Student Work
'Fight Club' in 6 images/6 key themes/250 words
Anarchy/Terrorism
Anti-consumerism
Re-cycling/postmodernism
Fighting against feminism
Self-destruction
Insomnia/Mental Illness
1. Nihilism
2. Crisis of Masculinity (homosexuality, men becoming feminised)
3. Rejection of Authority
4. Recycling/Postmodernism
5. Loss of Individuality (Meaningless, insignificant)
6. Anti Consumerism
‘Fight Club’ is a film that incorporates a postmodern narrative with themes of mental illness and messages of capitalist control. The film could be considered postmodern as it features cultural and literary references as well as being a hybrid of several genres and their conventions mixed with a similarly diverse variety of narrative roles. The film visually portrays a dark and critical exploration of deranged friendship and masculinity.
The film is trying to make a statement about modern America as it shows a very nihilistic view of the world and it is trying to reject aspects of authority, consumerism and order. The film constantly tries to show flaws in society through literal examples mixed with philosophy and shows the characters rejecting enforced ideologies. For example Jacks character creates Tyler as a way of rejecting modern social constructs like consumerism, almost as if he was being oppressed by ideology; Tyler is his way of becoming the person who he wants to be. The film also shows constant themes of postmodernism to express the view that everything is a copy of something else and nothing is original, no one is individual, everything is constantly recycled and degraded which could be seen as representative of society and the way it has degraded into something meaningless and chaotic. An example of this post modernism is shown through the way that Jack/Tyler makes soap from human fat, he is recycling other people’s waste and turning it into something that he then sells back to them. The constant theme of postmodernism is shown in the film to express how since nothing is original, everything will eventually degrade and decay into something worthless, in relation to society it would mean the loss of order and reason, which Tyler is trying to achieve.
The film ‘Fight Club’ is an attack on the fact that we, as a society, are consumed by standard morals and beliefs. This is where the main part of the film comes in to play, as Edward Norton’s character (who leads a normal, boring, mundane life) creates an imaginary character out of his own mind, Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) - someone who is everything he would want to be – to help him escape from the conformist life that he leads. The two of them going on a nihilistic journey that leads to the mass destruction of the entire financial city block – an attack on consumerism; something that Pitt’s character talks about most of the time throughout the film. Another major theme of the film is the idea that men are gradually becoming more and more feminised in society, hence why the actual fight club is created – something that will allow men to regain their masculinity. However, this is something that has to be done in secret, away from the public eye, which could be seen as a theme of homosexuality, and Norton’s character trying to deal with his own sexuality. Norton’s character is also the subject of the theme of mental illness, as he (at the beginning of a film) suffers from insomnia, and needs emotional release to allow him to sleep - Brad Pitt’s character could also be the result of sleep deprivation, as hallucinations are prone to occur during insomnia.
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