents the masculinity, nihilism and terrorism that are present in every single ‘average Joe’. This deeply self-referential postmodern observation on society uses irony to playfully invert us out off our ‘false consciousness’ by splicing as many ideologies as possible into a single film. Criticised by Alexander Walker but appreciated by ‘cult’ film fans it discusses Jameson’s ‘dustbin of ideologies’ whilst mixing undercurrents of homophobia on a background of psychosis - the ending will make you say ‘huh’, which makes it so essentially postmodern.
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