Fight Club

In David Fincher's film "Fight Club," the protagonist is the "Narrator," a contemporary "everyman" who exhibits symptoms of urban loneliness and existential angst in a materialistic and meaningless society. The film descends into violence and brutality, as Durden feels more alive fist fighting other males who also feel emasculated by contemporary culture. In my perception, the filmmaker is attempting to provide a warning to viewers in contemporary society. That warning appears to be that if we do not redefine identity through something more meaningful than materialism or macho notions of masculinity, society will erupt into chaos and violence.

We see in the life and work of the Narrator, a man whose job dissatisfies him and, in fact, drives him crazy. His clothes, automobile and condominium are all symbols of modern success as measured by materialism. Despite his relative security and luxurious lifestyle, he is lonely, anxiety ridden, and unhappy. He actually takes to attending 12-step programs, where empathizing with others less fortunate than him enables him to feel some kind of life. The filmmaker seems to suggest that contemporary existence is emasculating for men, a point reinforced by the fact that the first support group meeting he attends is for survivors of testicular cancer. He meets a girl who attends these meetings in a like capacity, what he calls a "tourist" (Fincher, 1999). "Tourist" is a good word choice because peopl

Related Essays

Fight Club .... Karl Marx's belief that economics shaped art and culture is taken to an extreme in the novel Fight Club. In Fight Club, we see that .... (1164 5 )

Fight Club Introduction - The theme of the 1999 Introduction - The theme of the 1999 movie Fight Club is that in our mechanized, consumer-based society men have the need to test their masculinity. .... (771 3 )

Popular Hollywood Film .... Films like Blade Runner, The Running Man and others were direct precursors to today's films like The Matrix and Fight Club which completely abandon modern .... (982 4 )

Leisure, recreation, play and work .... Duncan, CM (2003). Liberalism and the challenge of Fight Club: Notes toward an American theory of the good life. disclosure, 12: 119-144. Plato. (363 BCE). .... (1449 6 )

Joy Luck Club .... The Joy Luck Club remains at all times the story of mothers and daughters and how they relate and do .... She will fight me, because that is the nature of two tigers .... (792 3 )

the pain, or throwing vinegar on it which will neutralize it. Primarily, "Fight Club" exists as a way for a "lost generation" of males to reassert their power, identity and meaning in a materialistic and emasculating culture and society. The pursuit of materialism and the lack of real challenges that define one's identity have led to this need. We see this readily in one scene in the film where Tyler Durden explains to the Narrator why men are so alienated, filled with angst and have no meaning in their lives: Tyler: Man, I see in fight club the strongest and smartest men who've ever lived. I see all this potential, and I see squandering. God damn 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 shit 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's 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. (Fincher, 1999) The ab

Category: Film - F